The meaning of political science is often restricted to the state, government, and everyday politics. However, it goes beyond that. We as humans share various relationships. What do we do when conflicts arise in these relationships? How do we resolve them? The Socratic dialectical method or Habermas’ idea of deliberation provides a solution. It says conflicts are better resolved through dialogue rather than domination. Hence, it tells us how to talk in a dialectical manner. It is the process of reasoning together. For instance, when your father asks you to aim for a government job, but you want to become a content creator, you do not totally oppose each other. Instead, you engage rationally: Why is a government job important? Maybe because it provides security and financial stability. But being a content creator might give you creative freedom. So you decide to take a government job but also start your creator journey simultaneously — maybe by vlogging your day as a government employee...
Close your eyes for a moment after reading the term " Indian Education System". What is the first word you think of? Inefficient? incompetent? worthless? inept? clumsy? I am incontrovertibly sure there is not a single positive word that would have clicked in your mind. Our literacy rate might have come to 74.04% compared to 18.33% in 1951 but are we really making our population educated? Until we ask this question we can not bring the change. This is not an essay with vast logistics and deeply critical of the Indian education system as a whole. This is an experience-based essay that will be true across India. Because my experiences come from the two top-class institutions of our beloved country, India. This is not any other Indian education system essay you would have read or be reading in the near future.
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school. It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. ” – Albert Einstein
India is a land of almost 135 crore people. It is the world's second-largest population. It is a country that has been a favorite place of destination for education in ancient times. Though we are not able to develop a system like that in contemporary times, what we have done is that we have limited ourselves to only glorifying the past and doing nothing about the present if not the future. Ancient Indian was famous for its magnificent efficient education system where the focus was given on students being educated rather than making them rote learners.
We don't have much information about the school structure and the Indian education system in general in medieval India.
The foundations of our modern Indian education system were laid by a cruel colonial power of Europe, Britain. It is Britain that has sowed the seeds of education in modern India. However, that education was to create a class of people who would do nothing but serve the Britishers and help them in the administration because you need a sophisticated system managed by efficient people to rule a big country like India. One of the many negative consequences of the colonial education system is that it created a rift between those who are able to speak English and those who can not.
Now we are standing at the time of history where we have immense human capital. We have the most number of youths in the world. Youth is the force of change. It is the youth who shape the destiny of any nation. But is the Indian youth doing anything? To put it differently, what is the government doing, other than addressing them in the big political rallies only, to utilize this immense youth power? One can argue that a lot of new policies are being created and many programs are continuously being launched to strengthen the existing educational structure. But what is the real problem of the Indian education system which makes it so stubborn that it is not improving even a little bit?
The basic question to answer the above question can be asked is who makes a student educated? Do books make them educated? Well yes but if it is only the books then why do we have schools? So is it the school? Well yes but this can further be reduced to the teacher. It is ultimately the teacher who has the utmost responsibility for making a student educated. Here comes the fun fact. A class studying political science, full of almost 100 students, and a question is asked by my professor what does everyone want to become? Not a single person says s/he wants to become a teacher. Teaching in India is a profession that is always the last option. It is a general perception and also the reality if you can't become anything then start preparing to become a teacher. This is the level of importance we have given to the teachers. If the youth is the power of any nation teachers are the guide of that power who make the power achieve its destined goals. But can we make a society educated where no one wants to be a teacher?
Last month I was writing my very first academic paper. I needed help regarding some suggestions on literature which I should look at to gain some knowledge on the topic. I wrote to 4 of my professors regarding the same and guess what no one replied. This was expected. India is a country where teachers don't have time to teach then how can they help in person? After writing the paper when I sent it to the same professors and explicitly requested them for feedback the same thing happened again: no one replied and that led to the killing of my eagerness to write and curiosity to know. So the carelessness and irresponsible behavior of the teacher and the estranged relationship between the teacher and the students is the first set of problems.
The second problem with the education system in India is it focuses on memory, not understanding. This is why most graduates are unable to do much beyond following instructions from their seniors. Universities here need to move away from exams and make the emphasis on evaluation of learning and curiosity. Getting an engineering degree, for instance, is more about building a resume than knowledge.
Reforms have been made through top to bottom approach. Creating big schools with a spacious atmosphere, making education multidisciplinary, and providing free food, etc is important. Rejecting these aspects would be an injustice but these can be dealt with afterward. If you don't have a population who enjoys studying i.e. who likes being educated then what are those schools created for? To make rote learners? The primary focus should be on evolving the relationship between the teacher and students. If the teacher is fulfilling his/her duties fully which includes many things to give an illustration teaching through various methods(like group discussion, presentations, one on one interaction, etc), making the topics interesting, tutorials, case study, project work, open learning, personalized system of learning(PSI) and team teaching, etc. then whether there is a roof on the top or not, won't matter much. What I see in most of my classes is that teachers come and start reading the text. They put no effort into making it interesting or breaking down complex ideas. It can be anything but teaching.
The third problem is associated with the first one discussed above. There is not any mechanism to give feedback or report a complaint against any particular teacher or against the faculty per se other than directly telling it to the teacher or HOD in the class or in person. But this is not a good idea. Students don't speak against their teachers in front of them. And how even can they because these are the same teachers who would give him/her the marks? Their report card depends on them and there are high chances that the teacher would treat that particular student differently because it is very difficult to handle criticism. The solution to this problem is very simple. There must be a closed mechanism where students can give their feedback and raise their complaints anonymously. In this technological age, there are various methods through which an anonymous platform to solve that problem can be created.
In conclusion, there can be many other aspects to the current topic where reforms may be suggested to transform the present education system of India but until we fix the fundamental problems, the problem to transform the relationship between the teachers and students, teachers behavioral change and a well structured anonymous feedback mechanism, we can not expect any good.
1 such cell in our Schools and Universities needs to be set up.
ReplyDeleteIn my UG, a Professor once told a student in front of the whole class that the student's 25 marks is under her prerogative.
So, it really is important.
Yes, it is must and sad to hear that happened to you. This is the main reason students don't raise their voices.
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