A Problem, A Tricky Solution

What was once Education is now termed Wisdom. Rather than being an experience enriching an individual’s intellect and making sure they’d ease into the society, Education today has become a means to an end. The Ends being getting into XYZ University, Getting an ABC Degree, so that you can be a PQR at an MNC. Has the system corroded or has the one most powerful weapon of civilization taken the necessary evolution to keep humanity on track for the years to come? Read on to find out.

 

In so far as the rest of the article is to continue, it is my own take on how education might have come into being and institutionalized specifically in my own capacities as a writer.

 

While many regard Ramayana, Mahabharata, Quran, Bible, Guru Granth Sahib and several other religious texts to be the docets of their religions, I believe they were mere reflections of people trying to bring out an ideal world, an ideal man, and all possessed a core set of beliefs which would appeal to the masses to make them believe truly that this path was a nice one to take. Irrespective of beliefs, faiths, Religion and Religious works are and will continue to be a human’s first experience with the process of Education. They educate you about their own versions of Good and Bad, God and Devil, and so on.

 

Moving further on, Education has gone through a lot of changes from time to time, adapting itself to the needs of the day. Education at one point of time meant creating fire out of rubbing flints, and in another age meant bending wood into circular shapes and making wheels, and at another meant learning the arts of their trade, war tactics and the like. It has gone from being elitist to being a beacon of hope for the poor to get to the same level playing field of the rich, to being the only distinction between being cultured and non-cultured, and becoming the process any human around the world would look at as the critical requisite and way for better things to come.

 

During the ages of colonization and world wars, many viewed education as a foreign evil, and denounced it in retaliation. Well, that is history now isn’t it? The very fabric on which many modern countries are built on today are based on the same newer more liberal thoughts brought about because of the varied forms of education at the foray. Education has indeed changed the course of human history more than we credit it for. It’s indeed gone places from sketched on the wall to having its oldest manuscripts protected within the comforts of the four walls of a museum. It has indeed ushered us to greater heights and given us a common platform, setting up all the minds around the world to brainstorm and put their collective efforts to keep humanity on track; But hey! It has also given us destruction, annihilation, deep rooted racism, and much more.

What do we do when we go heads up against a problem with the very same system that is supposed to solve all problems? Education today is nothing more than the prep up for a rat race that is ridiculed with problems of elitism and institutionalisation. India, today has more people going to school than it ever did in it’s past, but is it educating its masses the right way? Or is there a blink and miss somewhere? When youngsters aren’t allowed to drive on roads if they’re younger than 18 because you can’t trust them with a vehicle, What good is the system doing by letting them make potentially life altering choices from as young as 16 years old?

Education needs to be hands on, leave alone rote learn everything! I do indeed understand the need for having a strong base in all the possible subjects we are mandated to learn till our high schooling, but it is the profiling done soon after that leaves me both spellbound and awestruck. The amount of stress put on children is abnormally high and leaves a very strong imprint on them. Not pointing fingers here! If this system gave us the smartest minds yet, think of all the possibilities it’ll hold when we better and perfect this system! It’s just about time we stop treating education as a cash cow and keep milking it by offering ridiculously high cost education which is worthless and start changing the way we educate and make it approachable for everyone, rich and poor alike.

 

I do realize these topics have been brought forward many, many times over, but then the reason for them popping back up so often signals at how the problem was never tackled efficiently. Schools these days try so hard to sell the idea of holistic development, but trust me when I say this, no kid will ever grow holistically if you keep burdening him with the orthodox ways of teaching. Fortunately or unfortunately this generation’s attention span is the same as the memory capacity of a goldfish, a minute. We can’t reverse their evolution, but we can definitely change our methods to better cater to the needs of today. Before we teach them the complex intricacies of Differentiation and Integration, lets teach them why they pay the taxes that they do over the food they eat, the clothes they buy, and how do they know their money is well spent.

