Aspiring public solutions to public deficiencies

Majumdar, Manabi and Rana, Kumar (2016) Aspiring public solutions to public deficiencies. Learning Curve (25). pp. 30-32.

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Abstract

We come together for various social purposes. As Tagore ruefully remarked on the self-destructive events in Bengal during 1934-40, ‘People here do not combine to build up anything bit by bit, but they flock together to enjoy the unholy glee of pulling down what has already been built’. That it is within the realm of the possible to imagine a counter- current of collective striving for constructive social objectives is the point that is pursued in this brief note. Drawing on the accounts of quotidian efforts and experiences of school teachers, anganwadi workers, health workers, and of several ‘street-level’ education and health officials that were presented in a recent workshop in Santiniketan on ‘School Health and the Health of the School’ organized by Pratichi (India) Trust, this sketchy report seeks to demonstrate the willingness and resolve of a group of people – people like us who do not claim to be having super-natural qualities – to cooperate and aspire for public solutions to public deficiencies.Two usual doubts are likely to surface at this point against the promises of collective pursuit of public values: can we scale up such initiatives? And can we fit them within the ‘parameters of the possible’?

Item Type: Articles in APF Magazines
Authors: Majumdar, Manabi and Rana, Kumar
Document Language:
Language
English
Uncontrolled Keywords: Education, Elementary education, Early childhood education
Subjects: Social sciences > Education
Divisions: Azim Premji University > University Publications > Learning Curve
Full Text Status: Public
Related URLs:
URI: http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/835
Publisher URL: http://apfstatic.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-...

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