Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Drastic improvement in our education system badly needed' that was published in Newsband

Drastic improvement in our education system badly needed

There are many people in India who face insecurity over a lifetime due to the deprivation of basic education. This fact calls for a hard look at the educational situation in our country.

The mathematics knowledge that people need in daily life is mostly arithmetic-based. But our education system is tailored to the requirement of engineering aspirants, thus imposing an undue burden on students inclined to pursue different academic streams. A healthy pupil-teacher ratio could also help overcome many of these shortcomings. Implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act will also do a lot of good to our country. We should do something about those poor families who are disinclined to send children to school. In today’s competitive environment, the ability of students to read, write, count and measure is a bare minimum.

In the past, our curriculum had billing, banking and taxation which were very much related to day to day life activities. But today's mathematics includes only theoretical study and practical knowledge is ignored.

Here are the reasons why our education system fails: 1. We have knowledge oriented teaching and testing instead of skill oriented training and assessment. 2. Teachers do not objectively evaluate the student in continuous evaluation and internal assessments. A lot of personal/subjective and undue compassion come into play during the assessment process. 3. Our focus is on quantity and not in quality. 4. Teaching is one of the least paid professions in the private sector which educates the most number of students. At the same time a teacher in this sector is forced to work for more than 7 hours at school and 3 hours at home. Hence talented people do not wish to come to the profession. Learn from Switzerland where teaching is highest paying job.

The education system as a whole in India benefits a certain section of people who can afford and manipulate the system. Look at the premium institutions of India, be it IIM, IIT, IIS, AIIMS, JIPMER, REC and government engineering colleges. They tell you a shameful story of being export houses and a waste to India's objective of delivering the expertise and needs of community. All these above said institutions are run on tax payers’ money and students who are enrolled are mostly from the elite and upper classes. It’s just a lip service to have very few candidates from the lower strata of society.

India needs quality education from primary to higher level. The point is that by making the system less of exam oriented and more extracurricular oriented, students get to choose and learn from multifarious topics - be it academic or non-academic. A commendable epitome of harnessing a child's innate skill has been set by China. From their childhood, children are offered variety of options to choose from (like sports, etc.). This helps them to focus on their ambitions from an early age.

Successive governments have not taken seriously on need of revamping our education system to bring calibre in children. What we need is not just workers for industry to 'Make in India' but for 'Future of India' who are educated enough to up-hold the Indian Constitution in true spirit!