Grading Sysytem - Boon Or Bane

The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) has finally taken the plunge and directed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to replace the present system of awarding marks with grades for Class X board examinations from this academic year (21010-2011). Accordingly, the CBSE has also made the Class X board exams for this academic year optional and has advised the schools affiliated with it to convince their students to choose the grading system instead of taking up exams. The response for the grading system is mixed among various stakeholders, such as parents, teachers, and students. The major attraction of this grading system is that it reduces the stress of scoring high marks on the students and they do not have to burn the midnight oil in a bid to score more marks. The parents can also heave a sigh of relief as they no longer have to worry about the marks scored by their children. The grading system addresses the critical issue of increasing student suicidal rate

At times, I am driven to think whether this is a boon or bane to our country. BOON: Turn this into advantage. Hone the skills of manpower and make cheap, skilled workforce and dump the global markets with your products Half of the population is youth meaning India is in its youth - Full of energy and the fire to achieve something. Capitalize this and make India a world leader. Let all Indians be Educated, Well conversant in English - shrink the world to mini-India BANE: Half the population is youth and the average Indian life is increasing. This means after 100 years we will be a country of old ones We may not know, at this growth rate, we might as well have equal number of youth too! The learned or educated families today are having only one kid while the illiterates have multiple kids meaning the share of educated ones is shrinking while the illiterates are on the rise. Abuse of natural resources leading to damage of nature. On particular religion is expanding their base in huge numbers and unfortunately this community is not paying attention to education of their kith and kin. Though we are the nation of the youth, we are led by oldies (our HR dept is led by a man who cannot walk by himself) It is not easy to build a strong educated country if the present system continued. Due to the lop-sided increment in population, the Government is forced to come out with concessions like reservations that push meritocracy to the back seat. The very system of reservation is wrong. If, in its implementation of 50 years, we claim that the backward are still in backward condition, either the system is wrong or the implementation pattern is wrong or those considered backward can never be uplifted. If the system is wrong, why not discontinue it? Why not re-visit the system? I am not against reservation but against the present system. Imagine we are participating in Olympics. The entire world knew that India is poor in athletics. Just to encourage India participate in athletics, can the federation bring in a rule that Indians have to run only 50m instead of 100m sprint? It might sound weird but our present system of reservation is similar to this.

Provide reservation facility to one person per family. Members of the same family should not avail this facility generation after generation. If one member of the family had availed it, then only the 3rd generation can avail this facility provided they had not really uplifted. Provide the reservation facility only once in his career (either in SSC or in HSC or in College or in employment or in promotion). Unlike the present system where reservation is given from birth to death, we should provide this only once. Simply by providing opportunities, one cannot develop. It sounds as if we provided bats to people, we can make many Tendulkars. The basic problem lies with the lack of primary education at rural areas. At the outset, the Govt should bring out some concrete plans in starting primary education centers all over India. This can be possible if we had enough teachers for this. Unfortunately, teaching profession has no takers. To have a strong foundation in education, the teacher to student ratio should be less than 40~35. The government should encourage the profession of teaching. As on date, teaching is the last resort of the boring house-wives in India. The pay packet is not lucrative and hence this profession is not sought by a common man. Those who are in the profession are here either by desperation or they did not have another option.

------

Exams - Boon or Bane?

MONDAY, 15 MARCH 2010 16:59 USHASRI PONNAGANTI

Examinations! Its a constant thought on the young impressionable minds of children, more so now with stiff competition from all quarters. A thought that weighs so heavy on the minds of some, that all else is lost; sometimes even life! For not fault of theirs! Is it peer pressure or parental pressure or pressure at school to always

perform well?! A thought that has been moulded right from their childhood with this on their head - Perform or Perish. That is, perform well in all kinds of exams, throughout the year with no respite for the young school-going children. The present system of higher education does not serve the purpose for which it has been started. In general, education itself to some extent, has become so business like, that quality is getting lost in the increase of quantity of institutions. It is a case of the Indian Education Systems use of 'teaching methodology' as against the western style of 'learning methodology'. Under teaching methodology the emphasis is on the teacher completing the given syllabus. The learning methodology is less of teaching and more of learning - self study, group studies, assignments, case studies etc. Education should inspire one to become something one really wants to; it should make you free, make you experiment, make you ask questions. Education should be for the flowering of personality but not for the suppression of creativity or natural skill. Ultimately, it should make you realize what you are. Come March and it is that time of the year when the Exam fever is on. We spoke to a select audience who are involved with exams, in one way or another, to know their viewpoint. Yogendra K Gurwara, Director, Sherwood Public School, Secunderabad & Heritage Valley - The Indian School, Shadnagar Every child is born with confidence, free of any type of fear. God does not send any human being to this earth with fear or stress. Rather, he sends them with courage and confidence to explore this world. A child develops fear from adults, knowingly or unknowingly. It is not the competition that brings stress. The way the word competition is used with innocent children brings stress and fear in their minds. I can classify competition as Unhealthy Competition and Healthy Competition. Unhealthy Competition leads to stress and creates fear in the mind of children; that is I versus You with negative thoughts (jealousy or ill feelings). Healthy Competition means I versus I with confidence or even in the case of I versus You, it is with positive thoughts; to learn from others. This habit of taking examination with confidence is to be developed from childhood. Tests, examinations, competitions are part of the curriculum for a purpose. The purpose is the growth of the individual. Tests and examinations are two different aspects. Tests are given to diagnose the areas of difficulties faced by the child in different subjects and activities and then to suggest remedial steps through individual attention. Examination is the end product. The main job of the school and the parents is to give confidence to children that the tests and examinations are given to help them and not to find fault or humiliate them. We, the adults, forget that the child lives for today and not for tomorrow. Let him take care of today first, let him develop the habit of facing the challenges of today first, the future challenges will be faced at ease. We at our school use the following sentences to give confidence to children, to help them to take care of the present; a bright future will follow automatically. - No Problems, Only Challenges: The word problem gives fear. The word challenge gives confidence. - Let children be what they are and not what we want them to be. To all the children in the country who are taking internal or board examination - please remember the following fact; God is giving you an opportunity to take this examination to introspect yourself. Take this examination with positive thoughts and confidence. Life is not over after taking this examination but the real life starts after you take this examination with confidence. Kumar Agarwal, Director, DRS International School Whats your view on exams and stress (if any) that is associated with? Exam is an assessment of the students understanding. It not only helps the teacher but also the students to self evaluate. Pressure is always created due to expectations of teachers, parents, educational institutions and peers. The pressure is more hyped then it actually is. How do you think competition has changed over the years, for students? Competition first is competing with self; that is bettering our previous best. But sadly now students not only compete with other students but their teachers, school and parents also have joined the competition. Is exam stress something that students have to deal with, all the time? Well, if exam is conducted to assess the understanding of the student and his skill there would be no stress at all. When we break our learning modules, why not tests!! Do we learn A to Z on the same day? Unless the teacher and child are sure that ABC is understood how can they move forward to DEF? It always has to be an ongoing assessment and the purpose has to be clear. Has the concept of healthy competition changed nowadays? Competition will always remain and will keep changing with times. It is always healthy if you play it by rules. Do you think parents are pressuring their children to perform well? Though parents today are a lot more aware the pressure that the society puts in makes many parents give in. It is embarrassing for many parents when questions about their childs academic performance are asked. Everyone wants their child to be called a genius and hence comparison. The school should play a major role in educating the parents on the childs individuality and pros and cons of comparison. Is the current system too much of an education influx at once? It can never be too much if the knowledge is delivered in the right way and at the right time. What initiative or measures do you think schools could undertake to help ease exam stress for students? The exam model and question paper model can differ from school to school but if the purpose is same and that is for the betterment of the student, it is just perfect.

Any tips / suggestions that you could give on how not to get bogged down by exam fever. RELAX. Exams are only a medium and not the destination. Do not fall prey to any pressure. Be in the best of your spirits and enjoy the process as only happy minds can perform effectively.

