Education in India has a great value especially in middle class and higher class. The struggle of parents for providing a quality education to child starts with the birth of child and so does the struggle of a child to fulfill the expectations of its parents. But even after so much of efforts, our country doesn’t seem to have come very far and lagging behind on the international track. It’s not only the rate of literacy that is low but even higher education with institutes like IITs, IIMs, AIIMS etc. is not in very good state if we look at on the international standards. So, the question is even after so much of awareness and enthusiasm for education, why is our country is still far behind its international counterparts? Obviously, there is something wrong somewhere!! But what exactly? Let’s analyze it microscopically.
So, again, why even after so much enthusiasm for higher education, it’s in a sorry state? Is there a myopic view towards education in our society? Or is it really the enthusiasm for education or something else under the veil of education? When I was a child I used to hear a Hindi two liner quite a many times “Padhogey, likhogey banogey Nawab! Khelogey kudogey banogey kaharab!” So, there is an emphasis on education so that one can earn good money and become successful and there is nothing in wrong that either.
India has been a poverty stricken country since independence and so only way that seemed to a person to earn a comfortable life is to earn a good degree which is again a myopic view but we won’t turn this discussion in that direction. So, we are forced to take up those courses which we don’t connect with as our interest but which not only would get us a high paying job but also uplift our own and our family’s status.
So, what happens in such a case? Obviously, when you do something against your will, you won’t be able to give it your best. Not only that, due to this attitude students tend to get into a rat race of getting best marks without focusing excellence. But then we ignore the fact that with such an attitude we may achieve certain level of the so called ‘status’ but we won’t be able to go very far. It’s not that we don’t know this fact. We do.
We appreciate films like ‘3 Idiots’ but we don’t implement in our lives. Why? To me only one reason seems most appropriate and that is ‘fear’. We are scared to break the protocols set for so many years. We are scared to follow the untraded path. And it’s somewhere inculcated in our approach towards life to follow and not to lead, not to revolt, not to evolve, just let it be how it is. It is fed in our thought process since our childhood not to speak your mind and worse not to even think anything against the norms. We are made slaves on a mental level.
Let me narrate you a story. One my friend’s father who when was in school was given an assignment to write an essay on ‘Telecommunication’. In that essay he mentioned that there would come a day when we will carry telephones in our hands and talk while traveling too. But the teacher without appreciating the imagination of the child and gave him a zero killing his innovative thinking then and there. But what do see now? Mobile phones have become indispensible. If that child was encouraged for that essay he may would have become a telecommunication scientist and came up with some important inventions. But alas! He was again made a good athlete of that rat race.
So, is it only us as people of this country are responsible for this? Of course not. Our government and its policies are equally responsible for that. If we look closely, we will find that our govt.’s education policy has been to create good skilled laborers rather than innovators and there nothing very grossly wrong in that. We have such a large population and so won’t it be a good use of this larger population to create a skilled labor force converting our huge population from bane to boon? May be. I am not very sure about it though.
But whatever it is, now it’s time to switch gear and start focusing on policies which would create innovators and not skilled labors. And since it is very difficult to change the attitude of a person when she/he is grown up, the policy should be such that it starts at the base i.e. primary level education. The basic goal should be to impart an education which would rather focus on ‘how you think?’ rather than ‘what you think?’. Triggering a thought process is very important to bring up a revolutionary change whether in education system or the entire political system. So, when we say we need to improve our education system it should not be just about introducing new courses, it should more about changing the approach of imparting education rather than changing the content and the best way to bring up revolutionize changes at the grass root level i.e. primary education. Give the children freedom of thought and expression and they will come up with a new order and a new era.
Anyway, what we have practiced till now has not worked for us. It’s time!! Time to change!!!