Part 24 of 26 in What I Want to Tell My School Teacher: An Indian Adaptation of Letter to a Teacher← Part 23Part 25 →
This chapter describes what schools might look like after five years of applying the book's approach. It helps readers picture practical changes in learning, retention, inclusion, teaching, family knowledge, and local support.
- Fewer children would leave school between Class 6 and Class 10.
- Students would build practical reading, writing, and arithmetic skills.
- More instructional time would narrow foundational skill gaps between social groups.
- Parents and teachers would have clearer information about students' abilities and needs.
- Daily inclusive practices and shared responsibility would reduce quiet exclusion without transforming the entire country.
Suppose a district, or even a cluster of schools, adopted the stance of this book for five years. What would change?
Fewer children would leave between Class 6 and Class 10. Those who remained would be able to read a newspaper paragraph and explain it, write a clear one-page letter, and solve the arithmetic required for daily life and for the next stage of study. The gap between children from different social groups in foundational skills would narrow because the children who started behind would have received systematically more instructional time.
Parents would know, in concrete terms, what their child could do. Teachers would have simple data on who still needed help rather than only pass-fail lists. Older students would expect to teach younger ones as a normal part of school. A free AI tutor in the local languages would be as ordinary as the mid-day meal. The hidden curriculum would still exist—no single reform erases caste or class—but its sharpest edges would be blunted by daily practices of inclusion.
None of this requires every teacher to become a saint or every school to become Barbiana. It requires a shared decision that the present rate of quiet exclusion is unacceptable, followed by the repeated, ordinary actions that embody that decision. Five years of such actions would not transform the entire country. They would demonstrate, in one place, that the hospital can be made to treat the sick.
Frequently asked questions
What could change in schools after five years?
Fewer children would leave between Class 6 and Class 10. Students would gain practical reading, writing, and arithmetic skills.
How would five years of extra instructional time affect students?
Children who started behind would receive systematically more instructional time, narrowing the gap in foundational skills between different social groups.
How would parents and teachers benefit from better school information?
Parents would know what their child could do, while teachers would have simple data showing who still needed help instead of only pass-fail lists.
Could schools reduce exclusion without eliminating caste or class differences?
The hidden curriculum would still exist, but daily practices of inclusion could blunt its sharpest edges. The chapter says this requires repeated ordinary actions and a shared decision that quiet exclusion is unacceptable.