Dr Jyoti Raina

Swati you have explained some of the basic tenets of sociolinguistics & multilingual education. However there is a lack of agreement on some of these for example the 3 language formula also is not recommended by all scholars for various reasons including that it tend to turn languages into school subjects. I enjoyed reading this piece & hope you develop it to a further depth.

To Tagore Nature as it is referred to in the sources that we have cited meant the natural world in which he did include all forms of life and people. You are speaking of human nature or child nature another important element in education. Merits another discussion altogether. Thanks for your perceptive comment.

The picture with your piece held resonance for me while reading this article because it reminded me of your beginning in the teaching journey. I like the way you begin this 'story' with the selection system in teacher preparation programmes. A generalised exam like CUET may not always capture the specific requirements related to becoming a teacher. This year as i was processing admission applications to BElEd. I realised many students who had taken teaching aptitude ( by the way it isn't compulsory) as a CUET subject; could not have it counted for admission because they had not studied it in grade XII. Teacher recruitment remains inadequate, as you point out, which is perhaps the single most factor that can lead to qualitative improvement in school education systems and proliferation of the private profiteering institutions the bane of pre-service teacher education. I compliment you for raising these important issues that impact school and teacher education in contemporary India.

As a scholar of education I have been almost conditioned to consider formal schooling as normative to human progress. When we argue that children have a right to education we ignore a scrutiny of what is the nature of education that is provided to young children in schools. The highly schooled societies are no utopias. This article provokes the reader to think: What if no school ?