Anjum Babu Khan, Director - Education, Glendale Academy International; Educationist & Parenting Facilitator Whats your view on exams and stress (if any) that is associated with it? Test-taking anxiety or stress is very common among students. It can be very distressing and often students find they get good course grades but come exam time, their grades drop! This could be because of either poor exam preparation techniques and/or stress levels becoming too high. Assessment is best when it is multifaceted and on a continual basis rather than just exams. Its a well-established fact that the brain does not function to its optimum capacity under stress. How do you think competition has changed over the years, for students? We have a huge population but our attitude towards competitions varies from school to school and student to student depending on demographics. In todays global scenario competition is inevitable and yes, its a very competitive world. It is one of the prime objectives of schools to prepare the students to fearlessly face the challenges and not shy away from them. Is exam stress something that students have to deal with, all the time? Stress can be both helpful by becoming a fuel that powers one overcome obstacles or it can be harmful if it wears one down. Thus, stress is a part of life but the approach towards it can make one a learner for life or otherwise. Has the concept of healthy competition changed nowadays? Some children live in highly competitive families and achieve in many activities, but winning needs perspective. Its good for kids to value excellence as long as they dont feel valued only for their excellence. When rewards are minimized, competitions can be fun. They can accentuate skill-building and strategy-building, teach teamwork, teach ways to identify personal goals, and provide ways to develop criteria for success. Do you think parents are pressuring their children to perform well? Parenting help is one of the most crucial things that can help children relieve their stress. A parent should say, If you've done your best, that's all I can ask. Whatever your results are, I'll still love you. What initiatives or measures do you think schools could undertake to help ease exam stress for students? Many schools believe that 'Exams are a rite of passage and dealing with exam stress is part of the process of maturing'. At the same time the teacher should be approachable and the student should never be afraid asking for help, its what the teachers are there for. Any tips / suggestions that you could give on how not to get bogged down by exam fever. Good food, sleep, relaxed mood, exercise, breathing deeply to stay calm, staying positive, mentally rehearsing what is about to happen prepares the body and mind for the stressful event and not to panic.

Nirmala Diaz, Founder Trustee, Sloka - The Hyderabad Waldorf School Sloka believes in an age-appropriate education which nurtures the imagination and creativity of the child. We believe that learning is for life and not just for exams. The teaching is caring and child-centered and is introduced in a way that children find lessons interesting and memorable. Teachers take pains focusing on individual needs of children; this gives each child an appropriate sense of self and confidence to face lifes challenges. The bond between the teacher and the child is a very strong force for learning. This begins right from the KG years where the child learns through a deep rooted imitation of life; through walk, talk. They learn to do their motor skills. Both conscious and unconscious repetition and the rhythm of the day, week, month and year are very important for the childs health. It connects the child to the world around. Festivals and seasons are celebrated which help them become a part of the rhythms of life. A detailed report is given to the parents which talks about the childs social, development skills etc. whether they like singing or doing something. Teachers are more accessible which helps parents and teachers work together. The same teacher accompanies child from Grade 1 to Grade 6 which gives the teacher an overall picture of the childs needs and overall development, strengths, weaknesses. We have the main lesson block each day which is for two hours for a day for a month, there are nine such blocks in a year; it begins with rhythmic movement for 40 minutes, then drawing, then writing the lesson. It balances the three things i.e. willing, feeling, thinking - hands, heart & head. This keeps the child alert and interested; something that sitting in front of a black board fails to do. Class 4 onwards there are recall tests (written) after the main lesson block (they are not marked or graded). This is just to access the childs grasp of the lesson. This also helps the teacher to access her own teaching. There are no textbooks. From Class 8 childrens tests are graded just to keep them prepared with the grading system that happens beyond 10th, outside Sloka. We try to bring out the individuality of the each child and give them the confidence to nurture themselves and we advise parents to be patient and help nurture what the child wants to do. They need to be encouraged to do their best. The role of the teacher is to appreciate and nurture the child. The genius is within the child and we only facilitate it to come out. We have to be observant and help the child shine. We want them to have a love for learning. What is an exam - it is just another challenge to be faced and you need to do it well. You cant undervalue it. Life has to be a journey of discovering for each child. For a parent to believe that my child can and have the faith and work with the child, will help the child. Ummadi Pattabhi Ramiah, Former Teacher, Nampally High School; Advocate

In India education is elevated as a fundamental right of every citizen. But the subject of education comes under the purview of states and not the centre. Education is of various types - general education, school education, higher education and professional education - this became the cause and disease for un-uniform patterns. The policy of liberalization, privatization and globalization impacted the types of education patterns - surfacing conflicts in quality, standard, cost and excellence too. This apart, multitude cultures, languages, scripts and social plus economic conditions promoted or resulted in the commercialization in the system of education and gave an impetus to competition, exploitation and oppression. The clime at the international level also will come for criticism. Take for instance; India that adopted British system of collegiate education is different from that of American system, wherein after school education is of four years, as against three over here. The grading, semester, ranking devices also fall apart - such issues galore are innumerable and unending - leading to stress from day one to the day at last. The consequences of such lop-sided competitive commercialization concepts in education patterns, has its disintegration seeds sown - though the fulcrum of educational devices can be uniform - may be universally at all stages and levels of education in all areas and in all their dimensions. The negative approaches and the sweep of policy changes and attitudinal approaches have harmed the preprimary school education parameters too, leading to stress, trauma, incapable sustain and assimilate and become even suicidal - it is therefore our present Central Minister for Education Kapil Sibal who has increased the age of admittance to four years from three, so as to distress the blossoming minds of kindergarteners. There is no doubt, in view of the foregoing, optimum influx at once of education, its devices, absorbing methods, teaching paraphernalia and what not. This negates the very idea of imbibing education in the initial stages. Non-performance or mediocre genre draw the ire of parents to perform well, by being bookish, or becoming book worms or addicts to parrot-like without any iota of understanding. Education is the teacher of a teacher. Yesterdays educational devices and system will not meet todays and even less so, the need of tomorrow. Quality education must not be abdicated and conducive education at affordable cost or no cost is the need of the day.

Bharathi Saranga, Teacher, B.R.R Girls High School, Andhra Yuvathi Mandal Whats your view on exams and stress (if any) that is associated with it? It is only reproducing the matter existing in the study materials, workbooks, notes etc. Due to vast syllabus and less time it is creating tension and stress in students. How do you think competition has changed over the years, for students? Competition has changed, because the competitive exams are mostly objective type where the students cannot depend only on study materials, but have to read the text books thoroughly. Is exam stress something that students have to deal with, all the time? Conducting unit tests and assignments is helpful to slow learners and average students but not for the intelligent students, this becomes monotonous to creative and intelligent students; project work is suitable to these children. Has the concept of healthy competition changed nowadays? Concept for healthy competitions has not changed fully nowadays because it is more theoretical than practical. Do you think parents are pressuring their children to perform well? Yes, the parents are pressuring their children to perform well by comparing with co-operative schools whose aim is ranks and less importance for physical, moral and social development of a child. This is mostly subject granted. Is the current system too much of an education influx at once? Yes, the current situation is too much of an education influx. The reading skills, writing skills, communication skills are completely reduced due to technology (ex: Internet). The child should be encouraged for higher studies according to their interests and talents. What initiatives or measures do you think schools could undertake to help ease exam stress for students? To ease the exam stress, weekly slip test can be conducted, wherever possible practical and demonstration test can be conducted and the important point is exams should be conducted semester wise. Any tips / suggestions that you could give on how not to get bogged down by exam fever. My advice is to remove exam fever from the students. First we should make them think positive and develop confidence in them. For this every school should have a moral science period to develop moral value and increase their general knowledge. Schools, parents, teachers and elders play a very important role in producing good citizens to the nation. Madhavi Gayathri Raman, Parent & Lecturer at The English and Foreign Languages University I think that exams are no longer about finding out how much children have actually learnt. Its all about scoring marks, and not just any marks but the all important 95-100 that you need for admission to engineering or medicine. There is no joy in learning, no value placed on learning from mistakes, and no room for out of the box/lateral thinking. Children are required to be able to reproduce answers directly from the text. The importance that parents place on their children's performance and the importance given to marks is the biggest contributing factor to stress.

