Good things:
-- Kids here make the most beautiful music together. Maybe it's the nature of the beast that schools' art and music wings tend to be sort of alchemical places, where kids feel especially at home. At my KV school, that place is the music room. Students here have been practicing for an interschool competition (in which gov't and private schools participate), and many of them have been released from (or are skipping?) their regular classes to get in some extra practice time. They rehearse with students of all ages, mostly unsupervised, and make such amazing music. They want to win; but they want to play more.
-- Yesterday I visited Lady Shri Ram College, a women's college that's part of Delhi University (whose most famous alum is probably Burma's Aung San suu Kyi) I was curious to see what life is like for kids after high school; were there students from KV schools here? What happens to those kids? The girls I met--third year students with concentrations in math, commerce and government-- were awesome, driven (one girl was flipping through GRE prep words on her laptop when I met with her), excited about their futures, their independence, but also passionate about improving life for people in India. They showed me around their dorm (called a hostel here), which felt so familiar. I could have been at any college dorm in the US, complete with the requisite hanging Indian tapestry. (Almost like any college in the US: they have a 7.30 curfew on most nights). Most of the girls, though, weren't from the KV system, but from convent or private schools. Which leads me to:
Hard things:
One of the problems with the KV system has to do with a much larger problem with the government. While everyone I've spoke with agrees that KV schools are among the best government funded schools in the country (and this is probably especially true in Delhi), the schools themselves are promoting students who haven't mastered the material they're studying. The grade necessary to pass a test here is 30% (I've even heard 25%). So almost everyone passes. This may be because making kids feel 'bad' about their academic work is taboo in India, and seen to be damaging in some way (weird because hitting a child--which I saw this morning, heartbreakingly--isn't taboo, and seems so much more cruel).
Having a high pass rate also makes the government schools look really successful in the short term, but it's easy to win a game when you're kind of rigging the rules. I wonder if anyone here has done any research tracing the progress of KV graduates over ten years. If no one has, someone should.
So, no wonder students copy each others' homework like it's not a big deal..in some ways, it's not. They'll retain enough to pass, do well enough to enter some university program in their field; maybe they'll follow in their parents' footsteps, and work for the government (but not in the highest administrative ranks) . The kids here have so much potential. The teachers here love them so much, even when it's tough love (and usually, it is; I think they like me because I smile a lot, and laugh with them). Still, it's hard not to feel like they deserve better.
I wasn't sure how I'd feel when it was time to leave; I'm still not. It's been such an intense summer, and in some ways I'm ready for a break from the intensity (and definitely ready for a break from the heat), though I'm also sad to part with my new friends. In a holistic, and sort of magical way, I feel like India is now part of my skin, a layer of me that's lasting and permanent. I know I'll be back soon.
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