Sometimes Shivanna K.’s biggest challenge lurks at the end of the daily 40 minutes of maths. This is the Government Model Higher Primary School (GMHPS) in Bommagatta village, Sandur block, Ballari district. The time comes to assign homework and this maths teacher of 17 years sees the picture all too clearly, unburnished. The buoyant focus that gripped his students with the Ganitha Kalika Andolana (GKA) kit and his engaging style of teaching, goes skittering away as they reach home.
“They’re from poor, disadvantaged families,” says Shivanna. Their parents are daily wage earners depending on MNREGA[1] to keep life moving. “Most of them are uneducated.” And assistance with homework is hardly forthcoming. They trust education to deliver life-altering possibilities. Or Shivanna wouldn’t have 170 students in the 6th, 7th and 8th, the higher primary sections, where numbers usually thin out. His 8th grade has a robust 80 students. The student strength of the school, grades 1-8, is 329.
“For homework I practise a methodology of my own,” says Shivanna. The kit doesn’t leave his table. No clearing up or putting away as they do in other schools. Not till the last bit of instruction in the final few minutes is done when he demonstrates with the teaching-learning materials (TLMs), once again, the “easy way with the concept” he has just taught. Then come the 3-4 questions on the large, spacious board set against a mildly coloured, patchy wall. “It’s homework the students can easily do. No parental help is required.”
Honesty is one of the hallmarks of Shivanna’s classes. If children turn up with homework not done, they own their negligence and it’s a conflict-free resolution process after that. Shivanna is understanding and benevolent and gets the homework completed before proceeding with his class.
“I never teach maths without GKA. I never knew about TLMs till I saw them in the GKA kit. I found I could explain maths so easily. I became so happy.” Maths can be frustrating for teachers and students. The eternally befuddling place value, the source of such confusion in children’s minds, became “so simple. We teachers went straight to the abstract answer first. Now children have concrete understanding.”
Shivanna can’t say enough about GKA’s animating properties. The Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) pedagogy strips the mystification around maths. The TLMs offer lucidity and crystal-clear insight. “Children look at the textbooks and get confused. Representation is a bridge between Concrete and Abstract.”
Many of his students have achieved breakthroughs in maths, taken a leap forward. In the recent Gram Panchayat (GP) Maths Contest held in Bommagatta 5 of the 9 prize-winners were from his school. There’s no better testimony than that to the progress GKA has brought about.
The GMHPS is a model school in Sandur block. Discipline and orderliness are cornerstone principles. The morning invigoration is unique. “The activities we have are usually not practised anywhere else,” says Shivanna. He is the architect of much of the progressiveness of the school, turning it into a crucible of change. When ideas teem forth his HM and teacher colleagues stand staunchly in support. “Super idea,” they applaud.
Crafting out a morning that would elevate and inspire, entertain and challenge was mostly his proposition. All the teachers contribute to making the morning assembly as enriching as they can. There are thoughts for the day which students explore and discuss and newspaper reading. The teachers circulate 4-5 questions on class subjects the previous evening for the morning brainstorming. Modules are presented every day on a wide array of topics – the universe, nature, living creatures, prominent people – the vastness of knowledge condensed into interesting little snippets. Together with this worldview is a weekly focus on a new practical skill for children. All of it in 20 minutes, starting at 9.30 a.m. Classes begin at 10.
Shivanna’s short resume mentions it only in passing, at the end. He is a state-wide teacher trainer selected by the Department of School Education as a Maths Resource Person (RP) at the district and block level and a GKA RP as well.
In class Shivanna collaborates more than he teaches. It’s a joint project – he and the students. He summons their curiosity and interest with questions, inviting their participation. “If I have to teach something, I prepare an alternative strategy at home. I don’t rely on the textbook.” If it’s Profit and Loss, he discusses the business of daily living, the engagement with money. “My students’ transactional understanding increases.”
“As a teacher, I’m always a student,” he says. “A continuous learner. I’m eager to learn new things and introduce them in school. Always.” When maths is both passion and life’s work, “I never get bored with it.” Or frustrated, as when homework is not done. In a career strewn with ideas, achievements, and many an apex moment, the time spent with children is most valuable. As their teacher, Shivanna pushes them forward, towards opportunity and a larger share of the horizon.
[1] Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.