INTRODUCTION

Historically, general caste students have ahead-start over the scheduled caste students interms of awareness, academic orientation anddrive for academic fulfillment. Unequal schoolinghas limited the educational opportunities ofdisadvantaged scheduled caste children in India.In addition, these children sometimes haveproblems outside schools that interfere with theirlearning. The problem of these students mayinclude drug abuse, delinquent gang membership,dysfunctional families, and family violence. Suchstudents are also likely to live in neighborhoodscharacterized by poor social control, delinquentgangs, high rates of personal and property crimes,and widespread distribution and consumption ofdrugs. They also must confront a less tangiblethreat - the devaluation of their talents andpotential. The scheduled caste children are labeled‘problem children’ or the ‘specific needspopulation’, implying they are somehowintrinsically less intelligent, more needy. Socialmarginazliation becomes a problem only when wefail to tackle this problem honestly and fairly.

Perhaps more than at any other time in history,schools are being asked to recognize and addressthe needs of disadvantaged children who sufferfrom various problems, abuse and neglect.Schools are also increasingly aware that lowsocial status may depress scheduled castestudents performances regardless of familyincome. Academic mediocrity may place allscheduled caste students of being unable tocompete in global markets.

© Kamla-Raj 2009 J Soc Sci, 21(2): 85-89 (2009)

Strategies for Overcoming Barriers to Educational Developmentof Scheduled Caste Students of Cuttack City

Tulasi Acharya

Department of Anthropology Govt. Women’s College, Sambalpur, Orissa, India

KEYWORDS Disadvantaged Children. Low Achievers. Co-curricular Activities. Extra Curricular Activities. Affirmative-action

ABSTRACT Much have been talked about. Many steps have been taken through different plans for the disadvantagedchildren. Still inequality exists in the classroom performance. Some come out with excellent results, others with good.There is also a class of low achievers. Socio-cultural factors contribute to their poor performance. To eradicate thesebarriers strategies have been suggested by the educationists. Among them enriched curriculum engaging students in theauthentic work, creating Network of Supports, Co-curricular, Extra-curricular Activities etc. are highlighted in thispaper. Honest attempts have been made towards affirmative action to dissolve the causes contributing to performanceinequality between the children of General Castes and Scheduled Castes at foundation level.

In order to give justice to scheduled castestudents, this is high time when schools mustengage themselves in contextually sensitiveorganizational development, which includesmaintaining standard procedures, fostering staffdevelopment, improving communication,providing high quality teaching, and establishingmonitoring procedures.

Many students are more motivated to workhard if they view classroom learning tasks to beuseful in the adult world of work. Plans must bemade to introduce vocational education that willprovide students with a combination of essentialacademic skills and rigorous vocational training.Asserting that ‘learning to know and learning todo are linked’, schools must encourage studentsto use academic materials to perform ‘real-life’tasks or address ‘real-life’ problems in order toincreasing students’ motivation for learning.

Alternative forms of assessment and rewardstructures must be proposed and developed.These alternative assessment strategies shouldbe designed to have students demonstrate whatthey have learned rather than how well they takea test, and to motivate rather than discouragestudents who start out well below average.Although such approaches are not widely usedat this time, there is growing interest in them.

‘Alternative’ or ‘authentic’ assessments havebecome catchwords of the current educationalreform in India. Forms of evaluation that test howmuch students know at a single point in time arebeing challenged by those arguing forassessment procedures that demonstrate howwell students think and how well they articulate

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their ideas in a variety of media. Examples ofpotentially better assessment methods includeoral interviews, sincere experiments, portfolios ofstudents work over an extended period, publicexhibitions where students defend their projects,performances of skills in simulated situations, etc.Such alternative forms of assessment may offernew opportunities for success to scheduledcaste students for several reasons.

In addition to restricting the ways in whichstudents demonstrate what they have learned,traditional assessment methods can be insensitiveto the actual achievement or progress of individualstudents, particularly scheduled caste students.As traditional evaluation systems often do notadequately recognize the progress that educa-tionally disadvantaged students make, becauseeven dramatic progress may still leave them nearthe bottom of the class in comparative terms orfar from the ‘percent standard’ needed for a goodgrade. Individualized incentive and rewardstructures that value students’ incrementalimprovements can motivate students to try harder,foster an intrinsic interest in the subject matter,and improve performance.

