Education in India - An Article

The recent announcement of the ambitious " Hundred Day Plan " and additional plans to bring in reforms in the education sector by Human Resources Development Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal, have surprised those in the academic community, whether as students or teachers or both, and the general public alike, due to reference to making optional the tenth standard board exam, which holds a special status in the collective imagination of those detached from the academic process for long. Public exams prick Mr. Sibal conscience, and as a prophet of modernization, he has taken him upon himself to take some hard and drastic steps. Suddenly, a press release by the Human Resources Development Ministry, usually an occasion to catch up on some sleep for the weary eyed presswallahs, is the most discussed document on national television, and Mr. Sibal the superstar, an unlikely status for an Human Resources Development Minister , but, many of us would say, after Mr. Arjun Singh, anybody who replaced him would enjoy popularity. Most releases by the Education Ministry, or should I say, the more modern and stylish(atleast in United Nations' Reports) Human Resources Development Ministry, evoke the response of a an occasional yawn of wakefulness, due to their moribund and boring stretches on pedagogic systems and gross enrolment ratios, and, usually by the end the only question asked is what "pedagogic" means. So, Mr. Sibal, sitting on a gaddi stinking of India's archaic education system and tomatoes thrown at Mr. Arjun Singh, has emerged as the spokesperson of the Indian student, or should I say, Bharatiya Vidyaarthi, to sound politically correct(only in North India, of course, South India is doomed to political incorrectness, even in words, since Hindi is the Rashtriya Bhaasha (no, not the Rajini film)). Even the introduction of Higher Order Thinking Skills(HOTS), did not evoke this strong a response, though finding what the Higher Order Thinking Skills(HOTS) were in any given sample paper in a few minutes proved to be a hobby for those in the humid Teacher's Rooms(even the older ones enjoyed it, and circled those sacred questions carelessly, even remembering the question numbers was fine in versions of the game which included powerplays). So as Sibal smugly announces the revolution of our education system from existensialism to Marxist Hegelianism (Education is no longer about survival and existence and mundane mugging to exist in the competition, with no departures to a more beautiful world, it is about achieving a community students who have varied interests and thus qualifications, but their qualifications are not ranked in any order, neither are they), the institutes of learning in our country whisper on whether a person with an A2 grade belongs to the third estate or not. Whether Mr. Sibal will actually keep his word, is yet to be seen, but what he has done is that he has brought up a serious topic of discussion - education, or as he would like to call it, the fun topic. One can only hope this small step for Mr. Sibal is not a giant leap backward for Indians. The country has seen far too many lame attempts to reform the education system, but what is lacking is involvement of students, teachers and experts in various field, to evolve a interest based and rational solution. Even this proposal does not envisage the participation of students, who are the targets for any education system, but only the more powerful stakeholders. Such a proposal is flawed in its approach since only when students' feedback is taken, can we develop a sound and comprehensive curriculum, especially since students are perhaps the only stakeholders who do not get any financial benefits per se by reforming the system or retaining the old one, atleast until they are students. Issues like "detraumatizing" education have been dealt with no comprehensive student feedback but only stereotypical refrains about academic coverage and apre-conceived notions about how students really feel about the system. In this article I have covered some aspects of this new plan, and tried to analyze and offer some constructive criticism about some of them. The proposal was by very popular with the media, and special shows and debates very organised in much haste, television channels rushed to some posh city school where students were asked their opinion. Within seconds, school pricipals of elite schools in South Delhi were ready with their make-up, and and rearing to appear on talk shows, say the right words, and of course, advertise themselves. What about the rural schools, where most of India's students study (if they do study at all, that is), you ask? (You probably weren't going to ask that, but still) The teachers (whenever they are there at all) there are not fashionable don't speak English (leave alone two other foreign languages), and speak their regional languages well, isnt that enough of a disqualification to speak on these talk shows? Anyway, the point is how much of the student and teacher community are we listening to? Schools in South Delhi probably have the faculty, infrastructure, money and students who can adapt to any kind of shift in the curriculum. Infact in most other classes except tenth and twelfth classes, they use the books of private publications anyway, "based" on