Lets think about
education at school and its current status in India.
- Our government schools are
undesirable to us citizens. We send our children to government schools if we can't
afford private schools, or if we are
government employees.
- Our public education depends
on budget allocation and hence driven by economy.
- Though there are improvements in public education (RTE, play-way methods and achievement of universal enrollment) quality remains sub-standard, it would be fair to say that it hasn't evolved fast enough to match the need.
- Our private schools range
from cheap to expensive ones. In general they prepare students to be the
workforce for India's private and public enterprises. They prepare
them for work, but not for life.
- Private schools are business
enterprises and it’s a sellers' market. Schools dictate the price of the
commodity, they assess the quality
of the raw material (read children) before being used as an input, and tailor the finished product (read
students finishing 12th grade or equivalent) to meet a standard (read college entrance exams!).
If it mandates, they have the free hand to get rid of the raw material midway,
if they feel that not doing so would significantly diminish the perceived
reputation of the business (school).
- School expenses form a
significant percentage of family expenditure regardless of whether the school is a cheap or an expensive
one.
I am no expert in
education, even though I am interested enough to read, watch and
discuss a lot about constantly. I think the above summary fairly captures the reality
about today's education in India. Needless to say, this has to change. But how
should education be?
Stakeholders should
recognize that employability does not
completely define success in education. It is only one dimension of success.
What defines complete success of education is, in itself, is a worthy matter of
debate, research and stakeholders are better of forming a framework for this.
However, in my opinion, when a child turns sixteen, if she recognizes
- her interests, has a general
idea of how to pursue it,
- that an unfamiliar situation
makes her curious rather than insecure
- how to handle a setback and
use it as a lesson
- that excellence can be
attained through resilient pursuit, constant endeavor to improve rather
than "high adrenaline, last minute" preparation
- that mental, physical health
as important as professional success
- that social responsibility is
relevant
the school would
have played its part. Clearly, only academic excellence as the primary aim
doesn't do justice to this end. If children right across the different strata of
the society are to be empowered, the school system should be highly
research-oriented, personalized, universal (inclusive of children with economic
and learning disadvantages) and evolving.
To make it
research-oriented and personalized, teaching position should be made reputed
enough to attract in the best minds. Such individuals should be empowered by
the stakeholders (government, parents, school administration) to design or
modify the curriculum.
To make it
universal, education should be decoupled from yearly budget allocations or
reduction and the uncertainties of market economics. Education should be cheap
if not free.
To make education an evolution, exams should be considered as much an assessment of teaching quality as it is of learning ability.
Countries and local
governments best known for their education system already implement the above suggestion. Finland, considered to have the best education system in the world, offers free education with highly personalized curriculum designed and customized by
empowered teachers. USA, despite a lot of criticism of its educational policies,
has a lot of best minds like
Howard
Gardner,
Carol Dweck and
multitudes of school teachers and teacher-trainers devising, customizing and implementing teaching
methodologies at all school levels.
A
look at
Edutopia would give an idea about the mind-boggling churn around education. I
don't see this level of energy at the school level in any of the stakeholders here in
India, though we do have positive outliers like
Maduram
schools,
Barefoot
college,
Government Primary School in Motwada and Azim Premji University.
Following the
footsteps of those who have tasted success is a good start, but devising our
own strategy in education is just as important to ensure quality. I
would like to put forth one radical idea here - as a question rather than a suggestion. To my knowledge this isn't done
in any other country.
Given that education
has to be universal, economically insulated from the market uncertainties and
unprejudiced, is there a good case for making education as the fourth branch of
democracy alongside legislature, executive and judiciary? After all, judiciary
is largely not affected by the prejudice of the government, judges and judicial
staff do get paid even though they don't add any value to the market (nobody
asks where the money comes from!) and education of our children play as
important a role in the future of our society
as does justice. Doesn't it?
