Education Reforms In India

I assume that you have heard about the decision of the Government making 10th standard examinations optional. However, students are required to appear for the same in their respective schools. Students and examiners must have heaved a sigh of relief. We might tend to support this decision only considering the the fact that students would now be relieved from being subject to the pressures of competition at least for one more year. But does this make sense? No.

As a matter of fact, students would now have to face significant competition, not just after two years from this event (10th standard examinations), and that too, not just for one examination but too several and for years thereafter. The greatest fear that I, as a concerned observer have in mind, is that Schools will now mechanically pass students in the examination whether or not they possess the necessary competence. Instead of moving to such an extreme situation in a single step, the Government could have opted for a step-by-step approach and opted for a format with objective-type examination format in the first phase. My concern arises from the premise that if the system is unable to throw up truly meritorious student to start with, it is unlikely that the same students can bear the pressure after 12th standard which defines the direction to the career of a Student, when she/he is required to opt for a particular stream, viz., Arts, Commerce or Science.

Since I have initiated a discussion on this topic I would like to suggest some changes in the education system and teaching methods in the country.

First and foremost, we should move away from making “Pariksharthi”(parrots) to “Vidyarthi”(learners) students and this can be achieved as follows:

1) Introduction of subjects that add moral values and self-discipline in students could be made compulsory.

2) Monthly guest lectures involving lecturers from outside the teaching community and from the real world must be invited to interact with students on at least a monthly basis. This would make students aware about the common problems/issues and also will help them in gaining practical knowledge outside the education world.

3) There should be a motivational lecture every month to avoid boredom and depression amongst students. Such lectures from a motivational expert would also help guide them in pursuing their career goals and in personality building.

4) Sports should be important part of the curriculum with special emphasis on creating future sportsmen. After all, real business can only thrive on good sportsman spirit.

5) Subjects such as History, Geography, Physics, Biology and Chemistry should be taught with the aid of audio-visuals and clay models so as to create a real “see-touch-feel” experience and a sense of curiosity and quicker learning among students. Also, there should be only objective-type question papers for these subjects.

6) Every student should be encouraged to give at least 5 minute speech in any language in front of all students of a class.

7) Assessment should be in terms of grades and not percentage marks.

The main theme is to simplify the teaching pattern & assessment of the students. Technology has improved a long ago, but still we are practicing the same old tradition of teaching. The Board (Maharashtra Board) has only taken efforts to liberalize the marking system and increasing the percentage of marks scored by the students. But, “Can we think for changing the pattern of teaching to nourish and create the future of India?” as we all know that there is dearth of students in Science specialisation to carry out research in different fields.

Where India is Heading?

It’s been long break for me to write again in my blog on a new, interesting, heartbreaking and deeply concerned issue which many of us have ignored and are still ignoring and should be given a deep thought by everyone for the benefit of our descendents. The idea for this theme has given by one of the best professors of our college whom I admire and feel proud about. Though there is too much pessimistic (may get real) view in this article but there is a small solution at the end which I can think of. So I will ask my beloved friends to give five minutes of their time to this.

So the topic which touched by one of the student was “Will Indian economy sustain the current growth rate?”

The answer given by the Sir was “No” with reasons which I have mentioned below with the examples he has substantiated to prove the facts.

The Indian Economy is suffering from following worst eight factors which may dampen the growth of our country and we may not feel proud of being an Indian citizen if we not act now.

1) Inflation: The inflation may be a result of following individual or group phenomenon.

    a. Headline: This is the core inflation because of change in the price levels of manufactured products.

    b. Food: Today, everyone knows about this because of the spiralling vegetable prices. The main reasons  behind price hikes are:

         i. Erosion in the soil quality due to exploitation of land by inorganic fertilizers

        ii. Scarcity of Water for irrigation

       iii. Conversion of Fertile land into unproductive land for dwelling and other purposes to satisfy the demand from exploding population

   c. Water: We are polluting our sacred rivers like The Ganges, Narmada, Kaveri, etc. which is resulting into  harming the lives of people who earn their loaf of bread. The States are fighting among themselves for river water for their share which becomes the issue for common people when we don’t get it in hot summers.

