By Dr Barnes Mawrie
“Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself” (John Dewey).
The latest news on the suicide of ten students in Andhra Pradesh two days after the publication of the Intermediate results, is a matter of great national concern. A study done by NCRB in 2021 shows that 13,089 students died of suicide which is an increase from 12,526 in 2020. A large number of these suicides are due to failure in examinations. Whenever results of various school and college examinations or entrance tests etc, are declared, we hear of suicides by students who could not make the grade. This tragic phenomenon is affecting our country more than elsewhere in the world. Unfortunately, in spite of the recurring mishaps the government does not seem perturbed. How long should we helplessly watch our youth being plagued by this fatal tendency?
The root cause of this social problem that has taken thousands of young lives, is closely linked to the inability to cope with the reality of failure. It is a well known fact that our present academic evaluation system is examination based which remains a highly competitive system. Our students as well as their parents and teachers are worried about “how many marks the students score.” Even within the classrooms students vie with each other for higher marks. The culture of “tuition class” is growing by leaps and bounds all because parents want their children to score higher marks. It is pathetic to see that even primary school students or even tiny tots are deprived of their right to daily recreation because even after school hours they are sent for tuition classes.
Prior to public examinations, students are tortured with extra classes in their respective schools and colleges. The competition mania is affecting individual students as well as the educational institutions themselves. Every school and college tries to outshine the other in their quest for prestige. The whole educational system is literally caught up in this rat race. In all of this, the students continue to be the helpless victims of stress and tensions. There are many ambitious parents who stretch the limit of their children’s intellectual capacity not realizing that they are harming the mental health of these youth. They keep on indulging in “impossible dreams” for their children and in the process they build up more tension instead. With the introduction of more and more competitive examinations like the CUET, CEE, AIEE, SEE and many others (probably it would take more than a page to list down the number of competitive exams in our country), the mental tension on our youth is growing dangerously. The question we should ask is – should India keep on watching with indifference while young lives are being lost wastefully on a daily basis due to these mental tortures?
It is high time that the educational department of our country finds a permanent solution to this problem. Having known that the common factor for this national tragedy is the competitive evaluation system, we need to think of an alternative system. Competition always leads to rivalry, individualism, selfishness and at times dishonesty and cheating. Apart from these, competition is the breeding ground for mental tension and anxiety. On all these counts, a competitive system appears to be more detrimental than beneficial to our youth. If education is intended to foster values like altruism, solidarity, honesty, justice and peace, then competition is the wrong pill. Perhaps there is urgency to do away with our present evaluation system and put in its place a more holistic and healthy system. The exam-oriented education should be replaced by a knowledge-oriented one. The present evaluation system which is based on scores alone lacks a holistic approach to education. A student’s performance should not be based on marks alone but it should be an overall evaluation of performance in all sectors, intellectual, psychological, social, cultural, moral and spiritual. I do not think that our present education caters to these needs apart from intellectual formation.
When it comes to social and cultural education I can boldly say from my experience that our system has failed in fostering virtues like civic sense, altruism, eco-sensitivity, cultural sensitivity and intercultural communication. With regards to moral education it suffices to look at the level of corruption, dishonesty, violence and crimes in order to convince us of the dismal performance of our educational system. It is often the so called “well educated” persons who are at the helm of our state’s affairs, who are perpetrators of such unethical behaviour. The attempt to suffronize education today, namely, to idolize Hindu culture and history, is going to harm education further. It is going to radicalize our young citizens along religious lines, a perfect cocktail for a national disaster.
We should all remember that a classroom is a factory of citizens and that speaks volume about its importance. What sort of citizens does India want to have today and in the future? That would depend on the quality of our educational system. In conclusion let me cite the great philosopher Aristotle who had this to say about education, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”