By Toki Blah
On the 21st of June 2017, ICARE organised a seminar titled ´Reclaiming Education’. The focus of the seminar was on the status of School Education, especially Lower and Primary Education in the state of Meghalaya. The title of the seminar was deliberately suggestive because of two critical aspects of the subject under discussion. Firstly there is this universal belief, in all strata of Meghalayan society, that something somewhere has basically gone wrong with the education we are imparting to our children. Secondly, despite the above feeling, people in general are loath, reluctant and shy away from attempts to critique the problem in public. Why is not known but Education it seems has been placed on the same pedestal as religion. No one understands what it is but everyone has faith in it, so best leave it to the people ordained to deal with it even if they, in fact, are as vague as the next person on how to proceed ahead. ICARE sincerely believes that those mandated with the task of providing meaningful and qualitative education to the children of Meghalaya have abdicated their responsibilities. Education in Meghalaya is going to the dogs but in the process it is also dragging our children along with it. The time has come for all stakeholders, the parents, the grandparents, the aunts and uncles, the kur and the shnong of all school going children, to take the bull by the horns and to question the pundits of Meghalaya Education. We need to openly question the state of education in Meghalaya; publicly debate on it; expose the rot and reclaim education from the abyss it finds itself in. Hence the seminar of the 21st where concerned stakeholders participated.
The first question that should be asked is, what do we expect from education? Or what is the ultimate goal of being educated. My generation sincerely believed that acquisition of knowledge and learning was the end goal of education and we were educated along those lines. Bookish knowledge and what we gleaned from the syllabus at school formed only part of our education. Social skills and values, respect for elders, the ability to comprehend what is read, the development of reason, logic and common sense, plus recreation to sustain a healthy body and mind formed our educational curriculum. Both teachers and parents worked together to make this happen. We were told and we believed that education was simply a tool to assist the acquirement of wisdom, which in the final analysis, is the ability to coexist happily among our fellow men. As such learning and acquiring knowledge is a never ending process. At 70 years of age I am yet to be convinced that there is need to review this holistic healthy approach towards education.
With the dawn of a new era especially the creation of a hill state called Meghalaya, one is aghast to discover that those responsible for our lives have in their wisdom decided that the definition of school education needs to undergo a change. Acquiring knowledge remains the same but is nowadays strictly directed and limited towards the attainment of an academic degree, the gateway to a good paying job. An academic degree, the higher the better, is the ultimate goal. Character and personality building have been sacrificed. Qualification remains a priority but its quantity over quality that counts. The ability to comprehend, to understand to work out a problem has been replaced by the singular need to vomit verbatim what has been crammed by rote learning. The system is churning out parrots instead of thinking citizens. In the absence of a curriculum for education a syllabus is instead used. It has resulted in teachers chasing a routine to finish a course instead of concentrating on the need to find out if the student has understood what has been taught. It has resulted in the production of degree holders with little understanding of anything else than the subject they specialise in. Teaching has become a big bore. Passion for teaching has become extinct. Most teachers are there for the salary and nothing else. For the students, the fun of learning and the joy of childhood has successfully been eliminated by this insistence on rote learning and heavy home lessons that contribute nothing towards learning. Uneducated literates is the end product of the current system.
When we speak of the deterioration of our education system, the worst we can do is to base our accusations on sentiment and emotions alone. We need hard data and facts to make our arguments acceptable. It is therefore shocking to be told that in Meghalaya, class VIII students can hardly read a class II text books. (perhaps not applicable in elite schools but certainly quite common in most of the rural and Govt run schools of the state). Quoting from an ASER survey for 2016 we find that more than 30% of class 8 students cannot read class 2 text books and only 19% of class 8 students can do simple division. It’s a nightmare for all except those managing education! What are we teaching our children? English is the medium of teaching in all primary schools. In rural Meghalaya no one speaks English at home. How then does the education department expect 4 & 5 year old rural children to understand lessons written in English? Result- they simply mug it up and reproduce it verbatim without understanding a word of what they have regurgitated. This is pure rote learning and we have the gall to call it Education! Wouldn’t primary books in the local language serve the ends of learning and understanding better? Why was imagination and common sense not employed while prescribing books for our primary students? We also learnt that in the last 20 years no Education Minister has ever called for a review on the education policy of the state if we ever have one. In some countries such crimes of neglect carry a death sentence! They have murdered education and in so doing murdered a generation of their own people. In Meghalaya such people have no shame in seeking re-election!
In the ICARE seminar the above were highlighted as some of the issues that the people, especially parents of school going children, need to think about, if at all they are interested in the welfare and future of their children. Meghalaya has failed to produce quality education as it did years ago while under Assam. Perhaps this is because mass literacy is given more prominence over quality education. The Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma recently lamented the fact that Meghalaya has lost its title as the educational hub of the NE. The time has come for the state, its politicians , its youth and student organisations, parents of school going children, teachers, the church , its people to rise up, come together as stakeholders of education and question the direction our education is taking. We need a coordinated approach. Confrontation is the worst thing we can contribute. We need to speak up for our children for we are the custodian of their future. We need to speak out because a society that neglects its education is a society that has lost the will to survive. Meghalaya must revive its education. We must save our children.
In conclusion the people of Meghalaya must demand that an education policy with a curriculum (which shockingly Meghalaya does not have) based on the practical needs of our future and not on the whims and fancies of politicians and their bureaucrats. Such an Education policy must receive priority consideration from the next Government. Whoever forms the next Government must come out with such an education policy within 3 months of its formation. All candidates for the next Assembly elections must be prepared to articulate his/her views on this important subject. The electorate must demand clarity of understanding on Meghalaya’s educational needs from all contesting candidates. ICARE based on its interaction with all stakeholders cutting across the entire state of Meghalaya will be making public its findings, in the form of a white paper on education, sometime soon. ICARE invites the people, intellectuals, academicians, policy makers and all who have an interest in the education of our children to give their inputs, good or bad, does not matter. What matters is that as a people we must collectively voice our concern at the apathy and neglect past Governments have given to education. We must not let this happen again. There must be a road map for our next generation.
The author is president of ICARE An organisation that focuses on issues of Good Governance