Managements of a multiplying number of cool alternative schools take a broader view of education than mere academic excellence and are providing a varied mix of experiential and life skills learning, cognitive development, environment awareness and co-curricular and sports education – Summiya Yasmeen Within India’s 60 million upwardly mobile middle class households which have some idea of the giant leaps in digital technologies, artificial intelligence and robotics as also of the high incidence of substance use, violent crimes and breakdown of family values in developed Western democracies, there’s growing disquiet about the contemporaneity, quality and direction of K-12 education being dispensed in the country’s schools. While the great majority of parents passively accept the archaic pedagogies, syllabuses and curriculums of the country’s 34 examination boards prescribed to 1.20 million government and 320,000 private schools, a small but discerning minority within the middle class is becoming aware that hapless and vulnerable children even in top-ranked schools are trapped in a high-stress daily round of mugging texts, top-up tutorials and perpetual fear of achieving the high admission cut-offs routinely demanded by the nation’s too-few top-ranked undergraduate colleges and u niversities. Within 21st century India’s pressure-cooker education system, a school/college student commits suicide every hour, according to latest National Crime Records Bureau data. Fortunately, for the growing minority of parents dissatisfied with drill-and-skill schooling, child-sensitive new-age schools are springing up across the country offering alternatives to oppressive mainstream education. The managements of a rising number of cool alternative schools take a broader view of education than mere academic excellence which translates into subjects-centred accumulation of facts and information, and continuous testing, and are providing a varied mix of experiential and life skills learning, cognitive development, environment awareness and co-curricular and sports education. “Alternative education is an organic and constantly evolving approach to learning. It makes the child the centre and focus of learning, using a variety of methods and strategies. It is not rote learning and it does not treat children as empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. It is an alternative to priority given solely and exclusively to passing examinations, to achieving results and ranking, to preparing children to ‘make it’ in today’s world using conventional yardsticks of success… In summary, alternative education philosophy endeavours to fit the process of learning to the child’s inclinations, interests and abilities,” writes Sarojini Vittachi, an alum of the London School of Economics, former Unicef executive and author of Alternative Schooling in India (Sage Publications, 2007). Unsurprisingly over the past decade since the book was published, the number of alternative schools has multiplied with several educationists and edupreneurs with reformist ideas stepping forward to provide over-stressed children alternatives to the one-size-fits-all education system. “The alternative education space has become more diversified, more available and popular with parents. This is because of the growing disillusionment with mainstream schools which are doing too little to break away from rote learning, competition and exams testing. As we move towards an uncertain future, parents are realising that life skills…
