Multiple Media Schooling : Problems and Management
Contents: Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction. 2. Studies on multiple media schooling. 3. Management problems: methodology. 4. Views on multiple media schooling. 5. Multiple media schooling: conclusions. 6. Educational implications and recommendations. Annexures. Bibliography. Index.
"Education has been a powerful instrument for social change and development. It is one of the responsibilities of the government to provide free and compulsory education to all its citizens up to the age of 14 years. It is mandatory to all the agencies working in the field of education to provide it in natural environment so that the child's growth-physical, mental, emotional and social should harmoniously take place, particularly during the early stages of education. Gandhiji's basic education favored imparting education through mother tongue. Many educationists and psychologists postulated mother tongue to be the medium of instruction for proper development.
Since independence, the Bay islands' administration has been striving hard for proper implementation of educational schemes in these far-flung islands. Demographically the islands' populace comprises of multi-cultural and multilingual with varied socio-economic status. During the pre and post independence period, people from various parts of mainland, India migrated to these islands and thereby the islands depict a kaleidoscopic picture of mini-India. The administration, in order to provide education through mother-tongue as medium of education has established schools in different languages. Besides Hindi and English, initially there were schools in which instruction was provided in Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam to facilitate the learners of the concerned ethnic group. At present the instruction is being given in five languages up to + 2 level in these islands. There are schools wherein instruction is provided in three/four languages under one roof.
This system of providing education through media schools not only made the education attractive but also made accessibility easy to it to all strata of the society. But, at the same time it also brought certain management problems on its heels such as providing teachers of the medium concerned from the respective states on mainland, procurement of text books for the schools and library, providing suitable infrastructure facilities, supervisory and administrative staff etc. In order to meet the accommodation problems, some schools have adopted shift system opting one/two media in morning session and the other(s) in the afternoon session. Thus, functioning of such schools from dawn to dusk resulted in some other concomitant problems to the students, teachers, parents and also the administrators.
The book also reflects the other variables that influence in opting mother tongue as medium of instruction. The factors such as socio-cultural, political, economical and educational status of the parents play an important role in deciding medium of instruction for the wards. The views and opinions of the students pursued education in media schools, teachers, parents, heads of the institutions, educationists, educational administrators, parents of the ethnic groups, social workers and leaders on the management of media schools in these islands are also taken into consideration. This book will be of immense help for the educational administrators, planners, supervisors and heads of the institutions where education is imparted through different media." (jacket)
