LOOKING THROUGH BLIND EYES

How figuratively effective is a 95 and how inadequate is a 94.5??How fair is it, when a student tagged ‘OC’, of an unaffordable family standard with a better grade than another individual tagged ‘OBC’ of a better standard, isn’t admitted in some reputable institution?

The modus operandi of the Indian education system is perhaps well acquainted with the insensitivity and inadequacy of satisfactory answers to these questions.

Welcome to a world where obscure numbers, averages and percentages dictate the working of young minds; where what you learn stands of no significance to the reality of how much you are tamed to learn. If a human brain can be tried and tested within a narrow band of 100 marks, a DaVinci could have well been as good as an Albert Einstein and a Bob Marley could be on a par with Bill Gates.

Our educational system is a jaded one wherein quantity bulldozes quality. Exams are here to test how much an individual can amass in his mind, without learning to ask those very basic questions we homo sapiens are all born to ask-‘what ,’why’ and ‘how’. If you can be led by what the syllabi tell you and heap up in mind, the innumerable and obsolete theory packed in textbooks, you’re the master of this educational system. And no matter, how intelligent you might be, for all your analytical skills, if you can’t trash in a decent aggregate, you’re always behind the line.

The irony is such that, a twelfth grade student would most likely be learning his Basic English-the noun, verb and the adjective for the zillionth time in his life and his language would be judged on whether he could distinguish between the present, past and the future tense. Language is no subject to clog your mind with theoretical crap. It should be taught as a tool of communication; of effective speaking and writing. It cannot be mastered by hauling attractive scores in lame examinations.

When working with what you learn is the key to understand, here is a system that secludes practicality. The so called ‘theory’ that is learnt in classrooms is secluded from real-time work, when both of them should always go alongside one another. And mind you, these work sessions are again a fodder for a sum of marks which would constitute the practical exam.

Perhaps the most pathetic truth of all is that this system is yet to come up with a honest method to distinguish the good performances from the bad, in its hullabaloo-hyped exams. Here’s the realistic scenario of how exams are evaluated: Most solutions to questions are judged on how many pages they have so painfully been able to consume or the décor of their writing. In the end, post-results, students are sometimes left to ponder over whether they have been done any justice at all. And to re-evaluate their own answer papers in case of any hope that might add a couple of marks, they are to pay huge sums of money, for which, the process takes an agonizingly long time.

Despite the all and sundry promises and propaganda, the government seems to make for the betterment of basic education, the facts stand out as miserable. Rural education, a far-cry, is ailed by inadequate facilities ranging from the unavailability of electricity, books and even proper buildings and sanitation. Poverty-afflicted families stand neglected, while a few of them had to pay bribes to enable their children to access the education services provided by the government. Due to the meager wages offered for teaching staff at public schools, these students are denied good, effective teachers. The deplorable facilities add to the cause and the repercussion is hardly a motivation for these people to work in these institutions.

Has today’s education become a hot-spot in Indian money-making? Well, a single look at the monetary demands of today’s educational institutions might lead you to think that they would contribute to the national budget. If you can shell out a big sum, any institution is at your avail and waiting to gorge your money. Where’s the transparency in all this money-eating? Private institutions should be regulated strictly on their heavy monetary imposition before this country goes bankrupt.

Add to this, the much debated reservation issues and it just seems to make an exaggerated blend of politics and business. And by heavens, what purpose does this discrimination of caste serve? Not to hurt anyone’s sentiments, If reservation aims to serve the under-privileged individuals, then it’s a catastrophic misery, the government fails to realize that ‘caste’ is, in no way, related to ‘standard of living’. And if there should be any reservation, it should rightfully go to those below the affordable standards and not to any Tom, Dick and Harry just because he belongs to some caste or creed.

The rush toward information technology in the past few years seems to be overwhelming. Engineering and medicine seem to be flooded and have conjured a scenario where the uncertainty amongst students to take up off-beat streams has increased manifold. We need a balance between all employment streams sans the dominance by engineering and medicine. This widening gap should be bridged and only then shall we realize the magnitude of fields awaiting skill and innovation. Cometh the end of the higher secondary and the mad ballyhoo that surrounds the exams makes it look as if the fates of these students are chained to science and commerce. There is such a vast pool of talent in this land that lands in wrong places merely due to the lure of high prospects of income in these major streams.

Education is about discovering abilities within, the love and the passion to take up something and pursue it. It’s not about producing a genius here and there, which ironically, in the language of our lame education tree, relates to ‘toppers’ with good-looking averages. It’s about putting the pieces of jigsaw together, so that everything and everyone can fit in their rightful places. Unless it serves this purpose, education in any form and content, becomes only a weed.