Education in India

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Ram Rattan Sharma
Volumes of books have been written on the importance of education in life. The essence of all those writings and views is that, education means the fostering of the personality through the unhampered development of innate qualities of human being. It also means the awakening of intelligence and development of an integrated life. It aims to adjust the rhythm of the individual life with the rhythm of the society. This adjustment involves strengthening of character and consolidation of the moral fibre. Today education in India, however, appears to be at variance with these standards. The situation in schools, colleges and universities is pretty disconcerting with several forces competing with each other in polluting the academic atmosphere. While educationists all over the country recognize the malaise, they have not been able to suggest a workable remedy, although suggestions have been forth coming regularly. The malaise persists due to the bottle necks in the bureaucratic structure. Also, there is the absence of accountability of the different players such as the teachers, management, Government, students, and even the parents. This factor goes hand-in-hand with the performance and thus it leads to the issue of evaluation. Due to the heavy demands of the modern consumer civilization, even two and half years old toddlers are being pushed out of the security and friendliness of their homes into the strange world of the classrooms. The mushrooming of play schools at every nook and corner testifies to the existence of a demand for such facilities. Instead of being imparted natural learning through familiar persons and objects, children are introduced at quite an early age to text books and out landish rhymes, they are obliged to parrot.
Parents are often the contributing parties to the painful experiences of the children. They plant in their wards a hawkish competitive spirit, which can cause neurotic disorders. The violence thus committed by the society on children has its own fallout. Education which is supposed to be enriching constructive, creative and a dialogic process becomes monotonous and mechanical and is reduced to a mere merchandise. The pleasure of learning seems to be a thing of the past. Remedial measures that can make children’s education more creative and interesting and rescue both children and teachers from the present burden can be devised, schools from nursery to middle level should be fashioned as children’s clubs, oral and practical learning should be given greater emphasis in the introductory stage. The children’s natural curiosity of how and why can be given more prominence than following the stipulated syllabus. Before, teaching anything the teacher must create interest amongst the students. The teacher should frankly appreciate the good work of students rather than only scold or physically punish them for mistakes. Again the teacher should feel responsible for a children’s failure to learn. Today, the main problem that plagues secondary education is our failure to treat it as a comprehensive educational system in its own right. It is regarded merely as a preparation ground for university education. A single examination evaluation system, a syllabus which is not only unwieldy but often redundant, educational boards that are at complete variance with the aspiration of the students. These constitute some of the problems of secondary education in India. It is a sad irony, that the best teachers are supposed to be employed in government schools, while people send their wards to the “Private Schools”. School Education in India is in a maze, with greater budget allocation and a good organization, a uniform national examination for all students could be devised, instead of a single examination of three hours. The examinees should not be treated as like criminals with police vigilance outside the examination centers. At the time of appointment of teachers, besides their academic achievements, their real interest in and dedication to teaching should also be made a qualifying criterion for the final selection. The present status of school teachers should be improved so that they command the same respect and dignity in society , as do professionals like doctors, engineers or civil servants. This would attract talent.
Another note worthy short coming in our educational system is that science education is not imparted to students in the desired way. The system of teaching and learning science in schools must be revamped on priority basis. The problems are many and their intensity is also growing day by day. Some measures must be taken immediately. There must be a proper performance appraisal system for the faculty members. We can take help from the experiences of the west in this regard, though indigenous devices can also be developed to suit our circumstances and students, conduct of classes, evaluation of their progress and optional utilisation of the staff are urgently called for.
Teachers must cease to be just employees with salaries guaranteed by the Govt., but become professionals with complete accountability. Mindless commercialisation of education should be stopped. This system in which the highest bidder is assured a place in an educational institution is detrimental to the dignity and worth of the Indian educational system, which has to see that even the poorest of the poor in India reaps the advantages of education. The charging of capitation fee is a manifestation of the tendency to extract maximum possible profit from what calls the education “Industry” Education, after all should come in the “purview of social responsibility”
(The author is former Dy Librarian University of Jammu)
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