There is always a comparison with what someone else's child has scored and this adds more stress. Parents choose schools based on the number of tests - one that has a rigorous schedule is a good one because it will provide 'excellent' preparation for the entrance exams. Even schools boast of their success in entrance exams and attribute it to their pattern of tests. The current system doesnt appear to be concerned with developing all round individuals; the concentration appears to be on producing individuals who can outperform one another on exams that assess content knowledge alone. More often than not this leads to creation of storehouses of bookish knowledge, not street smart kids equipped with life skills. Schools need to reduce the number of exams they conduct and also change the pattern of exams - they need to focus on how children can apply what they have learnt to real-life situations. Parents need to teach children and themselves that marks are not everything, one needs to be able to live life and find practical applications for what has been learnt. One needs to rediscover the joy of learning and most importantly, as parents we need to realize that there are other creative, financially viable and respectable professions in the world besides medicine and engineering. D.S. Kaushik, 6th Class Student, Bhavans Sri Ramakrishna Vidyalaya, Sainikpuri I study daily what is taught in the class. On weekends I revise all the subjects and put up a test for myself and am up to date so that it is not piled up in the end. In the school all the teachers encourage and motivate us to learn daily by giving successful examples, which gives us confidence and hope. They conduct weekly tests after they complete the portions. They give us confidence by telling us that the subject is easy and not to get worried. They give us tips on how to learn, how to attempt the exams to get maximum marks. I handle my exams in a simple manner and this is also what I suggest to my friends. I prepare daily little by little and weekly test myself. I do written practice which helps me to understand and learn. I dont let myself mug up. I write neatly so that the teacher understands better. Lastly I would say that there is no point in dreaming all day, but to take action. While there are many other students like Kaushik who are prepared well in advance to handle the stress of exams, there are students like Bhargav of class X (he didnt want to name his school) who are constantly bombarded by weekly tests and totally bogged down by it. But there is no escape for him, like many others, he has his parents who have high expectations from me and I have to keep up to them, he says with a shrug. True education has been described as 'what is left after the facts have been forgotten', and stress-free continuous assessment certainly facilitates such education. Exams or no exams, at the end of it, children should be enjoying while learning and vice-versa!

Semester System and Privatization of Education: Boon or Bane

Posted at

YouthKiAwaaz on June 9, 2010 in Education 5 Comments

Sango Bidani: Recently there has been a lot of controversy regarding the implementation of Semester system to the undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Delhi University. The protesting Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) has complained that the Vice Chancellor Deepak Pental is implementing the semester system in DU without consultation with the teachers concerned and that he is in effect implementing it arbitrarily. And because the VC is not ready to listen to their point of view, the teachers in DUTA have been creating quite a stir by filing a petition in the High Court as well as many other steps like not submitting the internal assessment marks to the Principals of the colleges (which might lead to a delay in the result declaration; though the VC has said that the results will be declared on time) and also not taking part in the admission process. In the midst of this the group of people who are going to suffer the most if the results are declared late are students, especially the third year students who are planning to go abroad. So how does the semester system function and what are the pros and cons of implementing this system on such a massive scale? The semester system is a system that has been used rather successfully in professional courses like B.B.A, B.B.A Com and Journalism taught at the undergraduate level at some universities across the country. In Delhi University this system is in place in very few colleges, to be precise 6 colleges of Delhi University. In this system the year is divided into 2 to 3 semesters each of 4 months to 6 months depending upon the number of semesters that are there. The semester system allows the students no luxury of studying at the last moment and still getting good marks in the final exams. So you have to be on your toes throughout and cannot bunk classes or afford to take your studies lightly. This is certainly a good point of the semester system and it will keep everyone working all through their college life seriously rather that turning to just last minute studies which many students resort to because of the structure of the current evaluation system. The other plus point of the semester system is that it means that you get tested on very small sections at a time, so when you give your final exams where the whole curriculum is assessed, you are in a position to write an even better exam than with the current system as this means you are already aware of the problem areas and by the time of the final exams, you will have a chance of improving your percentage in the final assessment by at least 5 to 10%. On the flip side, the semester system has some very serious problems which in the final assessment can wreck havoc with a persons career. The first of these problems is related to operationalising this system in Delhi University. It is feared that teachers will speed through important sections of the syllabus with the result that those who are not able to cope with the pace or are unable to understand will be pushed into oblivion and this might encourage students to join private universities where the quality of teachers is not necessarily good. Another problem with the semester system is that because of the packed schedule of the semester, the exams might be pushed ahead by quite a bit with the result that there will be very little time to revise any subject properly and this might lead to marks coming down. So, the semester system has its own pros and cons and the best way to implement such a system on such a large scale is through a trial of the system. The way forward should be charted out according to the suggestions of the students and teachers. Unfortunately, that is not how it seems it is being implemented in Delhi University and hence we are seeing widespread protests by so many people. The problem with the way the semester system works and the way it is being implemented in DU and of course the governments fascination with privatization can have a hazardous impact on the careers of students. Privatization of education means that education has been passed on to the private sector and that also means that private sector has a greater say in setting their own fees which can be exorbitantly high although the quality of education provided might not even be half as good. While at one level, privatization of education seems to be a good option given the way the government has abjectly failed to maintain decent standards of education and to add to the poor infrastructure provided by the govt. Having said this, privatization is not really a solution to the problem that continues to plague India even 64 yrs after independence, that is poor educational standards in

the country. There has been a mushrooming of private institutions in recent years especially in case of training for IITs and IIMs and IAS for that matter. While this may be viewed by many as a positive trend but there are problems with these private institutions. The biggest of the problems with these private institutions is that there is no guarantee of the quality of teaching and more so teachers teaching in these institutions. Infact, some of the teachers do not turn up for classes or they turn up but they do not actually teach thus wasting students precious time. (This is not to say that government schools are any better.) The other problem with private institutions is that they extract exorbitant amount of money for very short periods of coaching. We have tried privatization of education earlier also without too much success or to put it in a simple way there was a lack of change in the education system even then. So, all said and done, there has to be some serious thinking on the matter of providing quality education in a decent manner and at a decent rate. The semester system should be implemented, but only after a thorough discussion on the system and how it works. And as for privatization of education, as of now, it does not seem a viable option although it can be considered a viable option if there is some quality control mechanism.

------The education today is becoming a blessing or a curse is an open ended question being raised these days. The whole concept of education today is far apart from what it was initially devised to be. Today, one of our main focus in our lives is to get a good education and have a sound career to lead a happy and content life. And, undoubtedly, todays education system caters to our needs of education and career very well. But, where is the happiness and satisfaction? Right from the childhood, it is fed into the minds of tiny tots that the only thing that they should know is that they are going to be a doctor, engineer, IAS and so on. Since beginning, they are pressurised to outperform others of their age. Once kids become old enough to enter a school, the foul play starts. They need to pass a number of tests even to get admission in nursery standard, because they are supposed to be in the best school. As soon as, he is admitted to a school, he comes under the scanner and is continuously evaluated on the basis of one parameter or the other. All that matters is your marks, your grade, your CGPA.Every parent wants to see their child at the top position. And automatically, others are receded to lower positions and suppressed. The child which is usually a stress buster and a source of happiness for everyone else in the home and surroundings, himself becomes tensed. Even when the school is over, one ought to be in the best college. After that best college, best job offer matters. Then, again the same vicious circle of competing, excelling starts in that job surroundings to be one of the highest paid employee. Now, the evil one behind the curtains is, none other than, MONEY. The education today is more focused at earning, and not learning. The sole aim is information, not knowledge. Instead of broadening ones mindset, it is narrowing down ones perspective towards things. The power to withstand others is reducing and thus, splitting apart the social arena. The in-built intelligence goes in vain. It is high time that the worth of a human beings own capabilities is realised and given proper space for development. The agenda of life should become living and not just existing. When no two individuals in this world are made to be same, then where this whole concept of competition comes from. Let everyone maintain the individuality and uniqueness of oneself.

----Indian Education - Boon or Bane?

Has the education made me a better person? Or made more of a robot out of me? This is a primary question that everyone should be asking themselves at the beginning, end and even amidst the process of receiving the education. Is the education system in India really all that it is made out to be? Now I know that this topic has been beaten to death especially since the last two years what with Aamir Khan on an education reform movement and Kapil Sibal asininely tinkering with the education system and every bit and piece making headlines now a day. But what the hell this is my blog and I will be damned if I dont get to ramble on it.

