Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Happy New Year - 2021
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
COVID - Appreciating a slow-moving life
Sunday, August 16, 2020
National Education Policy 2020: 3 - Key Problems In Indian Educational Sector Part II
5. Ignoring phenomenal works in Indian languages
A lot of world-class literature in Indian languages are
ignored in preference to English. It is an irony that in social media age we
are even ignoring the best of English as well.
Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare, John Keats, William Wordsworth,
Elliot, Blake, Kipling, Yeats, Coleridge, Rossetti, Lawrence, Dickens, Woolf,
Orwell, Forester etc. are great no doubt. At the same time, there are a lot of wonderful
writers who produced seminal works in other languages.
English is one of the greatest languages of all time; and in
India, it is probably the only pan-Indian language that equalizes all. But, do
we really care about some of the greatest works of Indian languages, other than
the names which we learned to crack some quiz questions?
How many of us read Cilappatikaram, Manimekalai,
Randamoozham, Pathummayude Aadu, Oru
Desathinte Katha, Durgesh Nandini, Kapalkundala, Devdas, Chokher Bali,
Anandamath, Kulliyat-i-Sauda, Umrao Jan Ada, Nadaar Log, Jangloos, Godaan, Laal
Passena, Gunahon Ka Devata, Karmabhoomi, Nirmala, Madhushala, Kamayani, Svapna
Vasavadattam, Vikramorvasiyam, Mudrarakshasa, Kadambari, Makam, Mayabritta,
Bheda… list is endless.
I am not saying we should stop reading English works and
start with these ones. Of course not. Being said that, we should also give some
attention to these works. If one cannot read it in the original language, then at
least read its translation.
Life is much more than just engineering and medicine.
6. Refusal to accept failure
Society fails to accept failure as a reality. We consider
failure as the end of the world. Though we read about thousands who failed first
and then went on with a blockbuster life, we do not change our opinion about failures
in schools and colleges. Society considers those people are good for nothing.
To fix this issue and for political mileage, we started
making everyone pass. Better pass percentage was good for optics. This only
made matters worse. When half of the people were failing it was ok, but when 99%
people are passing the stigma on failed people became even higher. We gave extraordinary
importance to marks; at the same time ignored whether there is any value
addition.
Studies showed that a lot of kids in 6th and 7h
were not able to do 3rd class’s math. Companies are complaining
that they need to retrain graduates to make them employable.
Society must accept the fact that failure is the other side
of the coin.
7. The flawed Teacher Recruitment process
I did not study the teacher recruitment process in other states.
However, in my home state - Kerala, there is a flawed policy exiting for a very
long time.
The current educational system in Kerala represents the socio-political
condition of the state. Here, the private school management is very much organized
and protected by the power of communities’ politics. Most educational institutions –
aka aided schools – are at least partially or fully supported by the state
government. Government pays the salaries of both teaching and non-teaching
staff on the same scale as that of teachers in government-run schools. The
catch is the government does not have a say in the recruitment of teachers in these
schools. Management collects money from individuals and appoints them as
teachers; the amount they swallow is quite high. Once appointed, are eligible
for government salary and pension – in one buying a government job.
Huge networks of these schools are run by caste and religious
organizations. This often led to giving preference for those people who belongs
to the same caste/religion of management. Since a good percentage of these schools
are minority-run, governments do not dare to intervene. This is mainly due to
two reasons. One, these actions will be considered a breach of freedom for
minorities to run their own institutions. Second, upsetting them costs a lot of
votes in the election. Hence, this process of buying government jobs is going
on for decades. For those entering government, schools must pass PSC exams, be
in rank list and wait. Vacancies in government-supported private schools are
not open for them.
Now in unaided schools, where government does not pay salaries,
are run by taking money from students as tuition fees. The problem here is, teachers
are paid very less compared to that of government. Teachers are not organized.
They cannot raise any voice, as there are people out there who are ready to
work for lesser salaries.
Nowadays government and private schools are engaged in a bitter competition to get kids. For the last decade of the 20th century
and the first decade of the 21st century, kids switched to private unaided
schools in mass, where English was the medium of education. Numerous schools popped up and
fees became affordable even for the lower middle class. This created problems
in government schools (especially in government-supported private schools - aided)
and threatened the security of teacher’s jobs. If the teacher to student ratio come
below a certain level in a school, then the teacher will lose their jobs. There is
catch with those who bought their way to school, they cannot get a transfer to a fully government-owned school or to a school which is government-supported but
under different management. Stiff competition from unaided eventually forced
government and aided schools to get their act together.
In many other states, especially in tribal belts, there are
too many ghost teachers. A report came out during, All India Survey on Higher
Education stated that there are around 80,000 or more ghost teachers in the Indian
higher education system. This is just in the higher educational system, think about the school level.
Poverty runs so high that; parents send their kids to school
just to get the mid-day meal. Many schools have just one teacher for multiple
classes. If they got transferred or retired, then there may not be any
replacements immediately.