Years from now, we’ll see a revolution anyway. People like me are merely the starting drizzles creating ripples on the surface of education. Well, what do they say? When it rains, it pours! Change will come our way, it’s only about how prepared are we to tackle it. We need our youth smarter now than before. We’ve seen the world go at loggerheads with itself and start a world war, let’s hope we educate our youth well enough to make sure humanity is never threatened by itself again. Should there comes a day when Education leads to the downfall of humanity, it’ll be another brick in the wall, and Pink Floyd will be humming away, ‘We Don’t Need No Education…’

                                                                                                                                                                 –   Suhaas Putta –

(Check out his blog – All About Loud Silence)

 

Education (?) – Get Rid of the Question Mark

Whether or not you and I agree with the fact that the education system in India is appropriate for the present generation, we do ultimately agree that Education is a very valuable asset one can possess. It awards the person learning with intellect and the ability question the right and wrong. In India today, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is working relentlessly in order to make the student’s life harder than ever before. Okay, let me rephrase. Not harder per say, because how difficult is it to swallow textbooks to pass an exam, right? CBSE is no doubt a hardworking force, and hopefully working for the betterment of all students. Education in any child’s life is supposed to be a journey to be remembered and cherished. And hence it shouldn’t just be about acing an exam or being labeled as the topper of the class even though these facts surely are appreciated. It should be about learning, understanding and the overall holistic development of a child.

Children shouldn’t feel burdened or saddened or annoyed at the prospect of going to school every morning for at least five days a week. They should look forward to it. If you’re a student, ask yourself – Would you rather spend a day lounging at home or swallowing yet another page at school? To be honest, most of us now are not fond of waking up, getting dressed and catching the bus to school early morning. Whereas, on the other hand, we’re quite excited to do just the same if we have something we look forward to in the day. That’s it – we, as students, should look forward and be excited to learn something new every day, not dread it.

The teachers should have an interesting approach so that they catch the attention of the students. They should make their classes interactive and ensure that the students aren’t dozing off. Teachers who can connect with the students, rather than scare them. Teachers who are ready for innovative minds and not monotonous teaching. If the students want to question the textbook, then let them. We have curious minds and even though curiosity did kill the cat, it did answer its questions and let it die in peace. CBSE is very result oriented, in the sense that all that they include in our syllabus is only to get a good score as the outcome. Creative classes like Art, Music and Library shouldn’t come to a complete halt when students get promoted to higher classes. In fact, these classes act as a sort of stress reliever for the students under constant pressure.

Other classes such as Value Education, Life Skills or Adolescent Education Program (AEP) have been introduced, however, speaking from personal experience – it has no effect on our daily schedule. We have these classes twice, sometimes only once, a month and each class is spent in vain. Drafting questionnaires and putting us in challenging scenarios, we are expected to answer within a short span of time. Firstly, not only are we, ourselves, unsure of what we would have done but giving an answer not matching with the expected one is obviously looked down upon. How exactly we to be graded are based on our responses to a certain situation? How can it possibly be justified for one student receiving an A+ for his positive reaction while the other being put down with a C for his vague and “wrong” response? As different individuals, we have different responses and different capacities for facing an abrupt situation put in front of us.

Many adults would say that – no matter what, learning whatever students are taught at school is important and that they should accept the fact and work hard to achieve good grades – and I agree, more or less. Learning what the teachers are teaching us, is, in fact, very important. But in exchange for knowledge, is getting good grades the only other thing necessary? This leads me to another aspect of student life – pressure. Pressure from parents, from teachers, tutors and sometimes even from siblings. The pressure to excel, to be one of the toppers of the class, to study 14 hours a day with all work and no play? The situation CBSE is currently following is wherein it focuses more on the knowledge of a child than the skill he or she possesses. We are the youth, the future of the world. Our aspirations and capabilities shouldn’t be in the hands of anyone else. We should work towards putting forward our opinions and the changes we’d like to see in our education system.