Overview of Literature

Though barriers are many in the field ofeducation, particularly these do not escape fromthe hawk’s eye of the educationalist. They dosuggest strategies for overcoming barriers torepair and reconstruct the system of educationfor the disadvantaged children. A good deal ofresearch has already been done on theeffectiveness of various school components.Mallenkipf and Mallville (1956: 40) opine thatschool facility measures to be significantly relatedto pupils achievement. These are (a) number ofspecial staff in the school. (b) ideal class size and(c) ideal pupils teacher ratio and instructionalexpenditures for the pupils. Martin Katzmah(1968: 40) Govindra (1992: 17-35) Das and Dave(1974: 81) and Dave (1988) have examined therelationship between the school service andstudents’ achievement and found relations to bepositively co-related.

In the present context the system of educationis primarily on interaction activity between theteacher and the students. The class room teachingsare based on prescribed curricula and studentsare to ascertain that the students perceive in propercontext through the method of drilling.

Siberman (1970: 40) observes monotonouscurricula works as a source of failure to dis-advantaged students. The same fact is reflectedin a study conducted by Joshi (1997: 24-25).Cestaneda (1974) points out that the students whoconfuse with the curriculum develop inferiority andinsecurity within themselves.

Objective

The study suggests various strategies forovercoming the barriers to educationaldevelopment of the scheduled caste students.

METHODOLOGY

Though 29 schools are situated in the studyarea which is coming under Cuttack MunicipalCorporation, only 5 M.E. and 5 High Schools areselected on the basis of high concentration ofscheduled caste students. Students from theseschools were selected as sample respondents. Allelderly scheduled caste students (above 10 yearsof age) who were reading in class – VI and abovewere consulted for data collection. However, 250scheduled caste students interviewed for datacollection. Accordingly 250 general caste studentsfrom the same educational grades with the samegender break-up were selected on a random basisfor comparative analysis. Parents of both castecategories and teachers of the sample schools arealso consulted for data collection.

Strategies for Overcoming the Barriers

In recent time a number of innovativestrategies have been undertaken to bring inimprovement in the educational performance ofthe school going scheduled caste children.These approaches typically have focused onstrong parent involvement, on high expectationsfor students, on providing challenging learningactivities, and on delivering integrated humanservices at or near school to address families’need on a comprehensive basis. An attempt hasbeen made here to suggest some strategies forthe better educational performance of schoolgoing children in general and scheduled castestudents in particular.

Enriched Curriculum

First, schools must find ways to introduce an

87STRATEGIES FOR OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

accelerated and enriched curriculum that willprovide the scheduled caste students with thelearning experiences that will enable them to reachhigher standards. A challenging curriculumengages those students in schooling by drawingclear connections between learning and the worldbeyond school. Often schools make theseconnections explicit through school-to-work orcareer and college awareness programmes. Inaddition, schools must find ways to makechallenging and high-quality teaching andcurriculum available to all students, includingscheduled caste students. Schools must findways to create a network of support that ensureseach student’s success. This network mightinclude peer tutoring and mentoring programmes,improved partnerships with families, andcomprehensive support systems that includehealth and other social services. Finally,organizational arrangements ensure that allstudents, including low achievers (scheduledcaste students), have access to high quality,academically rigorous subject matter.

Engaging Students in Authentic Work

Students are more likely to be engaged inlearning when they perceive that their school worksignificant, valuable, and worthy of their efforts.When students are truly engaged in academicwork, they apply the concentration, effort, andthoughtfulness needed to master knowledge andskills in the major disciplines. Students who areengaged in schoolwork invest themselves inlearning to improve their competence, not justfor the sake of completing assignments or earninggood grades.

Successful schools emphasize authenticity inlearning activities. Students have the opportunityto ask questions and study topics they think areimportant, and they are allowed to influence thepace and direction of their own learning. Teachersframe tasks to have some connection to the worldbeyond the classroom, making them more thanacademic exercises.