State and central governments spend very less percentage of
GDP on education. To make matters worse, primary and secondary education is neither
glamorous nor a vote-catching scheme. Unlike many takes pride, Indian origin
students passing spelling bee test in the US does not represent the quality of education
in India.
8. Outdated Syllabi
Indian school syllabus is outdated; may not be that much in
ICSE or CBSE, but definitely at state level.
A lot of things happened after the discovery of Newton's law
and Kirchoff's theorem. Science, history, and geography are especially bad. History
books are often written as novels. Indian history is often started with Harappan
civilization, Aryan invasion then jumps to Alexander, Mauryans and Ashoka,
Guptas and other empires here and there, then Sultanates and Mughals. After Aurangzeb, it directly jumps to East India Company, British Rule, the Indian independence movement,
Mahatma Gandhi and then independence.
Decorating this will be, a couple of social movements, INA, WWI,
WWII, a couple of revolutions like – American, Italian, French etc. Over a period,
there were changes but history is not yet taught at a scientific level. History
is not only about Emperors, kings, and princes it is a lot more about common
people and their life. When I was in school, China’s cultural revolution was
written as a success story; it was only years later I found out that it was one
of the worst human tragedies.
The world war was not fought in Europe alone, there was a lot of
fight that happened in the East Asian theatre. Millions not only died in Europe but in
Asia as well.
East of West Bengal comes as one-liner when we discuss INA. Otherwise, history textbooks across India hardly refer to any seven sister
states of North Eastern India. Currently, it is heavily loaded with colorful
stuff rather than culture, art, and least of all - common people.
Geography is also not different. I think literature is far
better compared to other subjects.
As I mentioned several times in this article, education is
not as glamorous for governments from an election point of view. However, it is
the foundation of India and a passport to the future. If we miss once, then an entire
generation must end up paying the prince.
In coming articles, we will start exploring new National
Education Policy 2020.
Sajeev
Saturday, August 15, 2020
National Education Policy 2020: 2 - Key Problems In Indian Educational Sector Part I
1. Can education be free when private capital is involved?
We hear statements from policymakers – education should be
free and available to all. Is this possible? First, the government does not have
enough capacity to build institutions and infrastructure for India’s huge
population. Private sector fills the void to an extent. Major players are - religious
institutions, charity foundations, private trusts, and a plethora of for-profit
(especially in higher education) organizations. Some are for social improvement;
others have their own goals and to make money.
In this scenario, could education be free? I do not think
so. The next question is, should that be affordable? Yes, all should get the opportunity.
If capital is the problem, then the government should fill the gap.
I am a true believer in capitalism. However, in education, I
believe the government should play a critical role. We as a country need to spend a higher percentage of GDP on education, build institutions, focus on girl’s education.
1 rupee here will save 10 rupees in other places. At least double educational expenditure
as a percentage of GDP.
Another key factor in the educational sector is the regulatory
mechanism and funding agencies – UGC, AICTE, State boards, CBSE, NCERT etc.
There are talks about creating a single, all-powerful regulatory mechanism
that governs everything from Delhi. Is that good? There are pros and cons.
One, a single body enough for education at all levels? Two, the concept of a centralized institution a good idea? For both, my answer is no.
Answering the first question, the needs of pre-primary and post-graduate
education is totally different. There is a reason why kids even on 6th and 7th are not able to do additions and subtractions. We neglect
preprimary and primary education. Building these institutions are not as
glamorous as setting up IITs. This is exactly what is going to happen if we
push everything to the same bracket. Let there be multiple regulators focusing on
specific areas of child development.
Answering the second question, education is a state subject and
there is a reason for that. The needs of each state and the level in which they
are currently in are totally different. A lot of educational initiatives were in fact introduced and driven by states.
Consider the case of mid-day meal system which drove kids to
school. British, introduced it in Madras presidency and French in Pondicherry.
Later in independent India, Kamaraj started a whole scale program in Madras (now
Chennai) and later extended to other districts.
Travancore started a noon-meal program in the 1940s; this
was extended after independence with assistance from ‘Co-operative for American
Relief Everywhere (CARE)’. In 1984, a feeding program with Kanji (rice gruel) was
introduced across LP schools. State also started offering travel concessions to students way
back in the 1950s. Even now students in Kerala can use public transport systems by
paying 25% of the actual fee.
By 1990-91 number of states implemented mid-day meal program
swelled to 12.
People who run the state administration and educationalists
from there are in the ground and understand the realities better. Let them have
the flexibility for customization. At the same time, we need to make sure, all
states are doing the minimum expected out of them.
2. A mess nick-named as ‘self-governing’ and ‘autonomous’
The second problem is regulation.
Numbers do matter, but hundreds of colleges coming up like
mushrooms in the rainy season is not a good thing. For e.g. Plethora of engineering
colleges in southern India are run by private entities where the quality does
not even peep through the gate.
