DIVASWAPNA: A review

INTRODUCTION:

The book, Divaswapna has been written by a prominent Gujarati educationist and teacher Gijubhai Badheka (1885-1939). It was first published in Gujarati language in 1932 and was translated into different languages subsequently.

The book was broadly divided into four main parts viz, the experiment begins, the progress of the experiment, at the end of the term and the last gathering. These four chapters bring into light the concepts, the experiment, the challenges and the outcomes.

BACKGROUND:

The author, Mr Gijubhai Badheka, was a strong antagonist of the existing education system which he incidentally called in his book “the old servile system”.  He was strongly against the kind of school whose sole objective was to teach and guide students to overcome the ultimate test at the end of the year called the “examination”.

He has propounded a new and different perspective, concept and method of his own to counter the existing system. He propagated that school should be a place where children feel free to learn, enjoy and like. Teacher should be like a friend and not feared by children. Children should develop the zeal to learn and experience the joy of learning in the school.

With his enthusiasm to highlight the fault in the existing system through his own concept, he took the extra step in convincing the Education Officer to provide him the opportunity to experiment his concept in the school, which he succeeds with his perseverance.

He has experimented these concepts among the 4^th Standard children in a school in Gujarat. This book “Divaswapna” is where he put down into paper his experiences in the entire process.

THE CHALLENGES:

We all know changes are not easy to come by. More so is to try and make people accept and understand those changes. To put into practice the new concepts and methods of his into a school to challenge that system is an uphill task for Mr. Gijubhai. He had faced all kinds of challenges from different corners be it from the children themselves, the teacher as well as the authority, i.e the education officer.

To win over 4^th standard students, who have been groomed to a certain type of system and have imbibed strong perspectives on that system is one of the biggest challenges that Gijubhai has encountered in his experiment. For instance, “the game of silence” that he tried to put into practice on his very first day at school does not work out as he expected. Silence and orderly manner have never been a practice in that school.

Another tough challenge comes from the teacher of the school itself. For a teacher who has been teaching in that kind of system, it may not be a very welcomed moved that in a way is challenging their method and technique of teaching. This perception has been very evident from the sarcastic comments and often, outburst from the Head Teacher that Gijubhai have received from time to time. Gijubhai have always been in the receiving ends of the Teachers and Head Teachers resentment.

Besides, the fact that the ultimate evaluation of the children will be done not on his new concept, but in the existing system, i.e., the term end examination is a big challenged for Gijubhai.  This possesses one of the biggest risks for him as the performance/success of his students at the end of the day will determine whether his new concept conveys a desire message to the authority or will it be nullified.

THE NEW METHOD OF TEACHING:

Mr. Gijubhai introduces number of new technique in teaching, which, others teacher felt very threatening to. However, his new methods of teaching work out very successfully with the children. Through these methods, children developed the art of writing, speaking, orderly behavior, hygiene or cleanliness. In short, children attained the zeal of learning and experience the joy of it.

Storytelling:

Mr. Gijubhai introduces the concept of “story telling” method, which was skeptically viewed by fellow teachers in the school. However, he proved his skeptics wrong in using story as a method of teaching. Through story telling he taught students orderly manner, the art of listening attentively, discipline and the sense of silence at other’s speech.

Also, storytelling is a wonderful tool to build a good rapport between the teacher and pupils. Gijubhai was accepted by pupils as friend which is absent with every other teacher in the school.

Games and Sports:

Playing games in school never was considered an ideal situation of learning. It was a popular viewed that children should stay within the four corners of the classroom, read their textbooks and listen attentively to what was taught by the teacher. That was the idea/concept of what an ideal school should be like.

Despite that, Gijubhai introduces games as his teaching module in the school. Through games he taught children the art of decision making, teamwork etc.. For instance, there was a big disagreement between children on what kinds of games they should be playing. Some wanted ‘kabaddi’ while the others wanted ‘khokho’. In such case, children have to make decision and come to terms on the kind of game they should be playing.

On the flipside, Gijubhai also highlighted to others how the concept of division and instilling a competition among the children create adverse impact on them. The winner-loser mentality has created unnecessary discord between children.

Activity Based Learning:

Learning by doing is a new technique of teaching Mr. Gijubhai has introduce in the school. The technique as usual, does not go well with other teachers.  For example, to teach geography, he took his students to the river, mountains etc or took measurement of the school itself. In that way students better understand what was taught to them.

Library:

Gijubhai was definitely aware about the importance of a having a collection of books which children can read. He was of the view that the availability of such books at their disposal would instill in the children the zeal of learning. It can infuse in the children the habit of reading which is essential in education. Besides, his idea of seeking contribution from each child a book creates the sense of ownership in the class. Also, through this pooling together of resources each children end up reading a couple of books each month.

