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
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