Although, globally, Indian students are considered amongst the best brains. The higher education facilities in India are amongst the best that there are. But somewhere in our education system, we kill the spirit of the students. We kill the initiative taking powers of the students. If we look at our educational system, we go by a set rule. The classes are deemed to take place for certain hours of the day during which, there would be a division in the form of time tables. The teachers or professors as the case may be, will come, read something from some material, give a pop quiz or a theoretical assignment and then leave. And then the next professor will come. And then the next day will dawn and so on. Then there would be examinations twice or thrice a term. And as is typical of most of the students no one, barring a few outliers, will study beforehand. Hence, all the cramming will be done on the day before the exam with feverish passion, roaming the corridors of hostels or sitting in home sipping tea/coffee and burning the proverbial midnight oil, students trying to cram everything till the second before question paper is placed before them. Did you just not smile reminiscing about similar moments of your life? Then there need be no more proof that this is a typical experience in the life of a student. But has anyone ever stopped and questioned if this is actually a right thing to do? Is it really necessary to have papers twice a term? What if the paper does not merit twice or

thrice examining the student? Will the system be changed? What if a course titled Advanced Oral Communication requires that the best way to judge a student would be to check how well he can communicated orally? Would the ancient ones be awoken from their gargantuan slumber to stroke the embers of the goblet of fire or would this be yet another example of requests falling on deaf ears? Or would the PGP office say, yet again in a deep oratory mellifluousness, Keh diya na Bas keh Diya? And what about the content of dribble that we dare call as our curriculum? We teach students how to write e-mails in corporate communications class but we are not able to teach them to keep their cell phones silent during lectures. We are teaching them transportation problems and assignment problems, but we are still not managing to impart the importance of being punctual in attending lectures or submitting assignments in due time. Oh sure we get to know what balance sheet is (though we can never balance the two sides), some professional and serious sounding business jargon to carry us through most of the conversations, some bits and pieces of knowledge that we hope would be useful once we get to the jobs.

When I was in school, I was a very shy and introverted person (thats not to say that I am not now just that I have upgraded myself over the years and learnt how to be more open and enjoyable with friends around). But I was not always like that. I remember bits and pieces and moi ma tells me that I used to be a spirited child in my primary years and that I used to be extremely full of energy, extroverted and highly energetic. So what changed me over the years? I will say the educational system in my school where the primary school teachers were not comfortable with children questioning their authority, receiving apt witty remarks from a 3-4 year old kid and the problem of having to miss their afternoon nap in the class because of one hyper-active kid who would not lie down even after being fed a whole bottle of valium. Ok that I am kidding and that I was never fed valium. But yea that was true that my teachers were frustrated with me because I would not let them rest. Peter Senge (1990) maintains that we learn only when the experience is followed by immediate feedback. Hence, the feedback of knitted brows and frown on the face, instead of crows feet, were enough of a feedback for me to deter me from doing such things over the years and be made more of an obedient student. Then came engineering college and boy what a bliss it was. Of course the first year ragging and adjustment issues apart. But that was truly the first stage of the education that I really enjoyed. Probably because our branch was a relatively smaller one so the entire group of students were pretty close knit (of course we now have some outliers but where do we dont have them?) Even though most of the education was more of a rote of a fixed curriculum set by ancient professors and studied through copies of textbooks and notes prepared by some diligent students (Thanks neetu, priyanka, lohani and all

hostellers for question papers). But more importantly, at that stage I truly realized the fun of being with friends, how one learns more from friends than from profs, how several long lasting friendships can be wrought out of simple things such as having birthdays on same or nearby dates.

During the management education, I believed that I learnt a lot. And not just about balance sheet, or 5 S (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, Shitsuke), or how about Pavlovs experiment with dog and its saliva, or even about financial markets, difference between debt and equity, complex macroeconomic models or any such thing. The most important learning came in the people handling skills, as a management education should impart; even though there was no formal education in it and the entire curricula was to be learnt through a practical experience and the only test for the same would be in real life scenarios. For instance, knowing the name of the peon of the PGP office is not going to get you any 50 basis point reduction in the cost of debt (Talk about being arbit!) but it would certainly help you get an advance copy of the next term time table and allow you to plan your leaves accordingly. Or asking a mess worker about his life in general is not going to drastically improve the quality of food but at least you will get the best that there could be from amongst them. And thats the kind of thing that an education is supposed to teach, practical things. And not something that we can just learn and forget. An education is not supposed to make you like a robot, ready to do work at the command of a master or numerical spout the value of pi at the behest of a command. Education should make you realize the significance of pi as well.

But in our haste to provide this hardcore knowledge to the students, we often miss out on the softer aspects. Ironically, most of the B-schools conduct GD and PI in their selection process just to see the soft skills of the candidate and forget to hone those skills in candidate once they enter the hallowed portals of the prestigious institutions. In

that context, lesser known institutions still have crowd which has better soft skills to make up for the non-presence of the brand names. Images courtesy: www.gallery.ca, www.cypasia.org, newamericanuniversity.asu.edu, ccdaag.org.uk, www.clickjobs.com
S

The formal admission ceremony was known as 'Upanayana'. With the accomplishment of this ceremony the child had to leave his home for the 'ashrama' where he would receive education. It was supposed to be the re-birth of the child and was known as 'Dvijya', which means, "twice born". Sanskrit was the language of teaching. It was supposed to be the language of learned men. The academies of higher learning were known as 'Parisads'. The education system involved of three basic processes, which included 'Sravana', 'Manana' and 'Nidhyasana'. In the 'Sravana' stage of education, students received 'shrutis' knowledge, which was passed orally from one generation to another. The second stage was 'Manana' which means that pupils had to think themselves about what they have heard. They have to make their own inferences and assimilate the lesson taught by their teacher into the life. The third stage 'Nidhyasana' means complete comprehension of truth and its use in the life. In ancient India women were given the equal right to education and teaching. Women seers like 'Gayatri' were prominent participants in educational debates and the proceedings of the 'Parishads'.( Assemblies) It was mainly the Brahmins followed by Kshatriyas that received education at the Gurukuls while the boys from the lower caste learnt their family trade from their fathers. Few of the most important universities of India in the ancient times were Taxila, Vikramshila and Nalanda. Taxila University of 7th century BC was famous for medical studies and a galaxy of eminent teachers such as Panini, the well known grammarian, Kautilya, the minister of Chandragupta Maurya, and Charaka, a medical teacher of repute. Nalanda was the highest learning center not just of India but also of the entire South Asia. Students from foreign countries like China, Japan, Korea used to come here for higher studies. It had around 10,000 students and teachers on its roll cards. The University had eight colleges. And one of the colleges had four-storied building. It was one of the earliest examples of residential cum learning complex. Vikramshila University. Varanasi was famous for religious teachings. In the South, Kanchi was famous for its studies while the Vallabhi University was no less. Huan Tsang in his records mention the university to be at par with Nalanda and Vikramshila universities. India had several great minds at work, which contributed in every aspect of life. The concept of zero, decimal and Pythagoras Theorem were all developed here. As India progressed from ancient to medieval its education system deteriorated. Various factors were responsible for the degradation of this most efficient and most ancient education system of the world. Present The present educational system of India is an implantation of British rulers. Wood's Dispatch of 1854 laid the foundation of present system of education in India. Before the advent of British in India, education system was private one. With the introduction of Wood's Dispatch known as Magna Carta of Indian education, the whole scenario changed. The main purpose of it was to prepare Indian Clerks for running local administration. Under it the means of school educations were the vernacular languages while the higher education was granted in English only. British government started giving funds to indigenous schools in need of help and thus slowly some of the schools became government-aided. Contemplating on the new system which was introduced Mahatma Gandhi expressed his anguish in following words, "I say without fear of my figures being challenged successfully, that today India is more illiterate than it was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma, because the British administrators, when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to look at the root, and left the root like that, and the beautiful tree perished. The village schools were not good enough for the British administrator, so he came out with his program. Every school must have so much paraphernalia, building, and so forth. Well, there were no such schools at all. There are statistics left by a British administrator which show that, in places where they have carried out a survey, ancient schools have gone by the board, because there was no recognition for these schools, and the schools established after the European pattern were too expensive for the people, and therefore they could not possibly overtake the thing. I defy anybody to fulfill a program of compulsory primary education of these masses inside of a century. This very poor country of mine is ill able to sustain such an expensive method of education. Our state would revive the old village schoolmaster and dot every village with a school both for boys and girls. " Today education system in India can be divided into many stages.

Pre- Primary - It consists of children of 3-5 years of age studying in nursery, lower kindergarten and upper kindergarten. At this stage student is given knowledge about school life and is taught to read and write some basic words. Primary - It includes the age group of children of 6-11 years studying in classes from first to fifth. Middle - It consists of children studying in classes from sixth to eighth. Secondary - it includes students studying in classes ninth and tenth. Higher Secondary - Includes students studying in eleventh and twelfth classes. Undergraduate - Here, a student goes through higher education, which is completed in college. This course may vary according to the subject pursued by the student. For medical student this stage is of four and a half years plus one year of compulsory internship, while a simple graduate degree can be attained in three years. Postgraduate - After completing graduation a student may opt for post graduation to further add to his qualifications.