It was only last month Haryana state vigilance bureau
arrested 14 senior ranking officers of state for obtaining MSc Zoology degrees illegally
from Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan based deemed universities. (TOI). As a matter of
fact, in India, MSc Zoology is not part of distance education. What more, many
of these officers were not even on leave in exam days!!!
In 2005, the Supreme Court of India declared ‘Chhattisgarh
Private Sector Universities Act’ as unconstitutional. Under this act, 112
private universities came up in one year!!! As per some reports, approximately
30,000 students were studying in these universities.
In Karnataka, it was IT department which exposed MBBS admission
scam.
Education is an industry now. People are here to make money;
it is the regulator's job to make sure that none of the colleges operating India
are fake or giving fake degrees. They also need to make sure; colleges are not
giving degrees without students attending classes or writing exams.
When someone asks me whether a college is good for their son’s/daughter’s
admission, I have no clue. There are no specific numbers that I can look in
to. All have the highest qualifications on paper. So mainly I investigate their
placement records. Not a very good parameter to look in to, but something which
one can rely on. In a way, this also has its flaws. Colleges in big cities often have
better placement records than far better colleges in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
Just being close to the industry is an advantage for them.
3. Apathy towards non-STEM subjects
Everyone wants to be in the science stream; if that is not
available then in commerce/business stream. No one wants to be in humanities.
Parents often find arts and humanities as a risky field for
jobs. Also, not good for their social status. Most often top rankers are not interested in taking majors in history, arts, geography, and subjects like that.
If you look around, many great people of all time were
experts in multiple areas. Great universities like Harvard encourage students
to have an understanding of multiple subjects. But in India people focus on STEM
(Science, technology, Engineering, Mathematics) which is good; but the lack of
appreciation of other subjects is the problem. This often leads to a place
where students lack an understanding of history and humanity.
In society, all problems are not engineering problems, and
all cannot be solved in that way. It's not that there are no opportunities in
other fields. Just look at the DataScience area, there is a lot of demand for
people who understand sociology, human behavior, statistics etc.
Lack of understanding in history is leading people to believe in things which divide society based on
caste and religion. I often heard many educated people talk about avenging for
things that happened centuries back; people who bar fellow human beings in
their gated communities, just because of their religion.
4. Utter disregard for physical work
I do not know how people get the idea that physical work is beneath
them. Many of those who talk hours on the plight of farmers hardly have any idea how to use gardening and farming tools.
Parents prohibit their kids from playing in the dirt; in the
same dirt where humans flourished for millions of years.
Sajeev
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
National Education Policy 2020: 1– An Introduction
"I was impressed by how Amy customizes learning. She told me
about one of her students, who is completely non-verbal, visually impaired, and
can’t move his arms or legs. Rather than focus on what this student couldn’t
do, Amy instead identified something he could do: nod and shake his head. She
came up with a writing system based on yes-or-no questions, so that he could
journal about what he did over the weekend with family just like all of his
classmates.
Amy’s goal is to create an inclusive environment where her
kids learn alongside their peers. Instead of the traditional model where
special needs students are siloed into their own program, her students are
integrated into the broader school. Each one learns and socializes in homeroom,
eats in the cafeteria, and participates in recess and gym class.
The result is a school where students with special needs are
treated as valuable and important members of the community. In addition to
making sure her kids are integrated into the broader student body, Amy also
works with the general population students to help them understand their
differently-abled peers. They start learning and talking about disabilities in
the classroom as early as kindergarten- Gates Notes, Bill Gates”
Amy Campbell is ‘Teacher of the Year’ in the state of
Washington (Gate’s home state), US.
Malcolm X once told, “Education is the passport to the
future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” If one is
denied of this passport, then it will be difficult – if not impossible – to
open so many doors.
In a philosophical sense, education is not limited to formal
education. Being said that, formal education is essential for livelihood and upward
mobility. One can always see a lot of people, who are phenomenally successful
in life, without any formal education. However, we should always remember, people
who dropped out of schools /universities and attained great things in real life
are exceptions, not the rule. There are millions on the other side, who,
because of the lack of formal education are struggling in life. You may ask
this question, what about those millions who completed higher education and
still struggling in life. Well, that is a different question – the one we are
going to discuss in great length in this series.
As a matter of fact, we did not inherit a deeply flawed
system. We cannot always blame history for everything. We had something, which was created by the British
and we had an opportunity to fix/modify it over a period. That educational
system failed to enroll the masses. Before blaming this one also on Nehru, let
me remind you that all governments got fair chance to fix it. Education is a
state subject; hence even the regional leaders also cannot wash their hands out
of that. Our refusal to accept the changes happening around the world only made
the matters worse. Currently, we have an educational system that is partly flawed,
corrupt, unfair, and out of date (especially the one run by state boards).
Let us discuss the problems first.
Sajeev