What’s wrong with our education system?

by tesrygkhl' 10:47 PM 0 comments Education Indian Education System My Opinion Random Thoughts

There are many things. To start with, the fact that most Indian parents, and hence their children, believe in shortcuts to success. Everyone is taught how to give the right answers. But no one is taught to ask the right questions. It matters more who answers fast rather than who answers correct. Who get good marks, they don’t care if the student has understood the concept or did he just mug up all the stuff to get the exam clear. When a child says "I want to be a singer " or  " I want to be an artist", the parents only hear "I want to B.E" and make the child study engineering!!!

Recently I came across the news about a school in Delhi whose KG admission for 2018 are closed.  Well the kids, who have not yet born, are already in school. Who is to be blamed here? Parents? People around us? Growing population and competition? 

Today parents care all about what their neighbour think and other think about their child. “Sharma ji ka beta IIT ke liye preparation kar raha hai, tub he kar”, “Sharma ji ke bête ne 12^th ke baad engineering kia, tub he kar.” They don’t care if you don’t want to do engineering.  In other cultures, parents are truly happy knowing their kids are doing what they love. In our culture, parents are happy when their kids are doing what society loves. But with this logic even children should compare their dad with Sharma uncle. Sharma ji ke salary dekho, 7 figure, aur aap ke sirf 6?” “Sharma ji Merc chalate hai, aap nano se aage badhne wale ho nahee”. Driving the children with competition is not going to give any result!

Parents call their neighbour’s son as settled, just because he joined a famous coaching institute. They tell you how important programming language is, even if you are good in History.  The teachers are even worst. First of all they will teach you what is in the book. No extra knowledge is given.
 

For example
How to teach history: If the syllabus is about Indian freedom struggle, the teacher should do some more research than what is given in textbook. Make some presentations, some video clips from internet, Learn some quotes. And  then, Present the story in front of the students, with strong voice. Create an environment so strong with just the speech and some photos from projector that students should visualize that historic event in their mind. They should get Goosebumps after hearing the History. Because that what history really means. 

But what really happen is far worse. Teacher just read the textbook, or make someone read it.  Because they think you can pass history subject by reading it once. Lack of interest, pressure from parents and teachers, boring methods of teaching may lead to lack of quality education they procure.

English is a language which everybody should learn because it is used globally. To gain proper command on this language, first thing the teacher should teach is confidence. Second is grammar, and then, to speak fluently. Fluency comes by interaction. 

But our teacher doesn’t care about confidence building.  They teach grammar, students may or may not understand that. They won’t ask her to explain again because lack of confidence. Then they will communicate in broken English where people with good command in that language will laugh and that’s it. That guy will never speak in English again. And all he will care about is how to pass in that subject. And that is by attempting questions such as read the paragraph and answer the following. Or read the poem and answer the following.

Biology is taught without labs, same is the situation with physics and chemistry. With this being the situation of science, parents still want their kids to go for medical. 

Chemistry is introduced from eights class in most of the Indian boards. And the first chapter is always about periodic table. Well everything in chemistry start with periodic table of course. Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev is the founder of the latest and most correct periodic table. But before him, there were three other who tried to create their version of periodic table. They were  Johann Dobereiner, A.E.Beguyer de Chancourtois and John Newlands. 

The point is, in our syllabus, they have included all the 4 periodic tables. Which means that student have to learn all the four tables, one which is right and other 3 failed attempt. Because of this, students are so confused that they understand none of the four tables and they are screwed with chemistry for their whole life. I don’t understand the need of including the failed attempts of the table. Teach what is right. 

Our education system ask for Birth date of Mahatma Gandhi or Date of execution of Bhagat Singh, or the year of first independence revolution. Ask any 9^th grader when was Bhagat Singh executed, he, with taking time less than Google search, will say March 23, 1931, ask him what bhagat singh’s Hunger strike and Lahore conspiracy case, and he will be blank. 

In a proper education system child should be taught HOW to think, not WHAT to think. But in India, Child is taught WHAT to think, no matter HOW they think.
In India there are too many coaching centres but very few career counselling centres, causing people to study to get jobs and not to gain knowledge. Literacy and education are different. Every child who went to a school becomes a literate, but the big question is, are they being educated…in the sense, are they learning very basic things, like, are they able to differentiate between good and bad, are they learning manners; are they being creative, independent, etc. The answer would be NO.

Most of the useful things from the books will be out of portion and any which ways no one cares about the knowledge. It’s just about how long your answers are and well can you present them.
You can write a bunch-of-crap in a neat manner and still score good marks. And the same reason is why people buy notes and refuse to study from good books.

Many people don’t know this but in IIT exams- the so called ultimate exam of intelligence, the coaching institute teach the students how to crack the entrance exam. They taught to eliminate wrong answers instead of finding the right answers.

There is nothing like "Studying for Knowledge" in the Indian education system. If something is not in the 'portion', we feel disinterested to study that. If something is there in the portion, we want to study just that. And study in the sense to remember and to be able to write the answer well and get marks, instead of understanding the core concept.

Ever since our childhood, we are taught that failing is a sin. Like literally, people that fail in exams are looked down upon by others and it is our parents that encourage this behaviour. And this stigmatization of failing leads to reduction in the confidence of the person that has failed.

You have interest in botany? Then first learn about C language and VB, may be some database, and let’s add some derivatives. You want to learn about computers? First learn various forms of carbon compounds and remember how many wives Akbar had.  You want to do MCA, better if you have studied biology in your 12^th grade.

We can change this.

In Mahabharata, Pandavas and Kauravas went through a mentor-led education. Drona took meticulous care of his students. He not only taught them skill sets, but also provided them opportunities to use the skills in real life [like fighting a war with Drupada] while doing the studies.

Similarly, Indian education system should focus on skill identification tests to find out where the students are good at. Maybe he is really good at design, while someone is really good at writing. Allocate some hour a day of school for students to work on this skill under a mentor.  

 
Portion should be wisely sorted according to the need of the field. Understanding the concept should be the aim, rather than just passing. Reward creativity, original thinking, research and innovation. Get smarter people to teach. And please, let your child decide for himself whether he wants to be an engineer or doctor or a painter.