The indian education hullabaloo

One of my lunch mates these days is an American and the inspiration to pen my thoughts on this topic is a direct result of a conversation I had with him a few days ago.

The Indian guys in the group were explaining how the Indian education system works and it struck me as appalling as to how draconian a system we have. Every time we explained how something works in Indian schools he burst out laughing. And this is a bunch of us coming from the best schools in the country. The idea of learning by rote and the manner of punishments meted out to the so called 'failures' makes the whole concept of schooling irrelevant.

This got me thinking on whats the primary goal of education- UNESCO defines the role of education as follows:

Education should be a means to empower children and adults alike to become active participants in the transformation of their societies. Learning should also focus on the values, attitudes and behaviors which enable individuals to learn to live together in a world characterized by diversity and pluralism.

Does our education system do any of this? We are just hell bent on making stencilled out students confirming to industrial standards with no scope for creative or cultural or social expression. The fact that some have found means to not confirm to these so called rules is a testament to their stubbornness rather than the system through which they have been put through. But what is it that's so really wrong with our system? It lacks one crucial quality - freedom.

Freedom of expression, freedom of choice, freedom to just do what you want to do. We claim to be a free country and in principle we are but in essence we are curbing the freedom of kids. How many kids get to do what they are good at? Especially if what they are good at is not something which is socially or economically acceptable. How many kids have had to abandon their obvious talent on something and join the rat race to compete at something they are not even interested in. The problem is however more deep rooted than we think and is not limited to the education system. Its society at large. The way we look down upon on someone who does not do well within the established set of rules and goals of the system is despicable. He/she is labelled a failure. Who knows of how many extraordinary talents we lost to this kind of attitude. Its about time this came to an end.

There has to be a change. Every single person is different - allow that expression of difference. That will bring the much needed diversity in our world. All we now have are meaningless copies sput out by the system. The change has to first come in terms of attitude of the society at large - we have to accept that not everyone wants to be an engineer or a doctor or whatever it is that's in fashion now. Parents have to realize that their children are not a means to achieve their dreams or the societies dreams . Give them that freedom. Cultivate and nourish their interests. You ll make truly better people out of them. And yes - they will be able to fend for themselves in this so called dog-eat-dog world.

The way I see it these people will not be the also-rans we are, they will be the head of the curve.

This felt more like a rant than my previous post. :)

ps: An organization which has similar views on education and is doing something about it:

http://pudiyador.org/pudiyador/index.shtml