Education Governing Bodies

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE): This is the main governing body of education system in India. It has control over the central education system. It conducts exam and looks after the functioning of schools accredited to central education system. The Council of Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE): It is a board for Anglo Indian Studies in India. It conducts two examinations 'Indian Certificate of Secondary Education' and 'Indian School Certificate'. Indian Certificate of secondary education is a k-10 examination for those Indian students who have just completed class 10th and Indian school certificate is a k-12 public examination conducted for those studying in class 12th. The State Government Boards: Apart from CBSE and CISCE each state in India has its own State Board of education, which looks after the educational issues. The National Open School: It is also known as National Institute of Open Schooling. It was established by the Government Of India in 1989. It is a ray of hope for those students who cannot attend formal schools. The International School: It controls the schools, which are accredited to curriculum of international standard.

Elementary Education According to the Constitution of India, elementary education is a fundamental right of children in the age group of 6-14 years. India has about 688,000 primary schools and 110,000 secondary schools. According to statistics two third of school going age children of India are enrolled in schools but the figures are deceptive as many don't attend schools regularly. At least half of all students from rural area drop out before completing school. The government has rolled out many plans to increase the percentage of elementary education. The plans such as 'Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), District Primary Education Program (DPEP), Operation Blackboard, Mid Day Meal have been successful to great extent. Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) The main goal of this program is that all children of 6-11 years of age should complete primary education by the year 2007 and all children of 6-14 years of age should complete eight years of schooling by 2010. This plan covers the whole country with special emphasis on girl education and education of Schedule Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribe (ST) children and children with special needs. The SSA centers are mainly opened in those areas, which do not have any school or where schools are very far off. Special girl oriented programs include: Girl education at elementary level. National Program for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) Mahila Samakhya Scheme

District Primary Education Program This program was launched in 1994 with the objective of universalization of primary education. Its main features are Universal Access, Universal Retention and Universal Achievement. It aims that the primary education should be accessible to each and every child of school going age, once a child is enrolled in school he/ she should be retained there. The final step is achievement of the goal of education. The main components of this program are: Construction of classrooms and new schools Opening of non-formal schooling centers Setting up early childhood education centers. Appointment of teachers. Providing education to disabled children.

The program has been successful to the large extent as 1,60,000 schools and 84,000 alternative schools have been opened under this program. And work is going on for the construction of new buildings of 52,758 schools. 4,20,203 disabled students have been successfully enrolled into the schools. Operation Blackboard It was started in 1987-88. The aim of this program is to improve human and physical resource availability in primary schools of India. According to this program every primary school should have at least two rooms, two teachers and essential teaching aids like blackboard, chalk, duster etc. National Bal Bhavan The National Bal Bhavan was opened with the aim of developing overall personalities of children of all strata of society irrespective of their caste, creed, religion and gender. It supplements school education by helping children to learn in play way and natural environment. Other important endeavors taken up by Indian government for the development of education in India includes:

Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan Integrated Education for disabled children National Council of Educational Research and Training

Secondary Education The enrollment at secondary school throughout the country was close to 28 million in 1998-99. Efforts are being made to increase this figure through the implementation of proposed new educational strategies.

Education system in India is making fast progress. The data of students' enrollment at primary and secondary level of school education testifies to it.

Year 50-51 60-61 68-69 79-80 89-90 99-2000 2000-01 2-Jan 3-Feb 4-Mar

Primary (Lakh person) 192 350 544 716 973 1136 926 1098 1184 1224

Middle (Lakh person) 31 67 125 193 322 421 342 426 457 468

University Education This massive system of higher education in India constitutes of 342 universities (211 State, 18 Central, 95 deemed universities) 13 institutes of national importance, 17,000 colleges and 887 polytechnics. University Grant Commission (UGC), a national body, coordinates and looks after the maintenance of standard of university education in India. The university education in India starts with undergraduate courses. Depending upon the nature of course pursued its duration may vary from three to five and a half years. ----------

Todays education system has a weak beginning

Published: Monday, Jun 13, 2011, 9:59 IST By

Nirad Mudur | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

Todays education system may be good to score marks, butfails to retain the knowledge once students have completed their examinations. This leads to young minds being stifled at an age when they should be asking questions, learning and gaining knowledge, and developing a thirst for more knowledge. If we need to solve this dubious mystery about why Indians, for decades, have not been able to invent or innovate something that could revolutionise the way we live, the answer may well lie in the kind of education system we have right from early schooling days. Our basic education system is rigid, rusty and mundane. Among schoolchildren, it hardly evokes an interest that could ignite a scientific spark to carry forward in their lives. Thats why we lack innovating or inventing capabilities despite the fact that lakhs of engineers and scientists graduate from their respectable academic institutions year after year, but go without making any substantial contributions to the existing scientific knowledge pool. Thats again the reason why we have remained a country that squarely depends on foreign countries for our wares and we have remained fairly satisfied with the inventions of zero (~400 BC) and pickles! In 2000, Professor VK Aatre, then the chief of Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) and scientific advisor to defence minister, when asked why India was taking such a long time over developing the power plant for the countrys indigenously developed light combat aircraft, said: We are a country which has not even indigenously developed a car engine. Do you expect us to come up with an aircraft engine for a quality fighter plane in a jiffy? Now, 11 years later, the engine in question Kaveri continues to be in its stages of development, but it is no longer indigenous. And because Kaveri is still under development, we are forced to power the LCA prototypes using the American GE-F404 engines. For that matter, the indigenous component of the aircraft that Kaveri was to power, the light combat aircraft, itself planned to be 100% when its idea was conceived has shrunk to below 70%. Besides, despite the daily lives of common people riddled with a range of problems be it water shortage or pollution in the cities, rising fuel prices, or mass transport systems hardly an Indian has come forward with innovative ideas or an invention that could solve the problems or even mitigate them. This speaks volumes negatively about the quality of our scientific human resource pool. And we have nothing but our basic education system to be blamed. Savitri Rao, mother of an 11-year-old studying in fifth standard in an ICSE school in Bangalore, complains that the manner in which her son is being taught restricts him from actually thinking about what he is doing. Its a rut more than anything else, says the disgusted mother. And it hardly serves any purpose except for a sheet of paper that will be the licence to study further; nothing more, she adds. For instance, in mathematics, there are several ways a particular problem can be solved. But here, what I see is that although he gets the answer right, his marks are deducted because he has used a different method than what his teacher taught him. It is evident that the teachers want them to do precisely what they teach them, and the

children blindly follow this rote learning, bookish ways, says Rao. In a situation like this, it also restricts the children from questioning teachers as to why they cant resort to other methods when they too are the right ways of solving the sums; or even raising doubts or queries about something that they feel needs to be done. The result is this: You sit with him and observe his way of studying, not just mathematics, but any subject; and you realise that what he is doing is not actually learning, but cramming and mugging to score marks, says Rao. Educational and psychological experts admit that such a style of studying may be good to score marks, but they fail to retain the knowledge once they have completed their examinations. This leads to the young minds being stifled at an age when they should actually be asking questions, learning and gaining knowledge, and developing a thirst for more knowledge. This is the seed that ignites inventive and innovative tendencies among the children even as they grow into adulthood. Teachers that DNA spoke to say it is the system that makes the children resort to rote learning. Students are ambitious and they also have this uncertainty about their future. And they have the fear of failure. Scoring high marks is the main objective and that is padded with pressure from all sides from peers, teachers and parents. The students really dont care about the methods they opt for studying as long they get the marks, says Sheila Iyengar, a senior teacher in a reputed city-based school. Worse, during class, the questions coming from students are conspicuous by their absence. Moreover, if questions do come from children, teachers tend to play them down or ask the children to just pay attention so they get it right. Some parents even complain about their children being ridiculed by teachers on raising queries in class. Here lies the problem as explained by Iyengar. I think one of the main reasons is deadlines. We have to adhere to portions that are to be covered in a 40-45 minute class-hour. So within this time, it may cause inconvenience for teachers to answer in detail a question that is being asked by a student, says Iyengar. She adds: Sometimes, we dont even know if its a genuine question or not. Some of them might want to jeer the teachers. Or sometimes, we might not be able to give an answer immediately. We would have prepared for the class according to the particular portion. Any doubts or questions that come, even if related to the portion, might be a difficulty. In such cases, we either tell them that we will get back to them during the next hour or we merely admit that we dont know about it. Manjula Raman, principal, Army Public School, agrees. I think stress is part of life. In teaching, its because of the method. After an hour of Math classes, a totally different subject is being taught. Theres no closure. She feels the present education system does not allow a child to relax and learn or think about what he or she has learnt. Schools have now become more like a growing industry. Rather, it should be more organic. Growth should be there from all sides, she says. Teachers admit that the problem rises from the class-oriented, syllabus-based teaching methods resorted to by the prevalent education system in India a system in which the only thing that children wait for is the bell that marks the end of a class or the school day. Raman, however, has a solution to this. In the future, our country will need people from all walks of life. In schools, children need to be introduced to the basics of everything that matters to his/her life. There should be general studies, which covers the basics of all subjects. Emphasis must be given to on the childs logical and critical thinking because at the end of the day it is about what the child has learnt, and not the number of lessons covered.

