Education Policy

As a teacher in the US I was extremely interested to come to India to learn about the ways in which the schools here differ from ours, but also the ways in which they are the same.  Back home I teach K-8 general music, band and choir at Topeka Lutheran School.  But I am also a doctoral student at KU studying Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

During the past few days we have visited several different schools - some that are aided (meaning that they are supported by the government) as well as those that are non-aided (meaning that they are not supported by the government but that instead parents pay tuition for the children to attend).  This aided vs. unaided system is like that of our public and private system in the US.  But with one main difference - religious organizations (Christian, Hindu and Muslim) manage and run the administration of government aided schools.  In the US the separation of Church and State keeps this from happening in any way and people in our communities would be up in arms if religious organizations tried to have influence in the way that publicly funded schools operate.

The schools we have been visiting are those managed by the Church of South India (C.S.I.) and yet many of the students that attend these schools are either Hindu or Muslim.  As a teacher in a Lutheran school we often have students of a different denomination of Christianity but it would be very rare for us to have students of drastically different faiths such as Hindu or Muslim.  As others in our group have previously written and will continue to write on our blog I am both shocked and humbled by the ways in which these three religions live harmoniously in Kerala.  In Kerala 50% of people are Hindu, about 25% are Christian and about 25% are Muslim.  These three faith backgrounds are visibly intertwined throughout the communities but to me there is no better way to see the acceptance and tolerance than in the schools we have visited.

Some of the schools we have seen are very poor, with few resources and less than adequate (by American standards) achievement.  Many of these situations leave me feeling guilty about the tangible resources that many of our schools in the US have and equally humbled that some of the schools here are able to do so much with so little.  But we have also visited some schools whose students reading ability and academic achievement is extremely impressive compared to students in our country.  These schools leave me feeling hopeful for the future of India and the global economy.  Many of these young people say they want to be engineers, doctors etc.  After listening to them speak it is clear that they are both extremely bright and motivated in equal measure.

As I return to the US I hope that I can keep the memory of these schools in my mind both as I teach in my classroom and study at KU. 

God bless.

- Sarah Oatsvall