Education is the future. It has always been. But then the current times have made me a little concerned about the question:

‘What is the future of education?’

This particular work has emerged from my long-standing interest in ‘The Language of Education’ and a string of recent news events connected to the field of education. Many of us know about the ways in which students and teachers at the Shaheen group of Institution, Bidar (Karnataka) were subjected to police interrogation and humiliation for performing a play about CAA-NRC policies. On the other hand, students from a school run by RSS, again in Karnataka, gloriously staged a performance about celebrating the Babri Masjid Demolition. Both these events took place in the recent past and has to say something very sharp about what is acceptable and what is not within our educational practices in the eye of the nation. As an artist and as an educator, I felt compelled to respond to both these events (and a few others that followed) under the theme of TURBULENCE. More so, because these events are steeped in the politics of image and performativity of the subject(s) of education.

Furthermore, I also felt that this response needed to be expressed in a language that was embedded in the very performative nature of educational material. Because that is also a space where the hierarchical roles of image-word plays out, has played out for us since many years. The image within the educational material is always an illustration, an example or a frozen specimen that serves the words, the narrative and the theory. An illustration inside a textbook does not speak more than what the words want them to speak. That is why the images within the educational practices have mostly been passive and supplementary.

In this work, what I have attempted is to present a subversive format of a textbook activity, where my drawings—a set of visual commentaries on the recent events pertaining to the field of education—hold the centre stage around which words/responses/narratives are invited. These drawings are more than a reportage on the news events and are rendered with a non-linear visual grammer, as opposed to illustrations. Set within the format of a textbook activity titled, ‘Out of Syllabus’, these drawings intend to provoke the reader/viewer and offer more than one way of engaging with the context. My attempt here has been to reimagine the exercise of educating on the larger socio-political landscape of our nation.

If you decide to answer some of the questions mentioned in the activity, or have different questions to offer for the drawings, feel free to write to me at vasvioza@gmail.com

This is a set of activities designed to tap into recent turbulent state of education system in our country. These activities are suited for both adults and children. For best results, it is suggested that both adults and children sit together to work on them. The reward for doing this is the expansion of one’s consciousness.

ACTIVITY 1

Observe the drawing closely and answer the following questions.

1. Have you seen such structures in your life? Describe.
2. Why do the three faces on top look worried?
3. Where do you think the people standing at the bottom line are looking at?
4. Can you identify the words/letters in the image? If not, can you take help of someone who can identify them?

ACTIVITY 2

Look at the following drawing, read the note and answer the questions.

NOTE: In February 2020, the Karnataka Police interrogated students of Shaheen Urdu Medium Primary School in Bidar, about a play they performed that was based on debates around Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). The police also arrested Farida Begum, the head teacher and Najamunissa, mother of a student on sedition charges.

1. What is the figure of the man doing? Can you identify him?
2. Why do you think the little boy looks worried?
3. What does the background in the drawing look like to you? Describe.
4. What do the words in the drawing suggest?

ACTIVITY 3

Look closely at the drawing, read the note and answer the following questions.

NOTE: In December 2019, a group of students from Karnataka’s Sri Rama Vidyakendra High School, located in Kalladka, Dakshina Kannada were made to enact the demolition of the Babri Masjid on the stage by their teachers.

In January 2020, Little Star School in Ahmedabad forced their students to write congratulatory postcards to India’s PM Narendra Modi, applauding him on the Citizenship Amendment Act and pledging support of their families.

1. Do you see any resemblances in the two events mentioned? Explain.
2. Overall, what does this drawing look like to you? Does it remind you of a temple or a school or a house?

ACTIVITY 4

Look closely at the drawing, read the note and answer the following questions.

NOTE: Devika, a 14-year-old girl from Mankeri Dalit Colony in Walanchery, Malappuram in Kerala, committed suicide in June 2020. Devika was a 10th-grade student and according to many news reports, she was anxious about not being able to attend online classes due to lack of internet access in her house, leading her to take her life.

1. What are those words in the drawing trying to say?
2. What is the difference between the girl studying at the table and Devika’s portrait?
3. Do you agree that online education is a matter of privilege? Explain.

ACTIVITY 5:

Observe the drawing closely and answer the following questions after reading the note.

NOTE: The Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, under the Government of India has proposed Environmental Impact Assessment 2020 which is seen as a policy against the preservation of nature and policy that benefits the capitalists at the cost of people’s livelihood. On 2^nd September 2020, a group of students, academics, scientists, and researchers from many institutions wrote an appeal letter to the Ministry of Environment, pointing out the fatal nature of the EIA 2020 and urging the ministry to revoke it immediately.

1. What kind of landscape do you see in this drawing?
2. Do you think a policy such as EIA can change the landscape drastically? How?
3. Do you think that the purpose of education should lead to a better world? If yes, then what would you say about a policy such as EIA drafted by educated people in power?

ACTIVITY 6:

Look at this drawing carefully and write a short note on the thoughts/concerns that follow.