Given the shameful fact that India has the highest student suicide rate in the world, we set ourselves in 1996 to identify the causes. One that had not been noticed was, is, that we are Indians using an imported (British) education system right from the 19th century. It is in our hands more an examination system than an education system, and as such it classifies fail and pass with many grey shades between. But we being Indians have our own identifiable social response to life, like the British stiff upper lip, the Japanese don't-be-different attitude and so on. Ours is the izzat factor, translating (from Urdu) as status and prestige. Since in exams success and failure are built in as labeled categories, then izzat becomes a hugely emotional entity: sufficient to trigger both the exploitation of unfair means on the one hand, and suicide, especially among youngsters not sufficiently mature to handle the social impact of a damaged izzat, on the other.
SERVE designed and modified the team system to offset this reality. If the class is in teams, then the individual is only a team member, and is not personally likely to be categorized as a failure. An essay like this cannot detail the minutiae of this in application to our classrooms, but that is the basic principle. Other factors were considered. In our working schools, numbers are invariably large. This team system is comfortable with 60 youngsters per class, and can be stretched even more. And the word Exams being a stimulant of so many negative emotional reactions, the (ever popular) concept of using a Quiz system was harnessed to fill that need.
Our youngsters commit suicide not because they don't know the school subjects, not even because they don't get flattering marks, but because in the tally they do worse than so many others. The result of that is, mummy's tears, dad's anger, family (read caste) abuse, school mates rejection, school staff disgust, and local scorn. Fear of this is the spur. The entire system in India is built on this fear. Suicide is clearly a simple and increasingly popular choice. (Read Sahana Pal's story elsewhere in this Website.)
When sketched, the SERVE system was applied in Delhi government primary schools by the then director of SCERT there. The results boggled even us, who had taught it to them. Clearly, to a country embarrassed by a world image of inappropriate education methodologies, this was a major answer and touted truthfully as such by those advertising it. The statistics bore out their claim both to academic improvement and childhood enrichment. And that is what SERVE is propagating today.
Why is it not nation-wide? The history of any social improvement, from umbrellas to flight to democracy to religion to language to agriculture to food habits to marriage to well, anything bears witness to the blind resistance of people to change, whatever the evidence may promise and demonstrate. The change will come, but human nature, Indian as much as any other, being what it is, it will be slow. But come it will.
Sahana, we will not let your death be in vain. We are trying to save all the other Sahanas in our schools. Now that you are with God, help us to awaken children to hope, and adults to the urgent need for change. _____________________
