The shades of classroom that shape students

We generally focus on students’ development through a syllabus and values aligned with the school’s mission. The objectives set before completing tasks help bring the school’s spirit to life. But a parallel system is equally responsible for shaping our students’ minds and hearts. While the first system is implemented explicitly through defined daily timetables and exams, the other runs in parallel and remains implicit, mirroring how educating children within the four walls of a room exerts its influence.This unsung system runs in parallel and often goes unnoticed in its long-term impacts. It has many shades.The colour shade: School premises play an important role in shaping students’ minds and inviting them to learn willingly. The colours painted on walls and doors, classroom design, and seating arrangements are sure ways of contributing to the serene atmosphere of effective teaching and learning. For example, if classroom walls are painted in dark colours rather than light ones, it can adversely affect students’ focus and, in turn, influence the teacher’s style.India has 5 crore students without school sanitation. What the UNICEF report saysThe sequence shade: In most schools, walls are painted with either living and non-living figures or graffiti words. Here too, the colour combination, sequence, and fonts used influence the mind. If things are random and not properly arranged with their meanings and functions, they offer nothing worth understanding. If a peacock is drawn beside a tiger, or a bird beside fish, it suggests friendship between them, which is practically impossible. So, students understand that proximity is the first step toward friendship, but in that case it is not. Therefore, it is equally important to draw figures and alphabets in their natural set-up and sequence.The morning shade: Morning Assembly is a regular part of school functioning. Generally, the assembly begins with matters related to religious, national and educational perspectives. The morning assembly is a tool that measures discipline, time management, unity, and commitment to the cause of education. When designed with clear objectives and programmes, this assembly shapes students’ minds and moulds them in ways relevant to the school’s mission. Apart from relying on songs, short speeches, and pledges, students can resort to effective communication means like skits, dramas and dialogues, sometimes based on the core part of the Indian Constitution, sometimes dealing with the students’ pressing issues like their distraction or disinterest. Are our universities ready for students who earn while learning?The moral shade: A student spends 12 years in nurseries and schools. With clear objectives for each individual, students of our dream can be prepared. Instilling habits like the etiquette of learning, along with past and present examples, love for the country and its people, and the justification of that love through individual and collective effort, may yield results beyond imagination. Students dream of benefiting the nation with their knowledge and skills and prefer to stay rooted in their country, willing to serve people even in the remotest areas where facilities are inadequate.The non-teaching shade: Students interact with non-teaching staff for their needs. The dignified presence and respectful tone of the non-teaching staff exert a positive impact. Students feel they are in an abode of knowledge, where they receive decent teaching in the classroom and through behaviour outside it.Calling Aayahs "aunties" is a welcome gesture. It helps students see that this non-teaching staff is not there as a servant but as an aunt who serves with passion and emotionally charged behaviour. The aunties should support the atmosphere being nurtured in the classroom. They should be trained to talk to children in vernacular and English. They should be taught common sentences they can use with children, such as follow lane discipline, eat properly, finish your lunch, and sit properly.Students in Karnataka forced to write mid term exams without classes as teachers remain on SIR dutyIf students are waiting for their parents or vehicle, aunties should be taught techniques to ease their tension. With term aunties, we build a bond with students; with their empowerment, we can help them become facilitators who also help shape students’ behaviours.The exit shade: The way students leave school tells us how they spent their time there. If their faces are happy and they rush towards their vehicles, eager to be back on time, it’s a treat to watch.  It is as important as learning outcomes.When they are outside campus, their behaviour reflects what happens inside. The way they sit in their vehicles lets the driver know what they have been subjected to in the school. If they are well-mannered, offer seats to fellow students, respect girls, and sacrifice their comfort, it means a lot to the observer. When students walk on one side of the road, following lane discipline, passersby recognise them by their school, not by their parents’ names. What impression does a school make if its students walk haphazardly on the road? It’s not that hard to imagine.All these aspects of a school are part of a parallel system that effectively shapes students’ overall persona, much like teaching subjects and organising classes on moral values, but it remains unsung.(The author is the director of an education research institution based in Raichur)

Source: Deccan Herald