Creating Networks of Support

Networks of support that address students’academic and personal needs can enable at-riskscheduled caste students to persist and succeedin school. Strong support can foster students’sense of belonging, thus encouraging them to

adopt the mission of the school. For at-riskstudents in particular, successful schools takean active role in responding to personal,emotional, and basic survival needs thatfrequently go unmet in traditional schoolenvironments.

Co-curricular and Extra-curricular Activities

Schools are more than just place whereacademic learning occurs. Depending on manyfactors, they are also complex social environmentsthat can be inviting or alienating. Successfulprogrammes for at-risk students attempt to createan environment that helps students develop asense of commitment to the school community.

Students who do not identify, participate, andsucceed in school activities become increasinglyat risk of academic failure and dropout. In orderto improve student achievement and persistence,it is suggested that the school climate must foster“investment” behaviour – schools mustencourage students involvement in academic andextracurricular activities by stimulating theirinterest, increasing their personal resources (e.g.remediating skill deficiencies), and rewarding theirefforts. Co-curricular activities such as academicor special interest group, theater and musicgroups, and sports teams have traditionallyenhanced students’ sense of school membershipby providing them with a special “niche” in theschool community. Students involved in thesekinds of co-curricular activities find opportunitiesto shine and are less likely to become disengagedfrom school. Many studies have indicated anassociation between extra-curricular activities ingeneral and positive academic outcomes. Forexample, one survey showed that high schoolsocial participation is positively correlated withhigh school and post-high school educationalachievements. Another study of reading skillsdevelopment showed that the higher students’level of involvement in organized extracurricularactivities, the higher their reading achievement.

Recognizing the Value of StudentContributions

For many scheduled caste students,especially those at risk of dropping out of school,developing a sense of school membershipdepends on how they perceive teachers to betreating them. Students expect and want fair and

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decent treatment from teachers; how the schooladministers discipline sends important messagesabout respect to students. When the school’sdisciplinary policies seem capricious and unfair,students are alienated and the school’s missionwanes. When the school’s rule enforcement isconsistent and teacher and student role are clearlydefined, students identify more closely with theschool.

In a school setting, harmonious interactionbetween students and teachers requiressubstantial agreement about the expected normsof behavior. For schools to enforce the rulesaccordingly, all students must know what theirobligations are and how to meet them. Someschools achieve this end by reviewing their rulesin a formal meeting of the entire school communityone or two times a year. In addition, disciplinedschools respect and support appropriatebehavior. They adopt rules for behavior thatcover both formal and informal interactions, teachstudents how to observe those rules compe-tently, and monitor compliance persis-tently. Oneway to ensure students’ acceptance of theschool’s norms of behavior is to give them a voicein creating the school community’s rule:

If a school’s atmosphere is one of hostility andinsensitivity in which students are continuallysubjected to criticism and failure, seriousdisciplinary problems and criminal behaviors arelikely to erupt. Some teachers’ and administrators’preoccupation with punitive methods ofcontrolling student behavior contributes to anatmosphere of conflict. Safe schools are thosewhere supervisory expectations. Facultycompetence, and staffing arrangements protectchildren from adult incivility.

Changing Role of a Teachers and EffectiveTeachings

Teachers seek to influence students’ socialand personal development, as well as theirintellectual growth. To sustain a pervasive “ethicof caring,” teachers must maintain continuousand sustained contact with students, respondingto the students as whole persons rather than justas clients in need of a particular service.Expanding their traditional role as transmitters ofknowledge, teachers help create networks ofsupport that foster students’ sense of belongingand support students to succeed in the school.Teachers should develop a new approach that

involves students as producers of knowledge,rather than as passive recipients. For their part,teachers in the school need to (1) promote positiveand respectful relations between them andstudents; (2) help students with personalproblems; (3) cultivate students’ ability to meetschool standards; and (4) support students’efforts to find a place in society by forgingappropriate links between personal goals andinterests, school opportunities, and future plans.In exchange for this active commitment from theschool, students behave positively andrespectfully toward teachers and commit theirmental and physical effort in school tasks to alevel making their own achievement likely.

