July 2, 2009 at 17:23:07

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A New Hope Of Life For Our Ailing Education System

By Shobha Shukla - Citizen News Service (CNS), Posted by Bobby Ramakant (about the submitter)     Page 1 of 1 page(s)

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For OpEdNews: Posted by Bobby Ramakant - Writer

A New Hope Of Life For Our Ailing Education System
- Shobha Shukla

It is heartening to note that the [Indian] Ministry of Human Resource Development
(HRD), under the able guidance of Sri. Kapil Sibal, wishes to overhaul
the education system in the country. It envisages replacing marks with
grades (already been done by some Boards), having a 'one nation -one
board principle (an excellent idea), and bringing a tough law to
prevent, prohibit and punish educational malpractices (very laudable,
indeed).

So
the air is seeded with well intentioned reform clouds getting ready to
burst upon our sick education system. Whether they will infuse the much
needed new life to it, or drown it, is what we need to ponder on. Very
often, the erudite reformers take a blinkered view of the scenario,
while sitting in their ivory towers. So it is important to initiate a
nation wide debate on this issue, inviting not only heads of Indian
Institutes of Technology (IITs) and higher institutes of learning, but
persons at the grass roots' level too, that is the teachers and parents
and students from different strata of society, who will be the direct
beneficiaries or losers in the process of revamp. A mere scrapping of
the class X board exam or introducing the grade system would mean poor
cosmetic changes, without addressing the more vital problems.

Reforms
need to begin at the lowest rung of ladder, viz. the primary level. It
is at this stage that the child needs to be free from stress and the
monster that a teacher/school is made out to be. With an increasing
number of women joining the work force, the utility of play schools
cannot be denied. But unfortunately, despite their mushrooming number,
they are in the unorganized sector, with hardly any standards of
quality control. The Honourable Minister would do well to strike at the
grass roots, so that play schools do not become a mere extension of the
'learning by rote' system. It is here (and later in the primary
classes) that the child can be introduced to environment protection,
good hygiene habits, healthy food habits and communing with nature, in
a very subtle manner, without the use of the written word. This becomes
all the more important as parents find less quality time to spend with
their kids. Corporate houses and government offices would do well to
have such a 'home away from home' on their premises. This is one of the
best ways to discharge their social accountability duties.

The
primary level stage is the next one which is again largely into private
hands. Education, for them, is big business, at least in the urban
areas. Almost every other house in any locality has a board proclaiming
to offer the best facilities (through English Medium) to a four year
old child in the form of 'computer education', general knowledge etc.
Very few boast of any sort of a play field. People, from even the lower
middle class families, send their children to these schools, where they
virtually learn nothing, by way of the three 'R's, even on reaching class V.

The
situation could be slightly better in the missionary and public
schools, the latter charging hefty fees. Computer is the buzzword these
days. Parents do not seem to be interested in letting their child enjoy
a carefree and happy childhood. Instead they want them to be store
houses of crammed facts and figures. It is at the primary level that we
can inculcate good moral and social values in the child as also a love
and respect for nature and fellow human beings. Some schools score very
high on this, but they are few and far between. One of my relative's
daughter studies in class three in a reputed Parsi school of Mumbai .
At this young age she sees to it that there is no wastage of
water/electricity in her house and that garbage is reutilized as far as
possible. She is totally against junk food and aerated drinks. And she
has effortlessly imbibed all these values from her school, which have
now become part of her psyche. At this tender age, it is easy to mould
the young characters as they look up to their teachers and try their
best to emulate them. If they are made environmentally conscience at
this stage, there will be no need to 'Study' Environmental Education as
a subject in higher classes (so many of us are up in arms against this
additional burden of having to memorize another subject with no
tangible benefits). And please, let us not replace the play ground with
the computer lab. The irreparable harms of this are already there for
all of us to see.

Surely
till class V there should be no exams. This is the time to arouse the
curiosity and hone the natural talents of the child. Interests in fine
arts like music, dance, painting (so very important and so much
neglected) will help to ignite their imagination, encourage their
creativity, and groom them for a well balanced personality. There is
much more (and better) to life at this stage than being adept at
handling the computer and reciting dialogues from television programmes
of the cartoon network. Reading (apart from textbooks) is another habit
which has taken a backstage, thanks to the absurd notion that 'any
activity which doesn't fetch high marks is a waste of time.' The
intangible benefits of a love for reading are far too many and stand by
us life long.

With
the number of obese children on the rise, it is also important to
emphasize on healthy eating habits and physical exercises and a love
for nature. And I can say with certainty that all this is very much
possible, if we have the will to do so.

Of
course, we need specialized educators at the primary level to ensure a
proper and balanced development of the child. It should be mandatory
for schools to have play fields, airy class rooms with not more than 30
children to a teacher, compulsory yoga, and music and painting
activities under competent teachers. The number of schools following
these practices is abysmally small. If all schools follow these basic
stipulations then parents would not seek specialized coaching of their
child, from private tutors, to succeed at the interview for admission
to nursery class in a school of their choice. It may seem grotesquely
absurd, but such tuitions are immensely popular in urban areas.

