Only 2 things missing from our education system, education and system. But seriously, I read this line on the internet yesterday, and I started thinking, why? Why do we complain about our education system? what exactly is wrong with our education system, and what can we do to change this system? India introduced a New Education Policy in 2020. This policy was in the works for 34 years, only on paper, and now this policy is actually going to be implemented. But some challenges can't be solved at the snap of a finger. Today I want to discuss the top 5 problems our Education System must solve!
Number 5- RAT RACE:- Every 1 in 7 people in an Indian, what if 130 crore Indians discover their best lives? India will be limitless. They say God has made every human with purpose. But our education system does not help us find this purpose. Instead, it makes all students a part of a common rat race. But what is this rat race? In simple words, the rat race is that race where the winner gets nothing but the satisfaction that he is ahead of the losers. When the foundation of our thinking is based on the comparison, then the structure we build on this will always be weak. Today, the Indian youth is very frustrated. To escape this frustration and find better opportunities, many talented students leave the country to move abroad. What can we do about this? A teacher will have to be a gardener, not a jailer. Each plant will have to be treated differently. Some plants grow indoors while some are outdoors; some require less attention and more freedom, and some are fussy and need extra care. Similarly, children also need different levels of care. The comparison with Sharmaji ka beta will have to stop. Students will have to stop finding ways of timepass but instead find an interesting hobby or a pastime. There must be some subject in which you are interested. There is a website called Funbrain. Where you can learn math through games and puzzles, you can try out different things. If you want to get out of this rat race, you first need to find your race/purpose.
Number 4- ROTE LEARNING:- The first chapter in 10th SSC science was a periodic table. This periodic table had 116 elements. Actually, 118 elements had already been discovered, but the syllabus had not been updated to 118 elements. So our school told us to write 116 elements in our exams, regardless of whether this is factually correct or not. When it came to filling the blanks if the textbook had a typo, you had to write the wrong spelling in exams, or else half a mark would be cut for not writing the same word. Who knows the value of half a mark more than 99 students or a student who scores 34 marks and needs half a mark to pass. Your knowledge level is not very important here. It's more important that you can rote learn and repeat like a parrot. The result of this faulty policy is obvious in front of us. This research by ASSOCHAM says a staggering 80% of engineers in India are unemployable. That means even after a student becomes an engineer even after studying for 4 years. The skills that the industry needs from graduates are not being met by job-seeking youth. So, how can we address this? The New Education Policy is quite promising in text. Maybe this issue will be outdated for a future generation of students. But students and parents must prioritize knowledge, not the type that you forget after writing a paper. But the kind of knowledge that helps in our personal growth.
Number 3- MISSING EDUCATION:- No matter your field, there are some things we all need to do. How do we send a good email? How do we express our thoughts and emotions? How do we file taxes? These things are fundamental, and everyone should know them, and these are the very things missing from the school syllabus. Parents and students need career counseling because there are many new upcoming career options that parents may not know. Education about these upcoming opportunities and missing from our education system. Our world is rapidly changing & evolving. We have so many new career options every passing year. The faster we can learn about these opportunities, the faster we can adapt and make the right decisions. From a career to a life partner, we need to make many decisions, and we need to take responsibility for those as well. Still, we were never taught how to make the right choice. So, what can we do to solve this? We need to find other ways to learn what schools don't teach us. All the information we need is at the tip of our fingers. There are many tools to gauge your personality online.
Number 2- LEARNING FROM SPORTS:- You get physical and mental fitness from playing sports. How to face a challenge, handle pressure, and deal with failure can teach us sports and that too without taking an intensive class. UNICEF researched over 100 nations where students were given their education through over 300 sports and developmental activities. In a few African countries, there was a lack of interest in studies. Students were taught concepts through the game of football. Students learned physics while playing a sport. The students learned teamwork while playing sports. The crime in the village reduced as the youth played sports because of the thrill of stealing and committing a crime. That thrill was replaced by the thrill of winning in sports. So, what can we do to find solutions? Teachers will have to make subjects entertaining. We all know that one teacher who we remember even after we finish school/college. There is definitely something unique in their teaching method. There's just the 1% extra enthusiasm. 1% extra interest in students, and 1% extra jokes and laughter. All this transforms a subject from medicine into a treat. We need to teach sports education, if not competitively, then at least practically to the students as a practice. Puzzles, games, mental sports also have a role in education. A non-sports teacher can adopt these in the classroom. As parents, we need to allow playtime for children. A playground teaches you much more than a classroom.
Number 1- NO RESPECT FOR TEACHERS: Are our teachers not respected in the system? Global teachers status Index says India's teachers are amongst the least paid teachers in the world. Every year, India's population rises by 2.8 crore people. India is a young country that desperately needs decent education. 8000 government schools have no teachers. Student to teacher ratio 100:1. 3.74 lakh teacher posts are lying vacant! We keep hearing that India needs to invest in education, but this investment is restricted to infrastructure. Hiring quality teachers and paying them a decent salary. So that we can build a system that retains good talent. Forget about numbers. Consider what happened last year during the pandemic, when teachers were adapting to new technology. How did the students treat the teachers? This is a vicious cycle. Our system fails to respect teachers. Good teachers start teaching in private schools. Private schools pay well and charge high fees accordingly. A commoner settles for an average school. The gap between private and public education is widening. Suppose we don't change something very soon. Quality education will be far from a commoner's reach forever if we have to utilize the talents of our diverse and large population. We will have to reduce this gap between public and private schools.
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