“When you take the free will out of education, that turns it into mere schooling.” – John Taylor Gatto

SUKRITI LAKHTAKIA(Student)

Picture Credit

Crucial Areas for Education Reform

At every point in our lives, we are taught to work hard. Hard work they say is the only way to success and I choose to stand by that saying.Yet, there is a difference, a difference between struggle and hard work.I choose to see it this way – struggle is when you need to work hard for something which isn’t going to yield promised fruits, whilst hard work is the price we pay for the benefits we shall acquire out of undertaking the activities we do.

Having drawn the line between struggle and hard work, I’d like to set off with my perspective of education and what I believe it should be. Education is developing rationality, inquisitiveness and the desire to solve problems in a social manner. I do accept that in order to apply the aforementioned qualities one needs to have a base knowledge of the field in which he chooses to solve problems and that’s something undeniable. At this juncture, I would like to re-emphasize that all the aforementioned qualities along with facts must be inculcated in everyday education in the fields chosen by the subject to these programs, in this case, the student. Can we have education without any of the above qualities? No.They are all quintessential.

Now I’d like to address the issues that our education system has. Every year lakhs and lakhs if students graduate from Indian schools, both within and outside India. They all rant about how the education system requires them only to “mug up” and vomit the syllabus.That’s where the problem starts.The key problem is the volume of the subjects, lack of depth in topics and above all the lack of INVOLVEMENT of the subjects. Besides, the teachers who are given the task of educating these children are by themselves victims of this horrendous practice of asking children to memorize facts and worse -concepts and theories. In most cases, the teachers by themselves are incapable of handling subjects and lack understanding.

Besides, the teachers who are given the task of educating these children are by themselves victims of this horrendous practice of asking children to memorize facts and worse -concepts and theories. In most cases, the teachers by themselves are incapable of handling subjects and lack understanding.Teachers as Einstein said are required to gain the attention of students through respect and not through fear. Sadly the latter is more common. Again Einstein clearly says that a teacher be given every right to choose his materials to educate a child in any given syllabus sadly something which isn’t bound to happen owing to scalar chains and HODS that schools impose.The last issue is the infrastructure.Infrastructure is a pre-requisite for any activity.Inadequate infrastructure always

The last issue is the infrastructure.Infrastructure is a pre-requisite for any activity. Inadequate infrastructure always
remains a barrier to proper bonding of the teachers and students. It’s almost impossible to have sweat trickling down your back and suffocation owing to overpopulated classes to pay attention lest involve yourself in any educational activity. Sadly, inadequate ventilation, overpopulated classes, uncomfortable and broken furniture act as a huge
deterrent to involvement in education.

So what’s the overall picture?
An agitated student, helpless teacher and unplanned (in many cases unsafe) infrastructures. Add to this menace the ever existing problems of reservations and donations. These are the most important factors for any educational activity.In many countries, these factors are paid keen attention to and are maintained in top notch conditions.They then have gone beyond these and developed higher facilities to help education progress.Take any top ranked university in the world and you are sure to witness the difference between our universities and theirs.How then can we expect any change?.

Here’s the solution.
What we need is a mental revolution. A revolution which will take time but will bear fruits right from the start.I will split this into four sections.Whereby the prevailing issues of Syllabus, methodology, lack of teachers and inadequate infrastructure shall be addressed.Why not address problems with the students? Because developing these three areas should automatically fix any issues whatsoever from the student’s part.The job of the student will be acceptance.

