WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION!

WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION!
(Hey Teacher, Let Those Kids Away; they are enrolled in an expensive tutorial!)

Ganga Prasad G. Rao
http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar

India is a strange land. Despite all the hue and cry about equal opportunity and equal-access, schooling remains distinctly and unabashedly inequitable. The vast majority of government schools and schools funded by the local Corporation/Municipality serve the masses and generally represent the lowest rung in terms of resource availability and quality of teaching. Then, in order of increasing quality, there are government-aided schools, convent schools, private schools and international schools. While schools are required to, and indeed, favor students from within their locality, the fact that school quality and property prices are correlated, implies that good schools are located in pricey residential localities. Unstated is the fact that good schools are for the children of the rich (or exceptionally intelligent poor who have the time and means to ferry their child to the school located in a different precinct). After all, birds of a feather flock together (and the poor are afflicted with communicable diseases). Convenient excuse!

And what goes for education in ordinary schools is nothing short of an abomination. Schools do schedule subjects, activities and exams, but the emphasis, and even the intent, is on remembering just enough to tick off the right answer or answer T/F and secure a grade that satisfies both the Principal and the parents. Did the child really comprehend what was taught? Did she think about the material and learn from it? Were the questions repeated from the class work or home work notebook to ensure a high grade? Do students use the library (Does the school even have a library and what is its annual budget)? No one cares, and I mean, surprisingly, most parents as well. Children who correctly answer questions on hygiene at school care two hoots when it comes to observing them at home. After all, they remembered to answer correctly only because they were made to write it 5 times over. 'Hit the books' is now archaic. Check out your practice exam instead! Isn't that a troubling sign of the malaise in our education system? Schooling is more a formality in the business of money-making than a journey of knowledge that readies the child to win his future. Little wonder we have entrance examinations following matriculation and senior school public examinations. And what do parents do for their wards? Send them to expensive tutorial colleges! Why, it is not uncommon to find students enrolled simultaneously in a school/college (for the 'formality' of a formal degree) and a tutorial college (to secure a rank in professional course entrance exams). Of course, the tutorial colleges make no bones about their purpose. They ensure success by calling upon the services of college lecturers who find it more remunerative to earn their livelihood at the tutorial than in the lecture room boycotted by students! Bottomline: 12 years of schooling, and even a medical/engineering seat, but with little or no learning, originality, creativity or discipline or for that matter, appreciation for books, knowledge and perfection. (Much to my chagrin, employers are already lined up for these students before they put in their applications for professional courses!) Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of the education!

Well, Quo Vadis? (Where do we go now? Where do we go now? Hmm, where did I hear that?) How about a 24-member National Commission for Rehabilitation of the Educationally Disadvantaged? Or a Quota for the 'Schooled yet Backward Class'!!! But Seriously, shouldn't we put the horse before the cart? How about a joint parent-teacher evaluation of the child's progress so parents have a stake in their child's progress and so the child learns to behave and read at home? Why not include student and parent evaluations of teacher in determining their salary raise? Or a 'Parent Appreciation Lecture' program that enables parents to lecture students in an area of their choice on a weekly basis? And, a 'school ladder' program that encourages the truly intelligent, talented and hard-working among students by granting them 'school upgrades' irrespective of their financial or social background?

Now, that would do a whole lot of good!

ps: Shall we instead sing 'maine chand aur sitaaron ki tammanna ki thi; mujh ko exam me passing grade ke siwa kuch na mila....????!!!