Many resourceful young people feel the need
to enhance and enrich the education that is being dished out in schools.
India does not have a system of education,”
proclaimed Prof. Krishna Kumar in his recent talk on “Teaching the Indian
Constitution” at a conference in Kolkata. “We have a system of examinations —
not education,” he clarified to an audience, which nodded and hummed in total
agreement. He then lamented the complete dependence of teachers on textbooks.
Teachers, he had observed, perceived that teaching meant explaining the text.
The teachers in the audience protested, saying that the textbooks were so
content-heavy that there was no scope for anything else in the classroom. The
questions that were usually set in the board exams were factual and the
teachers had to prepare students accordingly, so that they could get the
all-important examination scores on which hinged their reputation as competent
teachers.
After this telling introduction, the
professor proceeded to share a classroom strategy that he had adopted to teach
the Indian Constitution to young teacher trainees in the B.El.Ed. course. He
said that he was aware that all school students were taught the framework and
making of the Indian Constitution, as it was included in their civics syllabus,
but nobody quite knew exactly what the “drafting” of a constitution entailed.
So he decided to try out a sample of experiential learning by getting his
students to draft a hypothetical will which would accommodate the interests of
every family member while meeting the conditions laid down by the testator. The
trainees learnt firsthand, how differences, discussions and debates are the
prerequisites to the drafting of any document that affected a large number of
people.
It was clearly demonstrated that this was the
way students understand, learn and are ultimately educated — not by cramming
facts and recalling them during an examination. Prof. Kumar reminded the
audience of the late Prof. Yash Pal’s words. He had said we needed to develop
in our young, an “addiction to understanding”. Understanding will certainly not
be attained through our examination-oriented system. Therein lies the vacuum
that stares at educators and is eyed by business entrepreneurs.
Many resourceful young people feel the need
to enhance and enrich the education that is being dished out in schools. They
have created products and services which are truly commendable. However, there
are many who having smelt the opportunity to make a lot of money, and try to
capture the education market with gimmicky marketing strategies. Many
institutions fall for these ploys, but happily pass on the costs to parents who
will invest any amount to ensure a bright future for their offspring. The
“education business” is thriving because the education vacuum is real. Also, it
must be remembered that as in healthcare, there is no recession in education.
Hence, there are multiple business enterprises which jostle each other to enter
the education field and fill the vacuum.
To take it chronologically — there are
educational toys and games for the very young while for older students
“fruitful educational experiences” that a regular school does not give, are on
offer. There are packages to teach reasoning and logic, online programmes for
middle-school students to improve mathematical skills and others to develop an
interest in science. Now there is a proliferation of robotics courses.
Programmes to develop critical, imaginative and creative thinking and
communication skills have existed for some years. Mention must be made of
educational excursions, in the course of which children can “immerse themselves
in a special experience” while travelling, whether in India or overseas. “We
are offering the opportunity to include immersive and experiential global
perspective learning in your classrooms,” says one such organisation.
It has been widely noticed that a combination
of IIT and IIM talent always enhances the value of an educational product in
the eyes of a potential customer. “Discover the genius within your child”, says
the brochure of a company which is run by IIT-IIM alumni. Another company
promises to teach kindergarten students lateral thinking, creativity and
problem-solving, thereby developing “critical skill-sets”. There are assessment
tools created by companies who know that forward-looking schools and discerning
parents are interested in knowing how their students and offspring stand
academically in the global scenario. They know well that the board examination
results neither indicate a student’s cerebral powers nor his or her ability to
pursue higher studies in reputed universities across the world. Since teachers
usually set questions following the board “pattern”, schools engage the
services of educational firms that not only customise test papers for different
levels but also give proper feedback to the teachers in the form of pie-charts
and graphs to indicate the understanding of each student of every topic and sub
topic. The intention is to guide teachers as well as students through the
entire syllabus without leaving any gaps in the teaching-learning process.
With all this expert external help, one would
have thought that the students are actually “learning to learn”. But alas, the
vacuum is still not filled completely. Indeed, students are learning to answer
intelligently framed questions (in addition to the ones that demand simple
recall), but they are not motivated to ask probing questions. In other words,
their intellectual curiosity is not being aroused through these tools. They are
merely being helped to engage with the material more actively and thus understanding
it better. However, even this advantage is soon lost, once they enter the last
phase of their school life — the secondary and higher secondary stages — in the
course of which students are required to take two board exams. These last four
years of school are devoted not only to preparing for the Class 10 and 12
“boards” but also the all-India competitive exams to get admission in different
professional schools — of medicine, engineering, architecture, law and design.
Consequently, meaningful exploration and genuine learning come to a grinding
halt.
Thus, despite the attempts of resourceful
entrepreneurs, it appears that until we replace our current examination system
with a proper education system, the education vacuum is here to stay.
Source | https://www.asianage.com/
Regards
Mr. Pralhad
Jadhav
Master of
Library & Information Science (NET Qualified)
Research
Scholar (IGNOU)
Senior
Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
& Co
Mobile @
9665911593
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