This is a well written article, expressing the concern of all parents about the age old pattern of schooling that is being
followed in India. It is well begun with how the author realises this problem when she and her mother sits down to help her nephew with his studies. She finds nothing has changed as far as the contents, the way they are taught and the way students are evaluated over the years since she herself was in school.
When in the world over, research is being conducted to bring qualitative enhancement of content and delivery, it is strange that we here continue with our traditional methods. Maybe all the research findings rot in university libraries rather than being put to test or use! Schooling is all about six to seven hours of passive learning in poor school atmosphere, followed by about two hours of repetitive compulsory learning at home or in some coaching centre, which does nothing to kindle or feed the curiosity of the pupils but just feeds them with factual information. Of what use is such schooling?
The author feels the reason for this attitude is that our policy makers work on some
presumptions like the time allotted in schools is sufficient to complete the long list of subjects, which keeps getting lengthened, without any reference to the time; just a standard pre-school training programme would suffice to take care of the entire service of the teachers, when so many things change over the years; all teachers intelligent, motivated enough and have high morale, thus treating teaching as noble and serious profession and the best way to impart this information laden
education is by one-sided lecture sessions to pupils sitting in hard benches for hours together.
The presumptions continue like the children can turn on and off their mental switches as and when the timetable demands or that abstract ideas written in unexciting language without experiential learning will help the child or that paper and pencil testing on a narrow range of educational objectives is the true test of learning. Such presumptions have created a make-believe world where parents, students and teachers expect high returns just by increasing the number of subjects.
Education is commercialised and students with just 40% marks too get admitted to colleges. Teachers are rarely put to test or trained on latest trends; syllabus is rarely reviewed keeping in view latest educational books and evaluation systems have hardly been modified or fine tuned. To achieve all this the teachers around the world need to be networked. Henry Adams has rightly said, ‘Nothing in education is more astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.’ The author has suggested that the content should be properly graded, repetitions avoided and enough opportunities for the development of the head, heart and the hand be provided. Instead of just feeding information theoretically, activities should be planned. Cross-curricular approach using the same content to teach various subjects will go a long way in making learning interesting in the lower classes.
Instead of sticking to the names like History, Geography, Civic and Science for subjects, thrust should be given to ‘life skills’ in a holistic manner, which will definitely help the students to adapt to the environment better. The school curriculum should help ample scope to the students to develop proper work habits, independent learning, decision-making, critical thinking and social skills.
If the present system of education is blindly followed, we will be left with children who have all the facts but no intelligence!