AND THE GANDHIAN BASIC EDUCATION AS A REMEDIAL MEASURE Dayal Chandra Soni

THE ILLS OF OUR PRESENT EDUCATION

The British Raj came to an end in 1947. All of us know very well that Macaulay, the well-wisher and promoter of British imperialism in India, had changed the traditional system of Indian Education and had established the present system of our education to promote the interests of the British Raj through the subjugation of Indians. So, even during the British Raj, opposition to Macaulay-Education was sounded by many prominent Indians. And Mahatma Gandhi, though highly preoccupied with the

struggle for political freedom in our country, was very conscious of the ills of Macaulay-Education established in India by the British Raj. So, even when freedom in India was still ten years away in the future, Mahatma Gandhi gave us a full fledged scheme of educational reform, so that India could adopt a new educational system, which would promote the values of Indian culture, Indian freedom and Indian democracy. This scheme of education conceived by Gandhiji, and explained by the Hindustani Talimi Sangh under the chairmanship of Dr. Zakir Hussain, was called Basic Education. The word Basic as a qualifying adjective to the world education was used to convey that this education was to be founded or based on a productive craft-work, which would serve as the nucleus of all educational activity. This word Basic, as an adjective of this newly conceived scheme of education, indirectly and silently declared that Macaulay-Education, which was in vogue at that time, was a Baseless education, i.e. education in a vacuum.
I feel proud that I had the very fortunate opportunity of running a Basic School under Vidya Bhawan, Udaipur, for nearly 15 years, from 1941-1955. During this period, I had the good fortune of being trained under Dr. Zakir Hussains guidance in Jamia Millia, Delhi, from 19411942. Then during 1945, I had the good fortune of spending 10 days in Gandhijis Ashram at Sevagram and of talking with Vinoba Bhave in his Pavnaar Ashram. My next good opportunity came in 1954, when I was included as a member of the team of 18 rural educationists of India, which was sent to the Elsinoye Denmark to study the Danish Folk High School system, under the able leadership of the (late) Nana Bhai Bhatt. My experience in actually working out the system of Basic Education for 15 years has changed my educational outlook, as well as my educational creed and commitment. As a result of this change in my educational views, I no longer feel that education is the same thing as todays schooling is. I do not agree to the view that schools should have a monopoly over human education. I am convinced that the very process of human life is an inherent and spontaneous process of education. I do not oppose schools as such. But I am convinced that todays schools were deliberately planned to pollute and adulterate the sacred system of traditional Indian Education. As for example, the Britishers planned and introduced such a school system in India that would produce learned persons who would be gladly willing to help the British Government in establishing its foreign rule in India and also in strengthening it. This was an immoral adulteration in the purity of Indian education, which must retain its patriotism for the Indian nation. When India adopted her present constitution, it was laid down in its Article 45 that "the state shall endeavor to provide, within a period of ten years, from the commencement of this constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years." The general public opinion, largely, is that this is a very good provision in the Indian Constitution. But, to my mind, this is a very wrong provision in our constitution. Here, you will question me and ask me to explain why I say so. My arguments are as follows: 1. Nothing, which is imposed by a government as compulsory exercise, can be truly called education. Compulsion is anti-education.

2. The Government is not a safe and qualified custodian of education. Education is a thing, which is based on mutual love and respect between the teacher and the taught, and a Government cannot be a mediator between the teacher and the taught. 3. My third objection to this Article is that it is silent about the defining concept of right education. According to this Article, anything that you do in a school is right education and anything that you do out of school is non -education. 4. My 4th objection to this Article is that is does not lay down that parents will not be allowed to introduce class-distinctions in the schooling system and even the rich and the elite parents will have to send their children to the same schools in which the children of poor parents get their education. This is the most serious sin of this Article. It exempts the rich and the elite class children from undergoing the same educational process, which is provided for the poor children. Thus, class distinctions are allowed to be introduced and implanted, even at the initial stage of life of the future citizens of India. 5. And therefore my 5th and the final objection to this Article of Indian Constitution is that it does not define and indicate the values, (i.e. moral values) which it aims to inculcate in the so-called educated generation. This education restricts itself to giving only knowledge and expertise to its students. Production of students who will stick to moral values in their conduct or who will strive for doing excellent work in their accepted job is totally ignored. Morality is a non-issue in our todays education. According to our present education, it does not matter whether the so-called educated person exercises morality in his work or adopts immoral means to achieve his ends. The degrees of B.A., M.A., or Ph.D. will safely stick to him, irrespective of his moral or immoral conduct. Of course, such education could be the aim of the British government in India, because, people educated with high degree of morality would not serve the purpose of a foreign government. But, why should India continue to educate Indians ignoring the moral aspects of education in this post-independence era of our nation is something, which I cannot understand. The reality, therefore, is that spread of this so-called school education and the spread of moral degradation of the so-called educated people of India are mutually interrelated. Gradually, the standard of our work-ethics has been falling down. People are not ashamed of doing less and less work and being paid higher and higher salaries with many more benefits and perks. Whoever is educated in schools and colleges, craves for pen-paper and table-chair jobs only and hates to engage himself or herself in productive labor or skilled craft-work. Thus, expansion of education or the spread of education in India, results in increasing the number of pure consumers, who do not do any-productive work to help the economy of the country. And, since, it is the government that sponsors, arranges and advocates such education, therefore, government has to employ these so called educated people even if the government can run efficiently without increasing the number of its employees. A number of todays government departments are not necessary and most of the government departments are over-staffed. Shirking of one's duty-work is common and corruption is rampant. For the sake of providing government employment to unemployed youth that are educated and trained in a very disproportionate number, the in-service employees are retired at the early age of 58 years while they are still quite capable of doing good and efficient work. Then, these retired people are entitled to life-long good income in the form of pensions. Thus, in spite of the fact that India is a free and democratic Nation today, the distinction between the Government bureaucracy as a class and the common people or the masses of our nation is staggering.

Thus, this so-called education is the main cause of the financial crisis that is being faced by not only our state governments but also even by our central government. Hence, let me draw your attention to another article of the Indian Constitution, which directs the states to prohibit intoxicating drinks and drugs except for medical purposes (i.e. Clause 47 of the constitution). But, our state governments cannot adhere to this clause because those people who consume alcohol and wine contribute a great deal of tax income to the state government which is required by the state to meet its expenses on schools opened and run to educate the new generation. Thus, indirectly, the new generation should be grateful to the drunkards of the society who provide money for their school-education on a free basis in accordance with the section 45 of the contribution. This situation clearly indicates that the Clause 47 of our constitution must be violated and ignored to meet the requirements of the Clause 45 of the same constitution. And even then, the target of introducing universal education, to be accomplished only within 10 years, has not been accomplished during all these years after or since the adoption of this constitution. But, now rises the most important question, and the question is Is this a misfortune of India that this pro-consumption and anti-production pro-intellect and anti-labor education has not spread on the universal scale as expected by the constitution? Or has it been a good fortune of India that such wrong and defective and polluted education has nor spread too much? My answer to this question is that it has been a good fortune without doubt. I say this because it is really the vast majority of our unschooled people of India, still occupied in productive work and still consuming less, which is the backbone of Indian economy and even of Indian democracy. To say that these people are uneducated is a totally false and absurd statement. These people are educated for life and through life which is led in their families and their communities and which is related and relevant to their local cultural and natural environment. These so-called uneducated and illiterate people of India have been educated soundly and solidly through Out of School Basic Education. The greatest fallacy of post-Independence Indian education is its self-contradiction. The Indian elite or even the Indian politicians make very loud noises about universalizing school education but they are not prepared to modify the system of education to make it suitable for the masses. They obstinately insist that school education should be only such as would suit and serve the purpose of the elite minority only. On the one hand, they are not prepared to make any changes in the educational system inherited from the British period, which was definitely meant to serve the narrow interests of the elite minority only. And on the other hand, they cry from their housetops to make this same education universal. Look at this hypocrisy! Perhaps, all of us know the story of a fox who was very friendly to a crane and so he invited him for a dinner. The crane accepted the invitation for which the fox thanked him. But, when the crane actually reached the dining table, he found that the dinner offered was only a liquid soup served in a broad bowl. The fox showed great affection and implored the crane to take the served soup as much as possible. But, the crane could not eat or drink it because of his beaky mouth while the fox consumed all the soup with the help of his long tongue. So, the elite foxes, while inviting, with great pomp and show, the mass cranes to their dining table are serving this educational soup, which (according to the definite knowledge of the elite foxes) cannot be consumed by the mass cranes. This is the diplomacy and the strategy of the elite class and the politicians of India in the post independence period. They invite the masses for the educational

