By Barnes Mawrie
“Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education” (Martin Luther King Jr)
Speaking about education there are many advantages which are associated with it. First of all education frees us from superstitions which enslave us in many ways. Education helps promote health-care and awareness of hygiene. It builds up self image and self confidence and empowers a person to stand up for what is just and right. Education is indispensable for economic development of the family or of the nation as a whole. It also connects us effectively with the rest of the world. But most important of all, education should build character. To achieve all these goals education needs to be of the best quality.
Quality of education depends on many factors such as: Good infrastructure which implies that necessary facilities both in terms of buildings and equipments are available; good management and administration which would ensure the smooth running of the institution and creating an ideal learning environment; well planned and organized curriculum which would ensure that the expected knowledge and skills are acquired by the students; qualified and committed teachers who would be the backbone of the teaching-learning activity. When we look at the educational scenario in our country today we see a lot of loose ends to be tied up. First of all the educational infrastructure in our country is very much wanting. Probably private institutions fare much better in this than government institutions. But in most educational institutions especially in rural or semi-urban areas, there is inadequate infrastructure for an effective teaching-learning activity.
While in most developed countries education gets top priority in the annual budget of the government, in India education does not receive such privileged treatment. No wonder brain drain is affecting our country’s progress because intelligent students opt to go abroad as they are lured by better educational facilities and opportunities. Secondly, many of our educational institutions both at the lower and higher levels, lack good management and efficient administration. This plight is more acute in government institutions especially those in rural areas. At times, politicization of government educational institutions worsens the situation. Political appointees in government schools and colleges abound and most of these may not be qualified or capable. Thus the institutions are held at ransom by such inefficient administrations. When the administration fails then the whole educational system is put at risk and meaningful education is impossible.
Now I come to the third aspect which I consider as a real disaster in our educational system. The curriculum that we have at present is beset with shortcomings. It is evident that our curriculum is highly theory-oriented and idealistic in approach. The three ultimate values of “truth”, “goodness” and “beauty” which should be the undercurrent of an educational curriculum, seem to be absent or not emphasized at all. This is the reason why our educational institutions are producing half-baked individuals or persons without character. Gandhiji is right when he remarked that our schools are producing only “intelligent thieves and cunning robbers”. Looking at the quality of our so called “educated” persons, no one would disagree with this statement. Coming closer home to our own city, I realize that the curriculum followed by many schools especially at the lower level is not education but castigation of students. How can we justify the introduction of cursive writing for a child at KG level. It looks like the system is in a hurry to cramp in as much knowledge as possible in the small heads of children. Small children today are suffering from backache because they have to carry a bagful of books. Back at home they have no time to play because they are overburdened with home work. A child needs to play and have more time for fun and not be tied down to his/her study desk. If we are going to have a sick and mentally stressed generations in the near future, then it is because our children are deprived of the joy of their childhood.
Finally, many of our schools today do not have committed teachers. Teaching is considered no longer a vocation but a profession. There are not a few teachers who take up teaching as a sort of interim job while they are on the lookout for better opportunities. Such teachers tend to be minimalists and they do not really care for the welfare of the students. In some schools there is a dangerous tendency among so-called “Deficit School” teachers even to challenge the administration. These teachers who are usually considered full-fledged government employees seem to care a hoot for the authority of the school. Their job security makes them bold enough to question the authority of the school. There is one such school in the city where a few deficit teachers are staging an open revolt against the principal of the school and they are bent on ousting him from the school on account of his disciplinary measures. These are teachers who no longer behave like educators but like prosecutors. They have gone so far as to poison the minds of innocent students to shout slogans against the principal. This is a case where the students are not only mal-educated, mal-formed but even victimized by the very persons who are supposed to be their intellectual and moral mentors. What sort of students will come out of such a school, God alone knows.
Perhaps it is time that the Deficit System be scrapped from all schools and the Government could aid the schools with grants which could be a supplement to the teachers’ salaries. Speaking about the Deficit System, it is also responsible for creating two classes of teachers in schools, the overpaid and the underpaid. This does not go well with the principle of justice and equality. What is evident therefore is the chaotic condition of our educational system. The outcome of this is already seen in the emergence of a horde of graduates who may be intellectually equipped but who lack the basic moral and civic sense. Being the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco, the great educationist, let me remind all about his goal of education, namely, “to make good Hindus/Muslims/Christians etc and honest citizens”.