BENGALURU: If you grow up in a democratic environment, you will know how to live in one,” says Nivedita Ram, organizing committee member of the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) 2018 and a school teacher. The IDEC is a coming together of individuals and organisations of educators, parents and young people interested in finding and creating paths of learning where students are involved in the decision-making process that affects what and how they learn.
With conferences happening every year in different parts of the world, this year, the IDEC is being clubbed with the newly-formed Asia Pacific Democratic Conference, and will be held in Bengaluru. “The first one was held in 1993 in Israel. Since then, it happens every year in different countries. This year, Bengaluru will host the conference in November,” says Nivedita. “The campaign aims to work with the government, parents, students and NGOs on how democratic education can be involved and incorporated in the current systems,” she adds.
The conference is held with intention to give to its participants a feel of what a democratic culture could be. With speakers from different areas coming in, the conference will also include different activities and workshops for the audience. “We are hoping to bring together people who are interested in the concept of democratizing education. With more participation from different people, we can learn more and thus work on ideating the whole concept. The conference is not just going to be talks. There will be workshops and demonstrations and all kinds of other activities included,” adds Nivedita.
The idea behind the conference is to create educational spaces that are democratic in nature, i.e, where the child and parents have a say in the process. “In such a school, children are responsible for their learning. An example would be where structured programmes are implemented where children care for school spaces and help with farming, cooking or cleaning,” says Nivedita. “Teachers facilitate the learning rather than simply teach. They will be guides but not the centre of the learning process. Children learn a lot from each other as they interact and work together,” she adds.
But the idea of democracy in schools is not new to the country. “Everybody translates the idea of democracy in their own way. In India, Montessori schools are democratic because the child chooses his activity and the child can learn at his or her own pace. Similarly, you have a number of tribal schools in quite a few places where the kind of knowledge imparted is community-lead and focus is given to indigenous knowledge. Then there are schools like the Krishnamurthi schools where the children have a certain responsibility,” Nivedita says. “Our job is to bring focus to these ideas,” she says.
Visits to schools and programmes in the country, tours to other parts of the country are done before the conference to spread the word. “Basically, before the international conference happens in the city, we are trying to meet people in different areas and getting people with similar ideas together to try and get a better understanding about how these ideas can be implemented in our country,” she says.
The team recently held a meeting in Bengaluru in July, last year. “We have had meetings all over. Along with a number of private schools, we were very surprised to see government schools who are interested in democratic education. That means that the idea is catching on,” Nivedita adds. “At the end of the day, we can only give you the necessary platform to come together and work on this idea. Implementation depends on the participants. If we dictate the whole process, the idea of democracy itself is defeated,” she concludes.
The conference will be held from November 14 to 21 at Whitefield. For more information, visit
website: http://indec.net.in/