1. Revising syllabus and teaching methodology.
   The syllabus must be relevant to what happens in the real world. An outdated syllabus is pointless and simply a waste of time because it simply imparts in a student facts which he will never use. A simple example would be teaching a person how to use windows 2000 when the world is using 8.1. Although 2000 is tougher and harder to learn it remains useless as he will never be able to apply his knowledge in the modern world. So a university must consult companies who are involved in the line of production similar to that of the line of training of the University. Simply speaking an engineering college which produces civil engineers, for example, can consult an MNC like Larsen and Toubro and ask them what they expect of their recruits.This gives us a fresh syllabus to work on and will be more relevant than earlier.
2. Teaching Methodology  
   The teaching methodologies should involve a lot of practical exposures. When I say this I don’t mean things get easier for students.Rather make the syllabus constricted but make sure it is in-depth. A theory test should require students to apply concepts and principles learned. A very simple example would be CBSE’s business studies pattern. Children are taught principles of management and in the question paper, real life situations are given.A child who understands his theory well will be able to identify the situation and apply the apt solution. This procedure must be repeated frequently.Schools accordingly must tune their syllabus to prepare children for college.This process isn’t absent.All it requires is fine tuning.
3. Lack of teachers
   The position of teachers in our system is pathetic.They have long working hours, inadequate facilities, awful pay and unspecified work.They are literally ill-treated in most cases.They are stressed physically and mentally.They are
   not brought to teach bit simply to “COMPLETE PORTIONS”.Teachers who don’t understand the importance of practical and modern education shall forever be a hindrance to developing our education system.
   1. We need to recruit teachers with a strong knowledge base and pay them adequately for starters.
   2. Give the teacher sufficient time and resources to engage in educating children.
   3. Rid them of unnecessary formalities like filling report cards or taking attendance or serving meals. They are teachers, not data entry machines.
   4. What teachers need are better-working conditions.This change by itself will attract talented graduates to the teaching profession.
   5. They must be broad-minded, then the students will automatically find their way around their interests with guidance.
4. Inadequate and unsafe infrastructure
   Providing education at affordable costs is essential. But this cost cutting shouldnt be done on tools used in the process of education. Horrific reminders of incidents of innocent souls charred to death because of improper safety measures reemphasize this point. Many a times uncomfortable infrastructure by itself hampers a child’s interest in attending school. This is an issue that needs immediate addressing. How far this is tackled will alwaays be upto the discretion of the
   authorities of the concerned school.Yet, setting the standards of safety and regular inspection of facilities is quintessential.Many of the world’s top ranked schools and universities have the best maintained campuses and that is something that we need to draw upon.

To conclude I would say that if the education sector needs to see any change whatsoever, it requires a mental revolution backed by strong governmental policies – Policies of reform and standards. A willing teacher and eager student backed by supportive infrastructure will follow.

GANESHRAM RAJAGOPALAN (Student)

A Retrospection…

Education has become a much-needed tool these days through which an individual goes through the process of spiritual awakening to comprehend the journey within. It primarily involves the two illuminating components –the coveted Guru and his relationship with the receptive Shishya. The path I traversed as a Language teacher is reflective and recalls numerous successes as well as the corresponding failure stories. I was fortunate enough to adopt this challenging medium of imparting, evolving and growing, way back in 1997. I had taken up a job in a Private school in Delhi, Tilak Nagar and that was where I realised that the deprivation of the necessitated resources often becomes a hindrance and creates an impediment in the entire education system. English, alike any other language, is best learnt through exposure, interaction and communication. The learning can never be, and shouldn’t be restricted within the four walls of the throttling classrooms.

Children have to be let loose, given the unbound freedom to observe Life and Nature at every stage of their lives. Apeejay gave me an insight that more the number of children in a class leads to my failure to identify the individual needs of each curious soul. Teaching at Oakridge gave me a sense of ownership with the technology aided and funded kids. I realised too much of everything, at times, may sound detrimental but the inquiry-based learning did give my students enough time to explore, implore and question the happenings in and around the world. They never realised that in the whole process of research they were learning the language to identify and expose the reality, the truth of subjective existence. CHIREC gave me an opportunity to mould the middle and the secondary school ABILITIES! Talent was a dormant factor here which just needed a recharge, a boost and an ignition. English became a language of exposure when I taught Philosophy through poetry, History through stories, biographies and autobiographies. Grammar was a much-feared concept as the rules put down on pen and paper perplexed their tender minds. However, with time, they grasped it well through regular usage and connectivity or through fun activities. I always felt the need to express and vouchsafed rewards if learners shared their own expressions. Language is imparted and comprehended well when those learning, respect their inner freedom, respect the skilful instructions, love to identify and resolve emotional conflicts, trust their inner teacher which teaches them to dream and realise the self-worth.