the accepted syllabus of course. Do the rural schools have the ability to transform and adapt to this new system? Already dropout rates are high at every stage of education, teachers not well qualified and infrastructure non-existent in rural schools. Most of India is yet to accept schooling as a phase of life, to most, it is just a place to get a mid-day meal. Mr. Sibal has taken a very elitist view on education in India and India is not only a nation of elites. The tenth board exam is a benchmark to fulfil for most schools, and by far the best regulatory mechanism on academic standards. Schools, which are very casual in the treatement of the syllabus in lower classes atleast cover the syllabus to the board's requirements in the tenth standard. Atleast the teaching is tuned toward some academic goal, and monetary benefits are directly correlated to the performance of the students. This makes teachers and the school authories accountable to students, parents and to the spirit of excellence. So, the removal of this standard will dilute the standard of teaching in most schools. We must also understand that the tenth board examination is the final one which includes all the subjects, atleast in a general manner, including languages, science, social science and mathematics. A basic understanding of all of these is essential for a good standard of living and gives meaning to life, and perhaps, more importantly, helps against exploitation which takes advantage of human ignorance. If board examinations were not to be, then very few students would actually be motivated to take the entire content seriously, and probably leave out significant portions of subjects which may not be of interest. Honestly, how many of us would read Disaster Management out of sheer passion for the subject, but once learnt, knowledge of this life-skill will save millions of lives. Once we reach the eleventh standard our academic purview is restricted to the subjects we choose, and if the tenth standard board examination is made abolished, our real coverage of the concepts may never be tested. Wouldn't you rather answer how to deal with a flood in a board paper than trying to recollect the points while sinking in flood water? The board examination, for all the criticisms against it, atleast reinforce those concepts in our mind and tests them for one last time. If there are no board exams, it is not possible to admit students into twelfth, since the demand for the more popular groups will be more, and the number of seats may not be efficient, and with no way of ranking students in the order of merit, schools will be in a dilemma. And, besides, it may leave many schools closing down departments of unpopular courses, which is a serious disadvantage to the few who would be really interested in pursuing these course, just beacuse all others have demanded a more popular course. This will eventually lead to a shortage of people who are experts in that field, whereas an ideal society is one which has people form all fields. And with the departments being shutdown, there won't even be enough teachers to nurture a new generation of experts in those fields. It will also lead to a vast increase in corruption. With schools no longer having to conform to the merit order, the economically powerful can walk away with the best seats in the best schools, with meritorious students having to opt for unpopular courses. Also there is no way to admit students from other schools, as there is no one norm for merit, and thus, brilliant students lose a chance to join good schools. Another issue which comes up in every other debate on education is learning by rote. It may be unfashionable, and oh-so-third world, but the fact is that it is necessary. For mastering any kind of science or art, one needs to know some basics which must be learnt by rote - these are the rules which one must play by. Even in a subject like mathematics, which is almost entirely about logic and problem solving, one needs to learn some stuff, like symbols and their meaning, which cannot be derived. One can't afford to obseve nature and derive mathematical conclusions evrytime one wants to differentiate sin(x), it must be learnt by rote, derivation in each and every problem is time consuming and impractical, and the sheer mathematical work probably leaves little time for original work. So to start out, learning by heart is not such a bad idea, especially already so much progress has happened in every field, that starting to tackle problems of modern arts and sciences from the basics is not feasible. Learning by rote also also helps us how to make things abstract and theoretical, and not to be solely dependent on practical learning aids all the time. Another popular aspect is the "grading system". The grading system just inroduces ambiguity into the system, and just increases the weight per atomic unit of marks. Instead of making the smallest unit of awarding marks as say one marks, it makes it say ten marks. The grade system is far too ambiguous and inefficient to be used in a country like India, where the demand far exceeds the supply. Suppose an academic institution has hundred seats and there are sixty applicants in grade 'A' and eight in grade 'B', the 'A' graders can be awarded seats easily, but how will rest of the forty be offered seats? This example actually oversimplifies