Computers for young children in India

Childhood Education, 2003 by Thirumurthy, Vidya, Sundaram, Nithya

Diversity in Curriculum

The first author visited many schools in Southern India during the last four years. We share below some of our observations about how computers were used in six different schools. There were no computers in the classrooms in any of the schools we visited; instead, the children were taken to the computer lab (which contained anywhere from 15 to 20 computers), according to a schoolwide timetable. A couple of the schools appointed a technician to assist children and teachers and to monitor the use of computers.

The Bharathi Vidya Bhavan School employed a technician for the computer lab, and the children were taken to the lab during their regular math period. The mathematics teacher also was present to assist the 1st-graders in playing simple addition and subtraction games ("Math Their Way"). The first author watched three children solve an addition problem. As soon as the numbers appeared on the screen, the little fingers of two children began to dance on their laps, while the child at the keyboard stared at the computer. The first child said, "It is fourteen" and the third nodded as though he was in agreement. The second child at the computer corrected him, "Chi [no], it is thirteen," but the other two prevailed. When the answer turned out to be incorrect, the child at the keyboard, with great disappointment, gave his rebuttal, "I told you, it is not correct." This time he took charge and punched in 13, which was the answer.

In the National English School, Bangalore, the computer hour offered a lot more freedom. This school had three branches in the same city; the second author was a teacher in one of the schools, and the first author visited two of the schools. In one school, each child had access to his or her own computer. Here, children could choose either a language or math program, or a paintbrush program. All of the children seemed adept in computer skills. Some of them were already familiar with the programs. One child whispered to the first author, "This [game] is an old one. I have the new one at home." Affluent parents often get the latest educational software for their children from abroad.

Some private schools, facing strong competition, and eager to charge a higher tuition fee, buckle under pressure from parents for computer education. "They started teaching C, C language in the third standard [third grade]," declared a proud parent whose child is enrolled in a private school. Many parents do not draw a distinction between computer science and computers as a tool for learning. Such competition is not necessarily healthful. However, most of these schools (with a few exceptions) do an excellent job of using computers as a tool for structuring learning activities.

Computers are not integrated with the regular curriculum, nor is there any uniformity in how the technology is used. In some schools, children do not get to use the computer until they reach the 5th grade. Montfort Primary School (grades kindergarten to 5), run by a Christian missionary, had a room with 20 computers. During the five days the first author spent at the school, however, the lab was locked and Father Thomas, the principal, was quick to remark, "We try to get the children in there whenever we can. Would you like to see our computer lab in the high school? We have more computers and there, maybe, some children are working." This was a school that catered to the needs of children from a wider spectrum of socioeconomic strata, with a high percentage of children from low-income families.