Teaching English to my Genesis students gave me a retrospection, a challenge that in order to understand the learners’ abilities and difficulties it is important to empathise. Children struggled to understand the medium of communication. I had to switch over to their jargon to make them appreciate Shakespeare, Frost or Tennyson. Education is transformation and the teacher acts as a catalyst in the whole process. It is crucial to disregard any ego or barrier which may surface during the course of the interaction and hinder possible improvement. This spiritual journey allows one to appreciate Life in all its varied colours, forms and myriad complex relationships. Not essentially focused on English alone, it is the communication to celebrate Life and Nature through any vernacular language. Many illumined beings from the Hindu, Sufi, Zen and the Tibetan Buddhist lineages have maintained that Education is essential for the alchemy of transformation and as long as we have inspiring propagators, the next generation is in safe hands.

Susmita Cheruvathoor

(English Teacher at Genesis Global, Noida)

Each Fish has it’s own Gills…

They say that knowledge is the greatest wealth; there is no limit to what one can learn, teaching is the noblest profession and that one never stops being a student. But these are the quotes or philosophies that we’ve been learning since the time children used to study under trees.

Now, in my opinion, each philosophy or quote has been altered to an extent. Today, corruption is the greatest wealth; streams of each field have become the limit, teachers now rely on EduComp to teach us and after college or graduation each one feels that they’re their own bosses. But that’s just my opinion.

Our education system today has evolved greatly from the ancient times but still doesn’t cover the term ‘education’ entirely. Our country is still a developing nation, which is still in the process of opening up to streams other than commerce and science. Even if we leave aside the education that starts from eleventh grade or junior college and focus on the education till the tenth grade, we haven’t got much to offer.

Let’s not focus on the faculty or the studies, but the race. The race to come first; to beat every one of your classmates; to study in the best of universities; to get full marks. In the midst of this race, most of the students get lost and can’t find their way to the finish line. Our system doesn’t provide multiple paths but only one. But what if that student is interested in laying down his own path? There is no way to because before he or she even starts to, they get crushed. Crushed by the system, society, peers, parents and most of all by their own self-esteem. There is always discrimination against the one who wants to create a new path.

Most schools only provide the basic subjects but lose focus on the other, more important ones. Sure, the basic subjects will teach us how to calculate, why the earth has night and day or why was the World War 2 fought but why don’t I gather any values from these that might help me actually build a life?

In today’s world, we judge every student on the basis of their marks in basic subjects. Marks cannot be a measure of intelligence. If you look at a child who probably got 60/90 in Math or Science, your first reaction would be, “This child doesn’t have any capability.” But you forget to see the other side of the coin, where the child excels in fields like dancing, writing, music, art, inventions, creativity and so much more. Just like we can’t determine a country’s progress by looking at its Per Capita Income or GDP, we can’t determine a child’s capability just by looking at marks or interest.

Let me give you an example of the whole extravaganza, chaotic mess around getting a 10 CGPA. Today, there is so much pressure of getting 10 out of 10 that so many students succumb to the pressure. With the amount of pressure from school, peers, society and parents, the child many a times stumbles upon the wrong and dangerous path.

When did we stop teaching our children how to live life and sent them off to school and universities like one who sends their kids to war? When did schools become more of a money making business than an institution meant to pass on knowledge to each child? Knowledge doesn’t mean grilling numbers and equations into a child’s mind but, in fact, giving them the confidence to believe in themselves and the strength to face any challenge life throws at them.

I, personally, went through so much pressure, comparison and because of the weight of expectations just piling on my back, I broke and lost my way. Students need to understand that it’s okay to be different, to not want to compete, to have different interests and to be unique.

This is a picture, I’m sure, many people have seen and understood. Yet, we do not implement this. Look at each child differently, observe children’s interest and don’t plan out a future for them in advance. Teach them how to create their own future. Each fish has its own gills through which it breathes; similarly each person has a passion or a talent(s) through which they create a place for themselves in this world. There is no end to education. You don’t just get done with it by passing an examination or graduating, it goes on till you breathe your very last breath. If it were up to me, I’d repair or replace our education system with something that actually works!

