the end of each academic year. The Profile of Progress
(7) should include only positive statements about skills
and abilities. The Profile could be an invaluable record
of events, awards, certificates of merit, exhibitions,
concerts and responsibilities undertaken by the student.
A teacher who undertakes to keep these important records
of progress or achievement should be offered an incentive
allowance.
4. Induction Programmes for Ancrlo-Indian minority
children: The transfer from a slum school to an elitist
school.
The induction programme would break the mould, so to
speak, and create a miniature school. The timing of the
induction programme should occur during the winter
vacation, when most Anglo-Indian residential schools are
closed for two months. Teachers who are involved in the
induction programme would be teaching during their
holidays. These teachers should be offered an incentive
allowance to introduce the induction programme. The
teachers should use as wide a variety of methods as
possible in order to foster autonomous learning
strategies in their Anglo-Indian students.
The induction programme must be adapted to the Anglo-
Indian learner's characteristics. The induction
programme should be a confidence-building exercise. This
area of research would depend on collaboration between
teachers, social workers and parents in the community.
The induction programme is the opportunity for slum
children to communicate and learn by listening, talking,
questioning, sharing and imitating.
An induction programme would involve analyzing the needs
Anglo-Indians have on arrival in the schools. These
needs could range from using a library and getting
specialised tuition in English and an Indian language, to
improving personal hygiene and learning social etiquette.
There is no wish to be credited with, or even accused of,
pioneering an innovation as some strange new curriculum
within schools. The aim of the induction programme is
inseparable from those of education as a whole, and,
hence must be addressed in all aspects of the curriculum.
Historically, the weighting given to English in the past
must be shifted to Indian languages in the future. The
induction programme should also include an area of
Personal, Social and Health Education. (8)
PSHE is a practical issue and must be located in the
induction programme. The issue of status is crucial,
because Anglo-Indian children who enter an elitist Anglo-
Indian school from a slum lack skills of communication,
decision making, problem solving and reflection which
middle-class children possess. This affects their
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