Is Indian Education getting it right?

In a country that has started a way of learning things as early as 1500 BC with the advent of the Vedic period, standing in the 21^st century makes us feel that somewhere something is missing. There is a loss in the direction of an age old system, a loss in the purpose. One of the most daunting questions in the minds of our forefathers is whether the younger generation has the capability to sustain the acquired knowledge in the professional world? Anyone taking less than a second to answer that question will say a “No”. Probably they are right. They are far more experienced in the field of education but it should also not be completely blamed on the students.

Over the years as education has reformed itself, it has maybe lost its purpose somewhere. In the prehistoric period where Gurukul system was prevalent, education had quite a meaning. It was more focused on the development of the person on the emotional aspect, the thought that the only way to attain success is hardwork. Importance was given to develop a man’s cognitive capabilities and the value of learning each of the components separately. It has been often observed that even though there are pre-elementary schools present all across our country, the child often seen to have certain shortcomings which are exposed when the child is free in the society. The pre-elementary schools often take the responsibility of the child’s development of subtle skills like creative thinking, soft skills like taking responsibility for oneself and cognitive development. It’s often told by psychiatrists all around the world that the brain is often immutable after a critical limit in childhood and hence the child should undergo a lot of quality learning within this critical period. Neurobiologists term this as neural plasticity. If we carefully observe all these angles we can clearly refer to the relevant question of the day: Is the monotonous system of education in India the reason behind the lack of innovative minds?

In a survey carried out only on the basis of this question to around 30-40 students who has just completed their high schools education to students who are in their final year of college, the answer was a three lettered optimistic answer “Yes”. They were of the opinion that the major setback in the education system of India was the concept of rote learning. Someone said “If we find students cheating in an exam, it is not their fault. It is our fault that the students believe that marks are more important than the actual learning”. I wonder that is the biggest statement of defense of this century for the students. As a rising world economy India is not producing as many innovative minds as possible. The problem might be right at the root. In the American system of education there are levels of schools in the district and local state level and all are financed by the local or the state government. The most lucrative factor is it is free of cost. The US federal government pays only 10% of its entire budget to educational reforms which imply that the state is responsible for its own development. It should also be noted that, education there is compulsory between the ages of 5-16. In India though, the scenario is a lot different. The concept here is more financial. In the rural areas it is seen that the illiterate parents are more focused on earning some money for their family and they also believe that more the heads in the family more is the earning-a common cause of the population explosion. There is no such compulsion in India about receiving education in an age group and this has to change.

In the big cities, where the upper-middle class and the upper class are comfortable enough to provide education to their child, it is often seen that the parents are obsessed with their child’s academic success. In a country where NITs, IITs and IIMs are overflowing and so are the cash rich private universities, this is a shame that Indians still lack out from the list of innovative minds. More often than not the students blame the education system. They say it’s more about getting the marks to crack an exam rather than the actual knowledge. What is important is a balance between the theoretical knowledge and the exposure to the practical aspect of it simply because in the real world no one will ask a student to derive Schrödinger’s equation but will surely ask its application. The students should be exposed more to the practical part than just being told what to do. This approach will definitely help the students think in a different way. There is a good chance that they will commit mistakes but that is how they are going to learn. It will only give them confidence. Students and their parents also blame on the infrastructure of the labs and often complain that the absence of the right infrastructure is hindering their education. If this blame game is stopped there are possible solutions to this problem. The exposure to the variety of practical aspects to the theoretical learning can be increased right from the school level. The middle school students should be encouraged more to deal with various hands on project and a probable mechanism where they can be assisted by their high school seniors. In this way, it’s a dynamic process where both the parties learn. The similar approach could be applied to the college level students. Experienced people often say that marks in a marksheet are helpful to penetrate the system but to survive we need the real knowledge which only comes when we practice things practically.

Most of the people and the students of this generation are willing to learn new things and do things differently but for that there should be an interesting way to learn that. It’s nothing new that kids learn while playing- that is why it is often termed as play-school and the same applies to the same kid 15 years down the line, if we are not allowed to play with our imagination we will not learn. That way it will there for a longer time in our memory. The teaching faculties also play a responsibility to develop a child’s thinking capabilities because creativity although sounds unstructured initially but can often be given a proper channel, as noted by the eminent British educationist Sir Ken Robinson. According to him, creativity and critical thinking go hand in hand and that has to be inculcated at an early age.

So it’s high time that the Indian government and autonomous universities decide to undertake the education reforms of the country and change it in a way that will change the mindset of the people to stop this cut throat competition about pointers. To stop producing spineless army of graduates and post graduates whose mental faculties are hindered by the limitation of the ‘marks obtained/full marks’ and make this generation bubbling with optimism and energy harness a world of good.

Debanjan Kundu