NEW PERSPECTIVES:

By experimenting such numbers of new tools/technique in teaching, Mr. Gijubhai attempted to infuse different perspective towards education among the authority, society, teachers and the children themselves. His main purpose of the experiment was to put forth a new perspective and concepts in education among the people.

In this book, “Divaswapna” many important concepts get highlighted. Those new concepts are essentially forming the basis of child’s education.  We will discuss in brief some of those new concepts.

Child Centered Teaching/Learning:

Education in the country was built around curriculum. Our education system was structured in such a way that children should qualify the test so designed according to their currulum (standard) to be able to get promoted in the next level. This rate of success of the students directly determines the performance of the teacher. As such, the primary objective of teacher in a school was to make sure the syllabus has been covered and learned by-heart by the students.

This concept of curriculum centered education was what Mr. Gijubhai wanted to do away in our system of education. He was propagating that the child should be the center of learning. As such, even in his class the primary focus was to instill in the children the enthusiasm to learn. He experimented different methods such as storytelling, games etc. to create that zeal in the children.

In short, he was propagated that paradigm shift in our education system, from “curriculum centered” learning to “child centered” learning.

Talent nurturing/Creativity:

Gijubhai strongly believe in promoting the creativity of a child. He was against promoting only the child who fare better than the other children and neglecting those weaker students. For instance, he flatly denied the participation of his class in the annual meet of the school as it provides opportunity to only those children who are better than others. He called it a “mere hypocrisy” as it was done to impress the commissioner who was to grace the event.

Instead, he nurtures the talents that is in the children and groomed them to the extent that the whole class of his performs in the event. The performance of the class eventually took to surprise all his skeptics, from the teacher till the commissioner.

 Holistic approach to education:

‘Education is all around development’. This is a phrase easier said than done. Never was it reflected in the education system that education means all round development. The popular perception of the teachers, parents and even students during those days was education means what is taught from the book. As such, children in the school were clump together within the four corners of the classroom, listening the lengthy lectures from the teachers throughout the school timings.

Gijubhai was propagating that education does not only mean what is taught inside the classroom, it encompasses all those activities which includes the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of the child. He propounded that education should not be confined to the curriculum or the teaching inside the classroom alone. Education means beyond those boundaries.

Peer Learning:

Children learn not from teachers and books alone, but from each other as well. It was this concept that Gujibhai had introduced in the school. He organized different kinds of activities, games etc., through which children learn from one another.

No Punishment:

Punishment in schools has been so widely practiced that it was felt normal even by the students. Children are of the view that if a child fails to learn the lesson he deserves punishment. However, on cross questioning them, they themselves express how they dislike punishment.

Gijubhai strongly challenged this concept of punishment, where in children are forced to learn their lesson. Not understanding the lesson is not a crime and children should not be victimized on the pretext of not learning their lesson. Gijubhai strongly put up his viewed on the issue to the Education officer and even requested him to stop the used of punishment in school.

Parent-Teacher Co-operation:

The role of parents in children’s education was never thought before. It was a popular perception that the education of children lies in the hands of the teachers. The responsibility of the parents restricted to the enrollment of the child in the school.

This popular perception was strongly criticized Gijubhai. He knows the importance of Parent-Teacher co-operation in the education of the child. He understands that without this desire co-operation success are hard to come by. For instance, to develop the sense of personal hygiene or cleanliness, he needs the co-operation of the parents. He had eventually called for a parents-teacher meeting, though not very successful to his expectation.

THE DILEMMA:

It is undeniable that the concepts that Gijubhai has propagated, if effectively implemented, would suit the kind of ideal school that we have dreamt of. However, even after a century has passed by since the conception of these ideas, we are yet to see these concepts getting translated into our education system i.e. our schools. As such, there are certain issues that need to be addressed in order to see these concepts being put into practice.

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•  Gijubhai’s concepts of education that he had experimented in a school are ideas that he has conceived, and experimented by himself. Therefore, the big challenged that we faced today is how do these concepts get translated to our teachers in the school? Is our teacher’s efficient enough to practice these concepts in their class? If not, how do we equip them to do so?

• Challenging and changing the existing system is not an easy task. We need a strong structural support. The issue with us today is how do we get this structural (say authority) support?

• Gijubhai’s proposed concept of “child-centered” learning is what we need in our schools today. However, equally (if not bigger) important to it is “teacher-centered” education. Is our teacher’s education designed is such a way that our teacher will be able to imbibe such concepts? Does our teachers’ education system highlight such “sensitivity” so that our teachers will be able to put those into practice?