MEGHANA AGARWAL

(Student)

Education Today and a Framework for Tomorrow…

Education needs to be framed within learning practices that contribute to students’ cumulative learning. If we are not promoting active learning practices, we are doing a disservice to our students.

 

1. It is critical to expand courses targeted to small groups of students together with a mentor/faculty/staff on a regular basis. This course content should ask critical questions, engage in targeted writing assignments, collaborative learning, and not simply memorizing statistics or data. Students should be encouraged to apply their learning beyond the classroom by working on projects that can be linked to their communities. Students should also be trained to draft and prepare projects/reports targeted to specific audiences, so they can fine tune their reasoning skills.
2. Assignments should connect key concepts and questions with evidence and empirical observation, and should provide students with a sense of excitement—that should come from finding answers to important questions—instead of a being a burden to them. While students can benefit from well-planned curriculum and well-written textbooks, educators need to realize that it is crucial that students explore as many as possible outside the classroom life experiences, participate in national and international experiences (meets, conferences, etc.), because this is how they can develop a better understanding of the diverse world that they live in. Assignments should combine two key goals:
   • Learning to resolve a problem, and
   • Sharpening one’s own understanding.
3. Scholarships and internships are yet another way to encourage realistic first-hand learning. If students can be provided with opportunities to gain experience in a work setting—preferably something related to their interests—where they can be supervised and coached by professionals in the fields of interest, students will acquire self-confidence and will be able to appreciate the real life value of their career interests.
   
4. My personal experience as a teacher is more in the field of humanities and social sciences. Teaching a foreign language (Spanish, in my case) involves explaining an elaborate framework of cultural background of history, art, geography, and civilization to my students; in order for my students to absorb the linguistic nuances of Spanish, they need to be able to connect with the deep contextual understanding that weaves through the societies where Spanish is spoken. Teaching Spanish to my students is not simply forcing them to memorize a colossal list of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions, but to guide them through the cultural history that shaped the language in Spain and outside Spain (in Latin America, where Spanish is the official language of 21 countries that were all colonized by Spain in the 15^th and 16^th centuries). I rely less on printed textbooks, and more on easily accessible and free authentic cultural materials (films, online journals, online blogs, etc.) that I integrate into all my Spanish courses. Sometimes I integrate online learning activities into my courses. My goal is to create opportunities where students can facilitate, interact, debate, and learn from an online community. I also encourage my students to participate in Study Abroad experiences, which is the best way to combine what they have learned in class and apply it in a global context. Study Abroad experiences heighten students’ motivation, promote self-reflection, promote contextual understanding, and encourage self-direction.
5. In addition to Study Abroad experiences, I also encourage students to find internship opportunities where they can apply their knowledge. For instance, a Spanish major might work as a translator for court hearings, or might work with a publishing company that requires someone with knowledge of Spanish. Proficiency in a foreign language and in-depth knowledge of other cultures are essential components of success in today’s international marketplace and when I teach Spanish, I plan my curriculum keeping this in mind. I make sure that my students are aware that with a major in a foreign language, they have the ability to demonstrate more cultural awareness and sensitivity for other cultures.
6. Acquiring linguistic proficiency can be the means for you to develop the following skills:
   • Capability to interpret cultural issues fluently and analytically,
   • Significant command of grammar and vocabulary,
   • Advanced questioning and responding proficiency,
   • Advanced capability of translating documents,
   • Ability to systematize detailed information,
   • Acquiring phonetic proficiency in another language.
7. Educators and schools need to emphasize the fact that classroom educational knowledge must be supplemented and enhanced with practical experiences as they foster innovative, critical and analytical thinking,  and allow students to develop deft communication skills, so that they are able to face complexity and ambiguity, applying knowledge in unfamiliar situations. Education can no longer be just about memorizing and taking standardized tests, and if our educational system doesn’t engage students actively and doesn’t train students to adapt their minds to new learning situations throughout their lives, then we are not doing our job.

– Kanishk Sen

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