education – Humans for Change

Education has never been a priority. While it might have been a priority individually,never a priority as a country.

Why? Because it is an investment which reaps benefits only later. Because those benefits are not apparent and on the face of it. All this while children are judged on the basis of how they perform in school,especially for conservative countries like ours but never has it ever come down to what and how the process has been for it all along.

Schools have always come under the category of one size fits all type of approach. There have been already numerous number of debates which expose those institutions to criticism for the way they structure education. This is not something which is new. But why is this a problem that nobody is solving? Because this is something which does not come under the category of one size fits all. Therefore,reforms in a system which has no one perfect solution to it cannot possibly work out.

What is the downside to not solving it? That education could close up various gaps. Some of our country’s major problems involve population,income inequality,gender wage gap,cultural barriers to name a few. But the point is that investing in its education system would also solve a lot of those problem.

Population: This is something which needs to be paid attention to soon whereas no efforts are taken place to curb it. Basic awareness could solve such a problem,but to no avail. The other aspect of this is that labour resource provided to us is not being used efficiently. How do you use it efficiently? By educating and helping them to garner skills.

Income Inequality: The gap just seems to widen further every year. You solve this one with education as well. It restricts unemployment,one of the prime factors in developing countries and lessens the gap of wealth between individuals. Unemployment in turn also lessens crime. Seems like a win-win.

Gender wage gap:Studies show that women tend to be in less paying industries than men. Equality among genders is still a dream and therefore in many countries like ours which are crippled with conservatism,working women is still a taboo thereby leaving women with almost no education and skills. You’re right,education helps here as well. Education gnaws on those myths and stereotypical values promoting causes such as equality and the whole spectacle behind women are only made for children and maternity.

Cultural barriers: Racism,communalism and all sorts of discriminatory tactics which exist worldwide are something which claw onto you early on. While it is difficult for our older relatives to be “woke”,our present and future generations can help. All of these cultural barriers can be eradicated with awareness. Such rifts and discrimination also causes destabilizing of the country and the economy which certainly does not aid a country’s goal.

Our government needsl0 to pay attention to this untapped investment which with a little bit of nudging can shift the forces of the world.

Comment below whatever you think can also be solved by educating people around you 🙂

Introduction

This article intends to outline the basics of the Indian education system.There is an urgent need to point out the sanctity and importance of the education system in any country but there are certainly several loopholes that you can poke in the Indian education system in this day and age as well. The very grave one being that the same curriculum is taught in schools across the country with the same teaching pedagogy passed over since decades by earlier teachers. Therefore,this article’s purpose is to explore and pinpoint what all needs to be changed in Indian Schools focusing especially on the curriculum taught and the role a school plays in the personal development of a child.

The Indian Education System has been stagnant and outdated for quite some time to say the least and is in desperate need of being redefined. It is imperative to look at the curriculum and how it is taught and,at the same time to take a look at what roles do the teachers play in the daily lives of the kids. Therefore,this article does not intend to delve deep in an analysis of the Education System but intends to draw a wholesome picture of what all needs to be improved.

Curriculum

1)Let’s start with the basics of the Education system in India. There are five education boards in India;

a)CBSE(Central Board of Secondary Education)

b)State Board(Separate board of every state)

c)ICSE/ISC(The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education)

d)IB(International Baccalaureate)

e)Cambridge IGCSE Indian Studies.

While the first three boards provide somewhat the same subjects to be taught and assessed in schools and the curriculum process,the last two boards have been newly introduced for children wanting to pursue higher studies abroad and tend to provide much more flexibility.

The first three boards are the boards which are generally pursued by an Indian child. The curriculum of these boards has not changed much over some time.

The first three boards even though while providing somewhat similar subjects are not assessed in the same manner. Therefore this often leads to marks not being judged on a uniform level and assessment not being made on a generic marking scheme.

The implementation of the curriculum is often made out to be a practise through rote learning and the ultimate goal for students to score higher marks for the sake of getting into good colleges.

It is imperative to understand that schools play an important role in the overall growth of children. Children generally spend 6-8 hours in their schools while going from class to class they do tend to develop a habit of being in school for the major part of their day but what needs to be paid attention to is for schools to have a dynamic curriculum which is adopted with changing times.

Practical and realistic approach to subjects need to be implemented so as to let the children know how to use such skills or information in the real world and not just to write a test so as to make their report cards look good.

The role of the faculty in the lives of the children

Often Indian teachers themselves are not equipped to handle the developments and changes that a child goes through while his/her entire school life. They tend to take their part in the child’s life as a casualty rather than of immense influence that it tends to be.

To take an example let’s take one of every grumpy teacher that we all have had at least once in our school life and especially in our primary classes. They might shame a child who has not done his/her homework or if they answered a question wrong in front of the whole class rather than to understand why he/she did not do his homework or is not interested in the subject or to try and make him/her understand the subject again. This is a common practise resorted to by teachers which they take lightly and don’t understand the repercussions of. The child,even if had tried to understand the subject harder after being shamed might not try at all and avoid the teacher altogether to face that kind of persecution again.

Subjects like drug awareness or sex education are considered to be a taboo in the Indian societies till date. While there might be people supporting the cause on social media,there needs to be something done at the very root level to normalize subjects like these or to make children more aware of the harm that drugs can cause them. Since teachers tend to dismiss the children that their moral compass doesn’t agree with they form an opinion and end up sticking to it rather than helping the child through the transition.

Our Indian society is majorly to blame for it because we have the tendency to shush or judge whatever we think might be morally wrong and teachers are certainly a part of that same Indian society.

Indian schools lack the very thing which students might need the most when going through a difficult time at home or school which are counsellors. While our teachers might be good at giving professional advice or on how to get into a good college but they certainly lack the sensitivity or the maturity which is needed to be dealt with a couple of teenagers.

Ps: Stay tuned,a second part to this article will be updated soon 🙂

Tag: education

Food for thought

Our Outdated Education System