Secondary School:
Secondary school is a period of intense physical change
and formation of identity. It is also the period of
intense vibrancy and energy. The ability for abstract
reasoning and logical thinking emerges, allowing children
the possibility of deep engagement with both
understanding and generating knowledge beyond the
here and now. A critical understanding of the self in
relation to society also emerges during this period.
The courses at this level generally aim at creating
an awareness of the various disciplines and introduces
students to the possibilities and scope of study in them.
Through such engagement, they also discover their own
interests and aptitudes and begin to form ideas on what
courses of study and related work they might like to
pursue later. Such needs could be effectively met by
guidance and counselling interventions of an organised
nature with the support of trained teachers and
professional counsellors. For a large number of
children, this is also a terminal stage, when they leave
school and begin acquiring productive work skills.
Those for whom this stage becomes terminal on
account of socio-economic circumstances need
opportunities for learning creative and productive work
skills while the system as a whole moves towards
universalising secondary education. Providing access to
libraries and experience in laboratories is essential, and
hence there must be a concerted effort to ensure that
all children have access to such facilities.
These two years are shadowed by the spectre of
achieving respectable 'board examination' marks in this
examination since this will determine future options.
Schools often proudly state that they finish the entire
syllabus for Class X by the end of the first term, and
spend the rest of the year (two terms) on revision, so
that students are well prepared for their examination.
Class IX of this stage, and later Class XI, are sacrificed
for the same reason. This preoccupation with the
examination, and its deleterious effect on learning,
needs to be reviewed and challenged. Is it worth wasting a year of perhaps the most fruitful period of
a child's life in such non-productive engagement? Is it
not possible that by pacing learning more evenly
through out the year, we may serve preparation for
the examination itself in a much better way? On
account of the examinations, many other curricular
areas, especially sports and arts, are also compromised.
It is necessary to ensure that these areas are protected,
and also that a serious attempt is made to institute
meaningful experiences of work during this period.
Most boards in the country offer limited or no
optional courses in this period; two languages (one of
which is English), Mathematics, science and social
sciences are the typical examination subjects. In this
group, the courses of Mathematics and English, which
are responsible for the 'failure' of a large number of
students, need to be revisited and redesigned. The
policy of declaring pass–fail in the whole examination,
and the meaning of the 'pass mark', may also need to
be reviewed. Related issues are discussed in
Chapter 5, in the section on examination reforms.
A few boards also encourage students to choose
an optional course from a range that includes
economics, music and cookery. Such options could be
increased, and the possibilities of substituting the more
traditional disciplines with these options could also be
considered. Vocational options could also be
introduced. Many such vocational options may arise
from the world of productive work in the local
community. For example, auto maintenance in garages,
tailoring and paramedical services offer possibilities for
collaboration to create meaningful vocational courses;
school boards could accredit such learning and thereby
also recognise the many sites of learning that are situated
outside school. In our country, many vocational stream
courses have deteriorated in their quality, and hence are
unable to provide students with meaningful workrelated
knowledge and skills. In many cases, these
courses have degraded into routine credentialing
courses, and make no distinction between learning to
do a job versus learning to get a job.