dinner, but they serve this dinner of education in a form, which the masses can neither consume nor utilize. Thus the elites are quite successful in being congratulated for their deep concern for the poor uneducated masses on the one hand, and in depriving them from education on the other hand. Human education is a very simple and easy goal to be achieved. God has made the human living process itself as an educative process. Man is compelled to do some work so that he could live. But, the work provides a worker, not only with bread, but also with education. Work has been the prime and the constant teacher of man since his advent on this earth. Secondly, the mother tongue of a child is a spontaneous and ready means of communication, which is needed for education. Thus, education is a very simple and cheap process. But, what we have done with education is very surprising. We have black-listed work as the enemy of education and we have thrown it out of the school premises. Secondly, we have banished and expelled the mother tongue of the child student from the school. The child is asked to get educated without the easy and the two natural tools of education (i.e. work tool and the mother tongue tool). This is how school education has become a great burden and cruelty on children. This is how school education today is a violence against childhood. Now, if the children who are suffering from such cruelty and violence in their education, turn out to be violent against other people in the society, in their adulthood, how can we blame the students? Today, all over the world, there is great concern over the fate of those children who cannot attend schools since they are forced to become laborers in their childhood because their parents are poor and need the money that their children may earn through child labor. This concern may be all right. But, why should we concentrate on the cruelty suffered by the out of school child only and why should we become blind towards the cruelty inflicted by the modern schools on their own pupil-children? This phenomenon exposes our hypocrisy in a clear way. Now, if we try to trace the causes of this hypocrisy in depth, we shall discover that the craze for modern development has caused this illness in our educational system. According to us, an educated, civilized and successful person is one who does not have to do any productive labor and who is engaged only in higher consumption, or intellectual pursuits or passive entertainment. Development today means cricket, TV, and travelling in vehicles which pollute the air. Development means getting the help of automatic gadgets relieving human beings from straining not only their limbs, but also their brains. This defective and degrading concept of human development is the main cause of such futile and cruel education for our children. Now the most tragic aspect of todays anti-people, elitist, exploitative, cruel-on-children, pseudoeducation is that it is being continued today, in spite of the fact that Mahatma Gandhi had not only conceived a right alternative to this wrong educational system (introduced during the British Raj), but had also given it a clear shape in the name of Basic Education in 1937 (i.e. 10 years prior to our independence). This scheme of Basic Education was introduced in the whole country during the period of partial self-rule proclaimed in 1935. But this partial self-rule could not continue because of pre-independence political upheavals and so, this reform in education could not continue. Moreover, Gandhiji was killed in January 1948 and our nation forgot his Basic Education (or discarded it intentionally). The result is that today, having witnessed the bad results of wrong education, we are again trying to understand what Gandhijis idea of Basic Education was. So, I shall now try to explain Basic Education as I have understood it, as a result of my practically working for it.

Having worked practically and thoughtfully in Basic Education for fifteen years, I am quite convinced that as each new born baby has a mother with breasts to feed him (or her) with her own milk, in the same manner, man has productive work as his mother to feed him with its breast-milk-education. But Macaulay had deprived education from its mother's breast milk by eliminating productive craft-work from his schools. Gandhiji restored the mother (with her breast milk) to the baby, i.e. he restored craft work to school education. Gandhi said that productive craft-work should be the mother of education and the teacher should assist this mother as a nurse in taking good care of the child. Neither books, nor the teachers are the main sources of man's education. Living is the real source of education and productive work marks life. Today's workless schools are life-less schools. They are in fact dead schools. These schools are themselves doubtful about the success their of so-called education. That is why these schools provide paper certificates and degrees to declare that the students who have been awarded certificates have Not Failed but have Succeeded in becoming Educated. Real gold does not carry with it a certificate to prove that it is really gold and not copper. Then why should a really educated man require a certificate or a degree declaring him as an educated human being? But, the story of certification does not end here and these certificates will also declare the Division or the Merit with which a student has passed his qualifying examinations. This feature of educational certification is the outcome of the comparative and competitive character of our present system of school education. Submergence of all distortions and inculcation of a cooperative spirit among the new generation of Indian citizens is opposed in the Indian school system today. So this system of education is damaging the solidarity of Indian society. But when you are engaged in a craft-work, you are related to nature on the one hand, because, you get the required raw material from nature, and you are also related to your community because the finished product is to serve human beings. The craftsman is the meeting place of nature and man. This experience is very significant from the educational point of view. This creates a very valuable triangular concord between the individual, the society, and the natural surroundings. Secondly, in productive craft-work, or industry, the class fellows of a school have to do cooperative work instead of being engaged only in rivalry and competition. This is very significant from the educational point view, because social solidarity of a nation can be promoted and nourished only through a cooperative (and not competitive) education. Thirdly, when one is engaged in some craft-work or some industry, one faces many difficulties and problems, which can be solved only with the help of literacy or mathematics or physics or chemistry. Thus, students who are engaged in craft-work, or industry, become curious and interested learners, which is very helpful in their educative process. All abstract knowledge is born of concrete work experience. Thus, concrete productive craft-work or industry is not an obstacle in the search for abstract knowledge. In fact, concrete work and abstract knowledge are friendly and helpful to each other. Thus, practical craft-work, in a school, is not an obstacle in the path of pure knowledge, but it is promoter of pure and abstract knowledge. Craft-work makes the educative process quite easy and quite simple. Moreover, a child under fourteen year's of age, is naturally or psychologically interested in craftwork engagement. Craft is the center of his age-interests. Thus, he enjoys the educative process centered around craft-work. He faces no boredom in a school which provides him with craftwork.

Then, craft-work in schools was friendly to the Gandhian concept of decentralized and self sufficient village life. According to Gandhiji, freedom of human beings does not lie in just the freedom from foreign political rule. According to Gandhiji, freedom of human beings lies in freedom from all types of exploitation and all types of dependence on others. According to Gandhiji, over dependence on the state machinery or on the government denotes lack of real freedom. According to Gandhiji, small and decentralized communities or villages should establish their own local self-discipline so that even the courts established by a government are seldom approached for justice and justice may be available from the local village councils or honorable aged persons. Today's political freedom, specially, under democratic rule, is making the people more and more dependent on the government in all respects and the democratic government also extends more and more allurements to the people to seek popular support of votes. According to Gandhiji, this over-dependence, even on a democratic national government, was a form of slavery in disguise. He did agree that the State could not be abolished totally. But, he believed that the tasks and responsibilities of the State should be reduced to the minimum. According to Gandhiji, spread of education should result in the shrinking of the State. Education that expands the State's responsibilities and state's machinery is no education. Gandhiji believed that State management and State dependence could not be reduced without establishing a self-sufficient and decentralized economy. So, his insistence on introducing productive craft-work or industry in the educative process in the schools also suited his philosophy of human freedom. Today's education is uprooting people from their local villages and their ancestral private occupations. Today educated people are marked with a qualifying seal and are converted into readily available commodities to be hired or exported. Thus, there is a very great deal of turmoil and confusion in today's world. Mobility of man as well as of material is increasing to a dangerous frequency and speed. Man is not at ease any longer. Fast vehicles have, in fact, not increased but reduced the availability of time. Moreover, it is the most important cause of air pollution and noise pollution. Man was born to seek God who could be sought anywhere locally. Then why is today's man rushing from one place to the other place? The reason is that education has badly failed to inform and convince man that he is born to seek God through his education and that God could be sought at any place in this world. Today's education instigates man to make himself the manager of this universe. And science also instigates man to become the manager of this universe. But what are the results? Devastation, in the name and in the guise of development, is the result. The cause of this tragedy lies in our wrong school education which inculcates wrong values of life in the students and so, Gandhiji wanted to reform school education so that man might avert that tragedy of calamity. Gandhiji's second suggestion was that, at least, the initial seven years of Basic education, in a school, must be imparted in the child's mother tongue. It is the mother tongue in which a child can assimilate new knowledge without any difficulty and it is the mother tongue in which, a child can express himself most conveniently. When a school rejects the child's mother tongue as a medium of education, it makes the assimilation of new knowledge very difficult on the one hand and it suppresses all self-expression of the child on the other hand. What does this ultimately mean? This means that the process of education becomes very difficult for the child because of the change of medium. Secondly, the child's self expression is thwarted and suppressed. When you examine this phenomenon from the educational point of view, you will be