Through effective teaching, students learnand practice self-management skills in sub-stantively rewarding activities. Effective teachingalso creates learning environments where eachparticipant’s contribution is valued, and anyone’sabsence is duly noticed. Appointed students toorganize and direct academic activities andcommunity events facilitate their development asparticipants in an orderly institution. The proceduresused in schools constitute a ‘hidden curriculum’that either fosters students’ engagement and generalseriousness of purpose or, alternatively, underminestheir confidence and sense of responsibility.

Involving Parents

Programmes should be designed to developtwo-way communication between school andhome, and to involve parents in decision-making,planning, assessment, and curriculum develop-ment. By creating a climate in which parents andfamilies are regarded as partners in learning,schools can make parent and family involvementa reality.

Creating Partnerships with Families

One of the most powerful contributions thatfamilies can make toward their children’s successin school is to foster after-school learning.Scheduled caste families may foster home learningfor school students by encouraging them withtheir schoolwork and assisting children withdecisions that affect their future. Family memberscan also exert a powerful influence not only ontheir children’s course selection but also on theircareer options once they come out from highschool.

89STRATEGIES FOR OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Higher achievement occurs in part becausestudents whose families are more involved in theireducation do more homework. Parents moni-toring student’s attendance, homework, and useof leisure time are especially important at thesecondary level, as students become more activeoutside the home.

Assess Parents’ Needs and Interests

Schools can bridge the distance betweenfamilies and schools by surveying parents to findout their concerns and opinions about school.Schools should begin planning parentinvolvement activities by asking parents ofstudents what they need (e.g., information,training, decision-making opportunities) tosupport their children’s academic achievement.

Encourage Family Learning

Traditional homework assignments canbecome more interactive ones by involving familymembers. For example, students might collect oralhistories from family members for history classes.

Create a Mechanism for PersonalizedCommunication

With parents, especially with those unable tocome “in” to school, for example, a school mightappoint a home-school coordinator, provide moreflexible time for teachers to visit homes, or expandopportunities for contact by providing parentswith more flexible schedules with which to meetschool staff. For example, schools can set upresource centers for parents; institute home visitshold evening or weekend meetings out in thecommunity, etc. Personal contact is important inencouraging families to participate.

Give Parents a Voice in School Decisions

Schools can include parents and other familymembers in decision-making bodies, schoolimprovement teams, or steering committees thatdirect school restructuring efforts. By providingregular information and making seminars andworkshops available to family members, schoolstaff often facilitate the participatory decision-making process. Once family members areinformed and involved, the school must listenand respond to their contributions.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

After 60 years of independence, time has cometo take stock of our goal fulfillment, turns missedand time wasted. It can be unequivocally assertedthat scheduled caste parents have been unableto reap commensurate benefit from the govern-ment policy of universal education and theextended facilities of constitutional benefits. Ofcourse, forces of modernization to a considerableextent have dissolved the socio-cultural of thescheduled caste, which have greatly contributedfor their inward looking mindset.

In the sweep of globalization, the world is fastshrinking to a global village. Given the fact thatthe exploitative social system which has beenreadjusting with the changing dictates of time byreinventing and redefining itself in different formsof social inequality, it will be presumptuous toforesee a total turn-around in the social paradigmwithin a specific time frame. However, it may beexpected that juggernaut of globalization wouldgo a long way to bulldoze the socio-economicand socio-cultural barriers confronting thescheduled caste population, to produce a levelplaying field for all.

REFERENCES

Cestaneda 1974. Curriculum as a Source of Failure.Perspectives of Educational Opportunities and TribalChildren. New Delhi: ICSSR Abstract volume.

Das RC1974. Impact of School Conditions in PrimaryEducation, SIERT-Assam. In: SB Buwada (Ed.).: ThirdSurvey of Research in Education, Bhubaneswar:NCERT, pp. 78-81.

Dave PN, CL Anand, RG Wolf 1988. Pupils Achievementof the Primary Stage. In: MB Bouch (Ed.), Volume1. Baroda: Society for Educational research andDevelopment, pp. 48-52.

Govindra AR, NV Varghese 1992. Quality of PrimaryEducation. An Empirical study. Journal of Educa-tional Planning and Administration, 9(i): 17-35.

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Katzaman Mantini 1968. A Research on TribalEducation. In: S Hindwan (Ed.): Public Policy andPoor. New Delhi: Center for Policy Research, pp.69-72.

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