the situation, and does not include the complexities of adapting the reservation system, and differential cutoffs between different subjects, besides student preference. And the grading system is just as unfair as the marks system; only, it is unfair to different students. The grading system clubs students with say eight percent and eithy nine percent, isnt it unfair to the student with eight nine percent? And, the percentile system is almost the same as the marks system, only the numbers maybe different. Atleast there is no ranking in board examinations, the percetile system does this too! So this new system isn't going to "detraumatise" education. Another aspect is the proposed unification of the some forty diffrent education boards which exist in this country. This, in principle is not flawed if, it allows for the great diversity which characterises India, and if it is so flexible, it will be equivalent to our present system, forty independent, albeit having a common name. No single curriculum can take into account, the geomorphological, political, economic, social and cultural diversity in this country. The needs of those in Malabar are different from those of the people Malabar Hill. If education is not relevant to lives of millions of people, they will simply not put their children in school. If school education is to be significant in the lives of the people, it should offer them a means of attaining a better and more stable standard of living from there current reality, and the reality for millions in India is poverty, hunger and ignorance. Any form of assessment loses its inherent value when applied to such a varied assortment of courses required by the people in India. So, unifying all the boards is definitely not a solution. What we need is decentralisation of education, to make education as a vehicle of upward mobility to every student, in addition to it being a process of acquiring knowledge and values. Also much discussed is the plan to infuse investment in education and allowing foreign players to set up educational institutions in India. One sees a very cowardly attempt by the government to shrug away its responsibilities. Education is a fundamental to developing not only thinkers and manpower for nation building, but also enrichment of the moral fabric of the country, and it is the Government's responsibility to provide its children a wholesome one. With the gradual privatisation of education, the ultimate aim of developing educational institutions will become maximizing profit. And thus education will not only become inaccesible to the economically weaker sections of society, but also orient education solely towards creating manpower for industries. A school run by say, an oil company, will probably orient its course towards oil-industry related education, to provide its industries cheap manpower, almost making the students bonded labourers as they do not possess even general skills to venture into any field. Also the value systems at these schools may not be progressive and may create an entire generation of violent, insecure and immoral individuals. Foreign universities setting up campuses in India may seem like a good idea, but there are several issues attached to these. The high fees charged at these institutions will further make inaccesible quality education, especially with the government withdrawing subsidies to premier government colleges. It is the Government responsibility to provide its children with an education, and the Right To Education is an important step in this regard. Reorienting the National Literacy Mission towards girls is a positive step, but care must be taken that socially and economically weaker sections are given priority. Making the certification and accrediction process more transparent, and looking into the functioning of private universities and deemed universities, and the capitation fee racket, which is an open secret are also welcome steps. Modernization of the madrassas is also a good step and will help ensure more Muslim students come into the education process, but awarding a madrassa degree equal status to one given by boards is a flawed step and will only discourage Muslim students coming into the secular education system Which brings us to the larger issue of reservation. One of the important reforms our education system needs is changing the system of resevation First of all, it must exclede premier institutes of learning like the Indian Institutes of Technology(IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management(IIMs). Furthermore, development of an index of backwardness which includes factors like caste, religion, area of residence, and family income and other important factors is imperative so that reservation reaches the people who need it. The Human Resources Development Ministry also has much to focus on other than reforms at the top. One particularly important aspect is improving the standard of primary education and increasing not only the gross enrolment ratio, but also reducing the dropout rates. Development of infrastructure like toilets, permanent buildings and libraries is also an important issue. More teachers are needed and incentives of join teaching as a profession must be enhanced. A shift of focus to such important issues will ensure that educational reforms benefit all the students of India.