convinced that education is meant to bring out the latent talent of a child, which cannot take place without self-expression. Denying self-expression to a child results in the denial of his education. The word educe (according to the Oxford dictionary) means to bring out or develop from a latent or a potential existence. Thus, self-expression is the essence of all education. But Indian schools today are proud in rejecting the child's mother tongue and are insisting on using English as the medium of education even at the primary stage. Gandhiji tried to correct this mistake by insisting that the medium of education must be the mother tongue of the child. When the mother tongue of a student is rejected in a school as a medium of education, the student develops a sense of inferiority for his inherited language and even for his culture, which is enshrined in his mother tongue. Moreover, education, which is not imparted in the local language of the people, cannot percolate or filter down to the family or the community of the student. The problem of the so-called generation-gap, from which most of our educated families are suffering today, is the result of discarding the local language or the mother-language of the child as a medium of education in our schools. The third principle, which was introduced in Basic Education was that the craft-work or the industry adopted by a school must earn a profit which should be utilized in supporting the school or even in partially meeting the salaries of the teachers. Gandhiji knew that state governments rely on income collected by wrong means for meeting the expenses of (state-provided) FREE education. This process involved using wrong means to achieve a right end. But Gandhiji, as we know, always insisted strictly on using right means to achieve right ends. So, he insisted that the educative process itself should be financially productive to a considerable degree, so that it may be purified and so that if might exercise some autonomy and some power and influence. Education should be protected from impotency from which it is suffering today. Productive craftwork at the center of all educational learning ensures some power or potency to the school and to the educational system. Only such an built-in potent and powerful system of education can empower people for a fruitful and sustained democracy. The fourth cardinal feature of Basic Education is that the knowledge to be given to the children must be relevant to their life, including their school craft-work or their physical or their social environment. Knowledge has not to be imposed on the students just for the "storing" of that knowledge. Students today are achieving knowledge just for the sake of storing or collecting it without having any practical use of it. Thus, while irrelevant knowledge is being achieved and stored, the students are deprived of such knowledge as would be relevant to their present needs and would be promptly used for the betterment of their lives. But according to the principles of Basic Education, any knowledge, which is not relevant to the student's needs for the time being, should not be given. Basic Education does not believe in isolating the child from his surroundings and in trying to educate the child ignoring his local conditions. So, wherever a Basic school is running, the local surroundings of the school shall also be improved by the efforts of the school involving the students. Today, the school is totally cut off from his social and physical environment and the knowledge imparted or gained by him has no relevance to the local History, local Geography, local Economics, local Politics, or local Health. Thus, the syllabus of each Basic School will be different from the other school of the other village or other town. Basic Education will aim not at uprooting people from their locality, but will try to strengthen their roots in the same soil so that they can lead a better life without migrating to the cities to dwell in slums.

But, as we all know, Basic Education was not accepted or adopted by politically free India. Perhaps India still suffers from the old distinction of upper castes and lower castes. Classes have, of course, crumbled but classism still persists. Those who are in power and are the decision makers want that there should be two classes, at least, in the Indian nation, i.e., the elite class and the mass class of ordinary and common people. To my mind, this is the cause of Basic Education remaining ignored and unaccepted. However, while the elite classes have disallowed the elite-ish school-education to spread among the masses, the masses are still educating themselves through productive work in their families and in their farm fields. Thus, we can see that Basic Education continues to be relevant in spite of its being rejected by the formal schools of education run by the elite class and the politicians. Just as honesty and good will can never lose their relevance in society even if the schools of today do not promote honesty and good will, Basic Education too, cannot lose its relevance just because the present schools do not recognize its relevance. What we must never forget is the fact that education is not a captive in the jails or the prisons, which are called schools. Education begins from the day a child is born and it continues till he has lived his life and reaches his death. Education does not recognize school bells dividing the periods allotted to different subjects. Life itself is an educative process provided we learn the art of self-learning and educating ourselves. Basic Education aims at making a man his own self teacher or his own self educator. People living on the banks of a lake are taught swimming by the lake itself. Thus, education is a free gift of living. The school's claim of monopolizing education is a fraud. So, Basic Education is not dead in spite of the schools, which have rejected it. And Basic Education is not going to die even in the 21st century. Bad impacts of the life-less drudgery schools of today are showing themselves day by day. Man has to return to right education i.e. "living education" if mankind is to survive on this planet called Earth. Today mankind is running blindly and restlessly without any sense of direction. The results are awful. Religions, so long and so far in human history, have of course emphasized pity towards other creatures. But, mankind during its past history never thought that even our natural and physical surroundings needed our pity, or mercy and our compassion so that this mother- nature could preserve its capability of sustaining its creation on earth. But, today a new prophet and a new faith or religion are needed to compel mankind to stop its violence and cruelty against the dumb, but life-sustaining mother-nature. Let us hope that the 21 st century will give birth to such a new prophet and introduce such a new faith, such a new creed and such a new religion. Basic Education will prove to be the right type of education for such a new era. This is my hope and my dream. - Dayal Chandra Soni

Education System Of India

EDUCATION SYSTEM OF INDIA 38% of doctors in America are Indians 12% of scientists in America are Indians 36% of NASA employees are Indians 34% of Microsoft employees are Indians The India group is the only one from South Asia to figure in the top 10 economically active working-age population. The group's average annual income is higher than that of the local British (21,250 pounds). Third largest tertiary education system after china and US. We have institutions like IITs and IIMs which are recognized worldwide and worlds largest consultancy firm Mac Kinsey hires most of the students from IIMs. Indian people are at top level in many world famous companies like chairman and chief

executive of Pepsi-cola, Indra Nooyi and the mind behind many inventions like Vinod Dham, inventor of Pentium chip and there are so many. Does all this data indicate in any way that Indians are less intelligent than others or for that matter lacking in educational qualifications than others????

GET BETTER GRADES

Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 550,000 just like it!

No?????? Then have a look at the following data: The literacy rate of India as of 2009 is estimated to be 79.9% Of the entire world's illiterate people, 35% live in India. it is estimated that by the year 2020 over 50% of the illiterate population will live in India Approximately 40% of students, mostly girls, drop out by secondary school. Approximately 9 million children are not yet enrolled in schools. 52 percent of children aged 7 to 14 in rural India could not read a simple paragraph of second-grade difficulty, even after attending school. The HDI ranking of India in 2009 is 132nd out of 179 countries. In India 40% of the people who commit suicide belong to the adolescent age group. What is the reason that the country which has 3rd largest tertiary education system in the world, fails miserably at its primary and secondary level?? What is the reason that there are more number of suicides... ----

We Need A Revolution In The Education System In India?

We need a revolution in the education system in India? Education builds the man so it builds the nation. Today we claim to be the biggest human resources supplier for the world, but are we concerned what quality of human capital we are building and for whose needs? We supply bureaucrats to the government, software engineers to the IT companies around the world, highly paid managers to the multinationals, we supply engineers and science graduates as researchers to the foreign universities. What capital are we building for ourselves? India aspires to be powerful, it wants to play a role in the international community, for that to happen, its economy has to grow multifold and for that to happen, it requires a huge force of entrepreneurs who could transform it into a nation which produces, from the one which only consumes. India needs a huge force of innovators who could make it self reliant in all kinds of sciences and technologies. India needs artists who could make its culture the most

GET BETTER GRADES

Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 550,000 just like it!

popular in the world. A culture which is not only saleable itself but also helps in selling Indias products across the world. In a nutshell, India needs Henry Fords, Bill Gateses, Thomas Alva Edisons and Michael Jacksons born and educated in India. One may say we had few. Yes, we had. M. S. Swaminathan who made India self reliant in food grains, Dhiru Bhai Ambani who proved a common man can become a billionaire, Dr. Varghese Kurien who is the father of Amul milk movement, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam who dared to build missiles for India, Pundit Ravishankar who is the ambassador of the Indian music to the world. Such people though in small numbers, were always there. But they are not the products of this education system. This system did not teach them how to become innovators or entrepreneurs or artists. Had it done so, they would have been millions in numbers. These people were inspired themselves. To some of them, their education may have given the technical know-how (though it is...