I recently watched a TED Talk given by a young man about the Indian Education System. He spoke informally, in a casual and friendly tone, even made some hilarious jokes between statements, but the audience’s response wasn’t all that significant. I knew the answer for this, the answer for why the room was awkwardly silent throughout the course of his speech, and the answer was obvious--The audience was in favor of the system.
Picture this: A peaceful scenery, disciples of the village Guru offering presents to him. The Guru teaching and inculcating values, religion, science, and math to his students. Blissful, isn’t it?
Enter Thomas Babington Macaulay, a British historian, who scoffed at the prevalent system of education in India and suggested his very own version, known popularly as Macaulayism.
Enough history, let’s snap into the 21st century:
The education system incorporated into India by Macaulay is now a multi-billion-dollar industry, with the Union Government spending nearly $120 Billion on this. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) dominates the education market with tens of millions of students claiming it as their educational board.
With such a massive scale of importance, one cannot expect the system to come without flaws, and some minor flaws could be acceptable, but what is one to do, when the entire system is based on something archaic and irrelevant today?
We can compare computers of the past century to those of today, cars of the 1900s to those of today, airplanes of the 20th century to those of today and see stark differences between the two; How about we compare the education system in India of the 1900s with that of today? It is shameful to note that there aren’t any major changes! Yes, this is a cause of worry and requires much thought. We are stuck with the same old blackboards (perhaps some schools use whiteboards), the same old dusty classrooms, and most importantly, the cobweb-ridden syllabus.
Only a fraction of what we are learning today is actually useful in our careers, the rest are more or less a formality, an ornamental piece of pseudo-education, a mere decoration on the Christmas tree. It serves no actual purpose, it’s taught merely for the sake of gaining grades which are paramount to society.
Indian society is highly meritocratic. A person’s position in society depends on his degree. But what exactly ignited this crazy obsession? Why are all Indian parents in a rat race to get their child to top the board exams? What’s with this awkwardly obscene affinity that parents have towards grades?
Gen X (Born between 1960-1976) which forms the working class of today or the parents of the millions of students enrolled in the system, grew up with the impression that a good degree ensures a good job. Well, unfortunately, this still holds true today. But to Gen X, this was much more, education became synonymous with security and success. They were under the impression that in the absence/lack of education, one cannot make it big in their life.
Their thought holds partially true. Yes, education is important, it is more of a headstart or a boost one gets in the race called life. Hence, it can be considered a utility. But, there’s a catch, the prevalent education system in India is more of a commercial agenda than that of a holistic one. Although many schools claim and use the word Holistic to define themselves very liberally, the majority of them don’t take the word seriously. ‘Holistic’ has become more of an advertising term aimed to attract wary, obsessed parents and then feed on their fear of lack of education.
Indian parents seem to have a crush on the education system. Their obsession with the system is beyond logic. One cannot fathom the depths of fixation of Indian Parents with the system. They will go to any extent to make sure that their children top the class.
At first sight, this may seem like all fun and games, but this is not the case. We all know that everyone can’t be good at everything. No one is the Jack of all trades, but Indian parents always seem to miss this point. Even if their child is not academically proficient, they try to squeeze the grades out of them.
We all know it’s futile to judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. We also know that a monkey can beat a fish when it comes to tree climbing but cannot when it comes to swimming, hence we deem the two as incomparable.
Only if this logic applied to Indian students undergoing so much scrutiny for getting low grades.
The absolutism of the Indian education system beats the fact that each student is different. Not everyone is academically proficient, some are good in sports, some at art, some at film making, and the like. Forcing a generalized syllabus on this huge variety is a recipe for disaster.
Just like how old things are amended or replaced by new ones, the education system must be replaced by a non-absolute one. One that caters to the requirements and complements the talents of each individual student. One that doesn’t discriminate on the basis of academic proficiency, or one that doesn’t force or expect everyone to be equally academically proficient.
Such a system is surely a very complex one, it requires years of planning. Its execution should be brought through by small but steady steps.
Such a system will discourage malpractice among students and other unfair methods. It will encourage the students to trust in the system itself, it will not, by any means, alienate a group of academically weak students and such a system is what India needs to develop in the educational sphere.
Blog by Ron Savio
Improfane India
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