An overdose of discipline and the bag-loads of completely avoidable homework for even primary students is stifling the spirit of the child. The education system must be revamped to provide adequate space for children to grow
It is an irony of the situation that most children in Indian schools suffer several avoidable hardships because of a lax, archaic and reluctant system of educational administration and management. In Government schools, which should technically be called public schools, the suffering is inflicted in terms of non-availability of trained, competent and committed teachers, late or no receipt of textbooks, dress, scholarships and the like. Whatever be the official projections, it is indeed a rare sight to find Government elementary schools with a good building, separate usable toilets for both boys and girls. Students also suffer the absence of lady teachers, drinking water and leaking roofs. In these precarious conditions, there is not much point in expecting learner attainments at the desired levels. Several surveys and studies regularly confirm the popular belief that the quality of education in Government schools is deteriorating fast and these schools are also losing their credibility in people’s perception.
As a consequence, all those who could afford, look towards private ‘public schools’. These schools create a new world of promised excellence in education, which may not necessarily be the case in most of the cases, particularly those which focus more on dividends, shining buildings, buses, swimming pools etc, instead of the assured ‘all round development of the child’. Children in these schools suffer on some other counts that are different than those in Government schools but could be more stressful. In both of these categories, children are deprived of enjoying their ‘childhood’. Educationists world over persistently plead to make education a process of stress-free, care-free and joyful learning. It has to be education for smiles and happiness.
Not many may recall that there were sufficient grounds not to put the child in formal schools before five or six years of age. Children, however, learn all along in home environment. Family structures are changing fast; nuclear families do not have much time for the children. Hence, the child must be put in a crèche, a play school or a nursery school and finally, in a prestigious public school. A couple of visits to these learning centres would reveal how focussed these are on making the child learn at the age of three-plus what should normally begin at five-plus. They would not accept it, but that is the reality, rare exceptions apart. Pre-school education has its importance but only till it is not converted into formal schooling that should begin post the age of five years.
Once in school, children in their initial years are thrust into a world of homework, projects and tests. The natural yearning to explore, create and relate is just crushed under the maze of unimaginative projects and homework. Most of the projects assigned are indeed market-oriented: Go, purchase and present as their own creation! Others are awesome: A child entering class four is asked to complete a workbook of mathematics of 90-plus pages during summer vacations. Which means the child has to read the full ‘textbook’, understand it and also complete the exercises meant for the entire year. This is not the only assignment; this child has also to prepare a working model of a water filter, prepare a dictionary of environmental studies carrying words from A to Z, and a couple of other such projects, subject wise.
How could one forget to mention another gem: Selecting a cartoon character, creating a story book and designing a cover for the book. For class six, one has to do research on any of the south Indian temples and prepare a dictionary of all the science words learnt so far, and explain each of these. One can go on counting. The market has stepped in to assist: Purchase or get one prepared ‘on order’. The child submits these as his own as part of the dreaded Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation in the school and get marks for it. He also learns his first lesson on Value Education. The tragic — yes it is tragic — component of it all is the suppression of all the natural, creative and exploratory instincts of the child for whom holidays and vacations offer no respite from the drudgery of the routine. Every week, every subject is tested! And every day, there is homework. From curriculum load to examination stress, children in schools now suffer enormous stress generated by homework, projects and weekly tests.
One could still come across principals and teachers who would like to increase the quantum of homework every year and boast of the models, charts and other materials collected from students as visible evidence of ‘quality education’ they are imparting ‘only’ in their school. Apart from these impositions from the school, some parents, out of sheer ignorance, thrust a couple of tuitions, dancing classes, badminton lessons and the like.
Schools and parents, together, need to recall the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “Real education has to draw out the best from the boys and girls to be educated. This can never be done by packing ill-assorted and unwanted information in to the heads of the pupils. It becomes a dead weight crushing all originality in them and turning in to mere automata”. Homework must be replaced by ‘school work’ in which teacher shall be an active participant.
It has been well established that carrying a heavy bag impedes the process of growing up adversely. No child covered under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, up to class eight, should be required to carry a ‘bag’ to the school. The teaching and learning material must be retained in the school. Such a practice is followed in many developed and recently-developed countries. Schools that have proper infrastructure could certainly put this to practice.
A child, who is not stressed in the school, must get time to play and interact with parents and other family members. He would certainly perform better in school and also in life than the one kept under persistent stress and strain imposed because of the fearful homework. ‘Appoint good teachers and abolish homework’ could become a policy guideline for the decade ahead.