The most complicated education System in the whole wide world pushed
solely by money and social status ... welcome to India where money alone
drives the chariot of success. Here the poor go to 'easy schools' where
they study in their respective vernaculars and finally drop out all
perplexed; and the well-heeled go to the affluent Schools where money
does the homework trick! Taa-daa!!!
Rich School Scenario:
I feel angry at times thinking about it. No one is sitting idle.
Mr.Sibal has done a great favour by introducing the Grading System in
CBSE schools. At least till 2008 a student used to study sincerely
for the fear of exams.Now, an entire year of being a bum pays you off
with a 10point CGPA in 10th and 12th grades! That is really unfair to the
hardworking ones. Moreover if such a system has come into play, it
should have been applied onto the ICSE and the Regional Schools as
well. Thankfully it didn't, atleast some kids still study sincerely and
'earn' their marks.
Poor School Scenario:
Calamitous state of affairs prevail at the regional school level.
Tribal education as usual remains dead-neglected. Records collected in
schools in some areas indicate continuing high "dropout" rates among
tribal children. A major reason for this is that in most states the
medium of instruction is the regional language. Most tribal children do
not understand the textbooks, which are generally in the regional
language. The appointment of non-tribal teachers in tribal children’s
schools is another problem: the teachers do not know the language the
children speak and children do not understand the teacher’s language!
There
are over 193million children in the age of 6-14 in India. Out of which
hardly 20% are getting a hassle free childhood and a proper 'paid'
education. What about the rest? As i figured out, some steps like
providing textbooks in the mother tongue for children at the beginning
of the primary education cycle, when they do not understand the regional
language; a suitably adapted curriculum for later classes and the
availability of locally relevant teaching and learning materials for the
backward children etc. can be easily taken up by the Government to be
implemented on a 'fast-track' basis so that the book reaches the child
when he is 4 and not when he is 40 and tilling a field somewhere :-/
Another question that arises is that why can't a young
mind be trained to study English? Research proves that if a child is in
a stimulating environment, he/she can have upto 25% greater ability to
learn. After all humans are 'born' with the ability to learn any
language, and learning more languages help in cognitive development. A
3-year-old toddler's brain is twice as active as
an adult's brain. Then why can't a uniformly structured education system
be provided in all schools across the country? In simple words, make
all schools English Medium. A child can opt for 2 more languages
depending on his/her own choice. Give more stress on language. Once his
foundation on all three languages is strong enough, divide the
classes based on what other subject the child wants to take up viz.
Sciences and Mathematics,the Social Sciences, Technical training or
combinations of these.
If structuring the existing complicated system is so difficult,
at-least a revised version adopted from elsewhere should be implemented
on the new entrants (4yr olds) for a 10 year period to identify the
outcome which i bet will be thousand fold better than what it is now! A
very evident example is the German Education System which undoubtedly is
the best in the world. In German Schools, education from ages 6-14 is
mandatory and free as well. (Of-course, providing free education for all
in our nation is out of question as the Ministry will be deprived of
filling up their coffers with the spills from corruption, duh!) Never
mind, as I was telling, In Germany all the children enter the same
program at age-4, but at age 10 the real 'branching out' happens where
their track record determines which type of school they ought to enter
and further on whether they can opt for a university/technical
education/trading. This is a fair way of judging a child's capabilities;
a uniform grooming and evaluation filters out the ones which are meant
for University Qualifications irrespective of their family s' status as
the child has an option of training and part time schooling right from
age 11.
Whats gonna happen to our children? In our times, we were confused only after 12th as Medical and Engineering seemed to be the only decent options for the Science stream kids. I don't know what kind of confusion the current 12th pass outs are going to face. I am worried. :-|
Gosh I need to zip it and shut up right now! Enuf of nibbling your brains. Buh-Bye and Keep thinking ...
