Ten decades have seen education programmes in India evolve and innovate but all efforts to shrug the colonial medium of instruction have failed, a chapter of study for policy makers

The present Indian education system was imposed on us by the British —  Macaulay (Thomas Babington). This was the imperialist kind of education as they wanted educated clerks. When we got our Freedom in 1947, the successive Governments tried to change but unfortunately education has not reached the nooks and corners of the country. While more and more people have succeeded getting into schools but when we talk of quality education that’s worrying. Quality education is different from functional. Then there is the evaluation, the results are disheartening. If a child in Class V can’t read or write correctly, we are doing something wrong. We are text-oriented. A child must receive education from a teacher who is the text. What is concerning is whether children understand what they learn. Real learning takes place when have the knowledge and also the ability to apply it. Application — one is to know and second is to do — to be able to do. The third, one is to be. What kind of human beings are we? Are we peace loving? Are we always criticising ? Are we creating students who are sloganeering. Look at the condition of the nation right now. We haven’t learnt from our parliamentarians or from theoretical education or from our leaders to settle things by understanding. Somebody started something, we just join and it becomes a political issue. The children should be happy to learn but they are now getting into all kinds of things. The blame rests with the media. It should act as a teaching tool. Schools, teachers and parents have to give better sense to students to understand the difference between correct and incorrect.

We also have a very little respect for our country’s property. Good education should lead to greater discipline, greater respect for each other and be able to live together peacefully. These were the four principles of UNESCO — to know, to be, to do and to be able to live with each other peacefully. The world has become a global village so whatever happens in one country affects the other. We are celebrating the 150th year of Gandhi, his anniversary but unfortunately what you are seeing for the past few months is just the opposite of what we are teaching. There is a gap between our action and exams.

I call Indian education system as Indian exam system. Look at the number of holidays, the number of strikes, the number of very hot days and very cold days. The total number of working hours are limited to probably 1,500. But out of this how much is actual work? Not more than 140 hours in a year. More than half the year, the children are not learning.

Today, we have got two types of schools — privately owned and the other in which the Government is taking the responsibility. So far the Government was taking the responsibility for six-14 years but now in the new education policy it is going to be divided into five stages — pre-primary to the higher senior secondary school, they are going to give compulsory and free education. But offering that doesn’t really mean that every student is getting learned. Our education is not bad but somehow the outcomes are not we want to see as much we see through Pichai (Sundar) and Nadella (Satya Narayana). There is no doubt that the Indian mind is the best mind in the world. However, we need the best education which leads to people with greater values. The leaders have to set an example. Each morning parents are hiding the newspaper so that the children don’t see such news. Our morality has fallen to the lowest.

Value education is a way forward but not without seeing an outcome. Children should actually be given credit for their values. Having debates, declamations and having lot of enactments would help when they leave school. But this is only happening in the paid schools. What about those schools where parents are not educated and they fall back upon schools to do the needful? Look at the unemployment, it is going to be huge in the coming years. Our students are going to end up becoming jack of all trade. There are so many subjects in Class X. There are 5 marks for Economics, 10 marks for Civics, 10 marks for Geography. Even the Social Studies has so many subjects. What they are learning are only for exam. So parents are sending their children to tuitions.

Other systems like IB and IGCSC are promoting a lot of self-learning. Also, there is a very little being done when  it comes to research at a lower level. It is only when students go to colleges maybe in abroad that there is a big difference. Children are not becoming thinkers. The Government has started thinking labs. But how many impart quality? Very miniscule compared barely to the needs.

Technology has played an important role in education. Take the example of Byju’s. It is becoming very popular for parents who are not educatedand for parents who don’t have time. One can also take tuitions online. The Central Board of Secondary Education needs to be congratulated for introducing many new subjects but still socially and culturally, we do not give skill education. Children who take skill and vocational credits are academically low. If a child opts for pre-medical, pre-engineering, pre-accountancy, pre-legal studies then it is okay. But if he takes other things like music and or dance  one has no respect in the society.

There is little parent education in our country. If parent is going on a strike, child will do it also. Where are the likes of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel to  whom they look up to. When they look at the world, they see the same thing.

One is talking about the impeachment of the President of America. So the whole world is undergoing a huge a huge upheaval with morality. Children are shouting and slonganeering as if they are enjoying all of this. Ther eis a mob mentality. Then the child says he can’t be prosecuted because he is underage. There is no underage. There is no age bar for inhumane behaviour. 

There is very little respect for others. If there is, it is to limited professions like doctors, engineers, chartered accountants, lawyers or MBAs. But if you are doing anything different from that then there is a lot of risk factor. Parents are really breathing down their wards necks. They have nothing to contribute towards their child’s well-being, they only expect. They want their own ambitions to be fulfilled by the children without giving them psychological support. This is leading to more and more cases of depression. Cases of suicide and runaways are on the rise. If the schools  are good, country is good. If people are educated in true sense, there is progress in the nation but if all of this is missing then thee future of the nation becomes at stake.

We have failed to create broad public awareness for two things — education and  health. On day-today basis there is unspoken suffering of the illiterate and uneducated those who are born after Independence . There is still such a big gap between those who are well-educated and those who are poorly educated. Education is the most complex and greatest challenge in a country as huge as ours. A solution is each educated person could teach one family. We did have the slogans like Each one Teach One or Teach for India. We need many such projects.

Now, of course, birth is beyond human control but rehabilitating those who  haven’t got enough for the disability sector and the marginal sectors, we need to make a sacrifice and hold their hands. This is something which touches my heart the most.

The Writer is Shyama Chona, Social activist & educationist