The
menace of 'coaching institutes' is another area, which needs immediate
attention. If it is stopped, the students will be able to manage their
time better and be de stressed. Gone are the days when taking private
tuitions was a sign of the student's incompetence. There is big money
in coaching these days and nowadays it seems to be a matter of
prestige, rather than necessity, to join one. Parents feel it is part
of their parental duty to send their ward for private tuitions, right
from Class I to Class XII, whether there is actual need of it or not.
Obviously the child will be stressed due to paucity of time, having to
manage 'two study shifts'.

Several
of my class 12 students admitted that they joined some coaching centre
more out of peer/parental pressure. But once the heavy fees were paid
they kept on wasting their time without improving their education
levels at all. Incidentally, most of such students fare poorly at their
Board Exams and also fail to qualify for a good professional institute.
They would do much better if left to themselves, provided their
teachers in school are sincere. Some state governments have tried, (but
failed), to uproot this menace in the past. But the education/coaching
mafia has such strong tentacles that nothing short of a strong diktat
can deter them. This is one field where the HRD ministry needs to do some thing drastic.

At
the middle school and secondary/higher secondary level again, it is a
good idea to have a uniform pattern of education throughout the
country, with some lee way given for regional modifications. But there
should be just one examining body/board for the class XII level
examinations. It will not make much of a difference if the class X
board examination is
scrapped, or the marks are replaced by a grade point system. The
gradation in marking will and must remain. It is only the allotted
marks that are changed to grades and some examining bodies are doing it
already. But it does not make much sense to make the class X board examination optional. Either it should be there or not there. Else it will create more traumatic discrimination in the students.

What
is more important is to revamp the examination system. At present it
seems to be more of a farcical comedy than a serious exercise. There is
an absurd emphasis, right from school authorities, to parents and
students to get high marks. So much so that the latter are encouraged
to cheat and score well by hook or by crook. The undeserving students
stand to gain, at every step of the process. These days the teacher is
always held responsible /accountable for good results, but rarely for
the good conduct of her pupils. Many school managements encourage
students to cheat, (particularly in the practical examinations),
use unfair means and score high marks. Students obviously are no longer
ashamed to cheat. They feel rather proud at having hoodwinked the
authorities. There are numerous cases where parents have withdrawn
their child from a particular school (after Class X) as the management
did not guarantee to her full marks in Class XII Practical examinations.
They preferred to send their ward to one which delivered these goods.
So much for the moral character of the so called 'character builders'.

But my contention is – why have such a system which encourage one to cheat and get away with it with impunity.

At
present, every Board is trying to outdo the other by way of giving high
marks (by diluting the marking scheme), and not by way of imparting
quality education. We have students getting 100% marks in subjects like
English, Hindi and Economics. Yet their knowledge of the subject is
abysmally poor. The system of conducting practical exams in the Science
subjects is fraught with aberrations and needs to be seriously revamped.

Exams
should not be an ordeal, but make students capable of tackling
pressures of life, without getting affected psychologically. Stress is
an over hyped and fashionable word these days. The media has
contributed to this stress factor in a big way, by making much ado
about nothing. It is ridiculous to see students being interviewed
before and after taking the Board Exams. It is pathetically amusing to
see parents (particularly fathers) discussing the entire question paper
with their ward as soon as she/he comes out of the examination hall.
What is worse is the anguish and discomfort writ large on the face of
the child at this 'childish' behaviour of the parent. I have witnessed
such scenes very often during the course of my invigilation duties for
Class XII examinations. It is such irresponsible behavorial attitudes
which increase the stress levels of the students and not the actual
exams

Some
stress is necessary for all of us. Human beings are generally said to
perform better under stress. Too much of dilution will make life
insipid and unpalatable, in the same way as over stress will crush it
completely. It is more important to impart life skills to our students.
We should neither molly coddle nor suppress them. They have to be made
competent enough to face the challenges of life; not to be deterred by
failures; to accept success with grace and not brashness. They should
not feel happy in walking with the crutches of their parents'
power/position. Rather they have to learn to earn their place in
society by rightful means.

All
this cannot be achieved without the cooperation of the teachers. There
needs to be more accountability and better compensation in the teaching
profession. It is only the government schools which implement fully any
pay scale revisions for teachers. Yet they are notorious for under
performance. Private schools (including missionary schools) maintain
better standards, but their teachers are grossly underpaid, especially
those teaching the higher classes. They always cite paucity of funds as
a major problem. The HRD Ministry would do a yeoman's service if it
applies the 'equal pay for equal work' policy and makes a sincere
effort to remove these discriminatory anomalies. Of course, higher
financial benefits will have to be matched with better performances on
part of the teacher community. They will also have to utilize their
expertise and energy for teaching in class and not in coaching centres.

It
is true that achieving this (or even some part of it) involves getting
across many hurdles-political as well as logistic. Already there are
loud voices of disagreement coming from some states. But instead of
being carried away by populist measures, the 'powers that be' should
don their thinking caps to figure out how to make it happen. A sensible
education policy is in the interest of the students, parents and
teachers-- in fact the entire nation.

Shobha Shukla

(The author is the Editor of Citizen News Service
(CNS) and also teaches Physics at India's prestigious Loreto Convent.
Email: shobha@citizen-news.org, website: www.citizen-news.org)

 

 

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