August 2005. Those were early days in our Foundation’s work in one of the north Indian states. People familiar with our work will know that all our work in contributing to improving the quality of education in government schools was by working jointly with the education functionaries and education system of the state. A two-day workshop on conceptualising reforms in student assessment had been conceived by the team comprising members of the Foundation and a group of committed academic functionaries of the state. The dates were decided and before we knew it, the whole thing got out of hand. The commissioner, principal secretary and chief secretary were all coming for the inaugural session. Before you could say ‘Chambal ki kasam’, a workshop to build capacity had got blown up into an ‘event’. What was originally meant to be a crisp welcome to the workshop got converted into a two-hour ‘inaugural session’. Suddenly all the concentration of the academic functionaries was diverted to ensuring that everything was right and ready for the inaugural.
An invitation had to be printed; who all should be on the invitation? Whose name should be first? How many chairs on the dais? On the dais who should sit on the first row and who should sit behind? At the inaugural, as always, were speeches with platitudes, flowery couplets in Urdu and Hindi. When the inaugural was done, it felt a wedding had been successfully conducted. Somehow the functionaries gathered themselves and found the momentum to work in the one and half days that remained. This is not a one off story. Every such event, full of good intention and serious purpose, gets sacrificed at the altar of meaningless ritualisation, in every corner of our country. It percolates into every facet, be it teacher training, school functions, children’s events or in any form of administering. We have experienced it in every state we have worked in since 2001.
When people ask my colleagues Anant, Gautam and Periodi who have been leading our efforts in these states for so many years now, what has been the impact of our work on the system, they will unfailingly tell you how the battle against ritualisation is being slowly won.
It has not been easy. To cajole, persuade and convince the functionaries in the districts to give up on such ritualistic of ‘respect’ is possible when we work shoulder-to-shoulder in the field over a period of time. This is what enables negotiation for change, with sensitivity towards existing mores, based on mutual trust and respect. It is a leap of faith, to overcome habit and also the fear of backlash for breaking protocol.
November 2009: In the wintry setting of Uttarkashi, a district academic meeting to implement the ‘school progress plan’ is in progress. The meeting is not kicked off ceremoniously by the ‘senior most” district education officer. He is seated inconspicuously in the midst of other functionaries. The man who is in charge of training takes centre-stage. The lighting of the lamp and prayer are of course done but they take less than 10 minutes. Many miles south, in Surpur Block of North East Karnataka, over the past few years, the block functionaries have run nearly 100 melas as an initiative to bring school and community together. This mela is all about children, to show and share their learning. When the first mela was held, to our utter exasperation, half the day was taken up by every functionary and village leader talking incessantly over the public address system. Now, some years later, these melas truly belong to the children. Invited dignitaries are given the last half hour of the day to address the participants. Invariably it is a quick and sincere vote of thanks. It is a huge shift according to us. It has taken three years for such de-ritualisation to take root. Will it sustain? That is the next phase of the battle.
It has not been easy as this need to please, to ensure that hierarchical obeisance is paid, runs right through the system. We have seen nervous commissioners wanting to ensure that the red velvet cushioned chair (with the turkey towel on the back rest) which is normally reserved for him/her in that large conference room, goes to the supervisor in such meetings. No one thinks it odd when the various functionaries in all such meetings, seat themselves in an obnoxious system of the seniors in the inner ring of chairs and the lesser mortals in the outer ring. To break this ritual, is something my colleague and CEO, Dileep, pursues with relish. Every time, we enter such rooms with that special high backed chair — reserved for the commissioner/secretary whether present or absent — Dileep will needle them and question why such customs are preserved. On every such occasion — at small and large events that we conduct with various government functionaries at block, district and state level — we push by example. We keep hammering this away, sometimes theatrical, sometimes subtle, but we have been at it. We believe this shift is core to the kind of change we want to see in our system.
Yet there are success stories. None that gives me greater happiness than this incident a few years ago in Karnataka when the secretary organised a satellite conference with the 3,000 education functionaries of the state. The satellite communication was to be held in Mysore. Departmental heads and the head of the institute at Mysore were busy; even frantic, trying to get the satellite link and the rest of the technology right. Meanwhile the secretary arrived from Bangalore. There was no one to receive him. None was needed. He enquired around and walked in to the conference hall. I saw him chat with a number of other functionaries and when everything was ready he got up quietly to the podium with three of us to talk to his functionaries on the satellite. To me this was a crossing of the Rubicon.
It has not been easy. However, there are perceptible changes in some places where we are working. It has taken time. I do not think it could have been done faster. Why is it so important? In its own way, this is a crucial and visible step in the journey towards a just, equitable and humane society.
S Giridhar is Registrar and Chief Operating Officer, Azim Premji University.
E-mail: giri@azimpremjifoundation.org