The name is absent

During the classroom observations English was used as the
medium of instruction for all subjects except the Indian
language classes which used either the state∕regional
language or Hindi. There were seventeen non-participant
classroom observations. They are grouped under ten subject
headings. Five Indian language classes (8+ to 16+) were
observed. These classes were in co-educational Anglo-
Indian schools in the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and
West Bengal. The Indian languages were Marathi, Tamil,
Bengali and Hindi.

2.1.1. Four Indian language classes: Students aged 8+ to
13+ in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Classroom 1: The Anglo-Indian students were chatty and
easily distracted. They were asked by the teacher to work
quietly. They spent their time completing their homework
by copying it from the non Anglo-Indian students. Two girls
did no Indian language work. They took out their
needlework and worked quietly. They were ignored by the
teacher.

Classroom 2: The Anglo-Indians spent their time "catching
up" with incomplete classwork. They kept peering into non
Anglo-Indian student's exercise books, in order to copy the
previous week's classwork, ignoring the current language
lesson.

Classrooms 3 and 4: The Tknglo-Indian students segregated
themselves from the non Anglo-Indians. No attempt was made
to give these groups of students individual help during the
lessons. The groups displayed similar behaviour patterns.
In one school the Anglo-Indians (8+) went straight to the
table for the "Tnusthiwallahs" (naughty ones) . This group
spent their time colouring the illustrations of fruits and
flowers in the Hindi text book or sharpened their colouring

252

<<   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   >>

More intriguing information