‘Art seen as non-serious subject’

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NEW DELHI, MAY 8: The Government Boys Senior Secondary School in Trilokpuri has neither running water nor classroom fans — music and drama classes are far down the line. While the picture of arts education is brighter at resource-rich private schools, even here the time and space afforded to arts is a pale glimmer of that marked for mainstream subjects. That is set to change.

The new syllabi from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), for Classes 1-10, which will be circulated later this year, will upgrade arts education — theatre, music, dance and the visual arts — from extra-curricular pastimes to subjects squarely positioned in the school curriculum.

“Students aren’t given a chance to explore creativity in our education system,” says classical singer Shubha Mudgal, who chaired the focus groups for art education while developing the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005. “And when they are, it’s in limited bursts — for annual days or the celebration of Independence.”

Chand Singh Bijiyan, principal of Government Boys Senior Secondary School in East of Kailash, puts this down to disinterest: “Government school students usually wish to take up science, or commerce streams, to find jobs. Few go into the arts.”

But by making art education subjects compulsory up to Class 10, graded and examined in secondary classes, the NCERT is catalysing a shift in the perception of arts and culture.

“Arts education is seen as a non-serious subject that, unlike other subjects, lacks a formal procedure for assessment,” says Jyotsna Tiwari, reader, Department of Education in Arts and Aesthetics, NCERT. “Evaluation is thus imperative — but not to assess whether a child becomes a perfect artist, rather a child’s experience over time, their freedom of expression and joy.”

While maintaining distinct identities for the four core art subjects, the policy recommends infusing arts into all areas of learning. Take the song Nimbooda, says Mudgal. “At one level about Bollywood, glamourised by Aishwarya Rai. But at another, it’s a way to engage with the Rajasthani community, the geography of the state, what kind of weather nimbooda trees grow in, and so on.” Or a class in theatre, for instance, would teach teamwork, conflict resolution and interpretation, says a National School of Drama (NSD) employee.

“This is the first time theatre, as a subject, will be taught at schools. We suggest three levels — starting from experience-based theatre exploring concepts and emotions, ranging to skilled performance, theatre history and criticism,” he adds.

Injecting policies into the syllabus could go a long way in revitalising art education: “Taking arts out of the hobby slot and giving students a life option,” says Anuradha Kapoor, NSD director. “The theatre and education movement in Britain during the ‘50s and ‘60s was very important in creating a whole generation of artists and an extra alert audience, this can happen in India too,” she says.

Linking art with career options is another endeavour. “Unless students have an introduction to theatre while at school, professional training in theatre is compromised,” adds Kapoor. But educationists and artists both ask: how prepared are schools to overhaul years of neglect in art education and finally implement long-standing recommendations, dating back to 1952 Education Commission reports?

“There’s no dearth of insight into progressive ideas in education, but a gap between policy makers and implementers,” says Arvind Kumar Mishra, assistant professor at Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational Studies. Syllabi, guidelines or textbooks are one thing, but how far will they be adopted in the spirit of the NCF,asks Mishra. “Firstly, we don’t have enough qualified teachers in these subjects. Then, children and parents won’t pay equal attention to the arts until a wider shift in mindset — grounding in arts is essential whatever profession one follows, to communicate with human beings.”

For Mudgal, it is high time students had the opportunity to learn art outside of the box, but only if delivered effectively. “It should sensitise students to the diversity of arts in India, I’d hate to see children be forced to sing and dance in a way they don’t want.”