We have been struggling hard to find out a way to ensure that our kids grow up as good humans and give them the best education. But unfortunately our system is so flawed that we are ourselves confused, so let alone what goes through an immature child’s mind.
Recently, Greg chappel criticized the Indian team and culture, telling that we cannot produce leaders, and our parents and teachers decide what we are and what we end up. Though his comment may irk ultra-nationalists, it is time to ponder what he meant. It is so true that we grow up listening to some stories of a few successful individuals, but hardly have they become our role models or we never try to emulate them. We ultimately fall prey to some weird fantasy, though our parents advise us that they felt is best for us, we probably still might end up being in the wrong boat.
I hear that we study one of the most difficult syllabus compared to an average kid of a different country, (Again, I am not an educationist or a teacher and I have very limited knowledge about education). An ex-colleague of mine, who was a South African expressed surprise when I told him that we have learnt about SA’s Kilimanjaro diamond mines in the school. But at the same time, we also read reports that we hardly produce employable graduates. Our system is harsh on not so "intelligent" kids, The best schools only admit the "best" students and have them mug up the entire text book word by word, reproduce in the exam hall and these become the blue eyed boys of the parents, teachers and the society. We are not in a position to find the hidden talent in any kid. Like a teacher said in an orientation program, every kid is unique and we need to find out what is her/his real talent.
Modern parents want their child to be engineers or doctors. A good engineer cannot be a good doctor and vice-versa. A lot of my classmates who were just average and not a typical teacher’s pet are all well settled in high paying and respectable jobs, they are neither engineers nor doctors.
We learnt calculus, trigonometry, history, Geography, English poems etc, but none of us knew why do we learn those, what are the practical applications of these? Indeed if education emphasized on the practical uses of these topics children would have found it interesting and would do well.
And again our evaluation system is flawed; we simply give importance to objective type answers where children with little practice score well.
I feel, we need to emphasize on grammar, debates, essay writing, leadership, drama and most importantly "Moral Science" must be a main stream subject. It must be taught atleast till 10th, let the kids learn inspirational stories, let them love and not look down upon the poor, needy, weak and disabled.
We have one of the most brilliant academicians, teachers who can inspire, student counselors in our society. Using their inputs, it is high time that the whole system is revamped.