    d. Energy: Those living in suburbs can’t even think of living without electricity for even a moment. But, the fact is that the country is facing acute shortage at 13% of peak demand. It will not be far for those who are enjoying the luxury as affording it may be choice for few. We may have to shell out more for the same in future. The next big thing is the supply of resources like Indian coal (very polluting), Imported coal (may become costliest as like Onions), Nuclear (opposition from the locals), Water (States, even our neighbouring countries are fighting for this), Solar (not affordable as of now), Crude oil (The wallet burning issue for everyone) are constraints.

2) Population: Some of us may feel a false proud of being a partner for surpassing China as the world’s most populous country in few years ahead. But, this will not be a good comparison as China is almost 4 times the size of Indian geography and we may have to build Megacities and serving them will be a herculean task in itself.

3) Infrastructure: The Country has body called “Planning Commission” which may have plan for transforming Mumbai into Shanghai and many other cities into like other modern cities, but the implementation may hang up for over decades as there will more petitions in Court rather than searching for solutions/alternatives. And then we will require some more bridges, roads, transport system when we will be actually completing the pending work which will not be able to fulfil the demand requiring at a future date.

4) Corruption: The common man is getting sleepless nights in counting the number of zeros one has stolen from one of his suitcase. Day by day, everyone is competing to score a new high for achieving defamation and even able to manage to rescue himself for a paltry sum or punishment. But, Corruption results in increasing speculation in commodities and spiralling inflation and round tripping of money which again will hurt the common man.

5) Pollution: This again is contentious issue as we think that we did not produce as much emission as of developed countries. Though we are aware of the disastrous consequences, we are harming the biodiversity only to hurt ourselves at the end.

6) Regionalism: The creation of different states is looming as a big threat as once our predecessors has fought for developing a nation called “India” and yet we are not successful in calling ourselves as a son/daughter of India as depicted in the film “Chak De India” (Shahrukh khan refusing the hockey players to be part of Indian Team because of their affection to regionalism). Creation of more states will lead to dividing ourselves into nuclear families and we are aware of the problems faced by such families. This may give benefit to a few but resulting in unnecessary spending on the system to run the show of a New State.

7) Armed Forces Corruption: The image of Army has suffered a setback with “Adarsh Scam” in Mumbai and in many such cases before like Bofors scam, Scam in purchasing jackets for Soldiers in Siachin, etc. This is like “Watchman looting his owner”. How can we feel secured in such a case when we are threatened by our own security guards?

8) Crony Capitalism: This means getting closer to politicians/power and building your house. This results in to widening the gap between rich and poor. This was proved by the recent “Nira Radia Tapes”. Should we regulate the lobbying? Is it beneficial for the Industry or the Nation?

It may be difficult to put my anger in few words over here, but I have tried to make it short and clear. The picture presented above looks murkier, this is just the start of a long process and we need to act as an Individual/Indian Citizen to stop exploitation of our own. This is a long term view and the decaying is happening very slowly without the attention of the stakeholders. One may think that he will get relief from this as this will not hurt him and his children will manage their problem, hence he should continue enjoying his remaining life. But this may not be true as these problems will appear in his lifetime as the pace of occurrence of these events will be much faster in the future. Thus, in order not to see this reality actually occur in our lifetime we need to find solutions for every problem and implement the change acting as a change carrier.

Though there can’t be one solution to solve all these problems at one go. I would like to suggest a solution which I thought would at least serve the purpose in slowing the deterioration and exploitation of The Mother Earth and its Sons/Daughters which will able to heal the root cause.

We need to act on the footsteps, as the proverb says “You reap what you Sow”. This will happen if we follow the good moral standards and imbibe self-discipline. We need understand the importance of Accountability and Responsibility which is the backbone for success of any mission. We always run away from our problems thinking that “Someone” will take birth and will find solution to above problems and lead in the front. But this is impossible to happen and we need start with each individual playing his own part. This will at least help in rooting out corruption which is the main culprit. So, get ready and help me to act along these lines.