What’s Wrong With The Indian Education System? Instead of teaching kids to fit into the boxes of crayons so that they can color their unique rainbows, they are forced into boxes that demolish their inner child and rarity.
The main purpose of education is to help an individual reach their full potential so that they help themselves first and become capable to help others. It is to make them understand that their unique perspective about life and creative side is much needed for this world. But when this unique quality of an individual isn’t excepted by the world it does much more damage to an individual’s soul which is beyond explanation.
The Rote Education
The term called “By Heart” and its real meaning is to understand and learn the meaning of the word or concept in depth which can be remembered forever and will be a piece of cake to explain when it’s been asked. But “By Heart” in the Indian schools is mixed up with “Rote Learning” which is learning and memorizing the concept by repetition without understanding the relationships involved, reasons, and the depth of the concept. It is about writing vocabulary over and over again and doing constant mathematic drills.
The rote memory works well with short-term memory. Where the information in the brain stays for a few months, weeks, or minutes. Rote learning can be appropriate for remembering the facts and figures and everyday concepts that don’t need much understanding.
But to remember it forever, the concept needs to be stored in the long-term memory. Which is attained through meaningful learning and not rote learning.
The reason why people forget what they have learned in schools and college is that the education system in India has failed to understand and teach – where rote learning and meaningful learning have to be applied.
Less Educated Educators And Technological Usage
The teachers play the most important role in the school, and so many Indian teachers and professors lack understanding of how to transfer the knowledge to different kinds of kids. And this is why they need to be educated first and trained on teaching, not just the concepts but how to empathize with kids who come with different learning abilities/ styles.
There is no doubt that there are teachers who try their best to empathize with kids but it is humanly impossible for a teacher to pay attention to every kid (which we hear all time from the Indian teachers). And to stop this excuse from not turning into a habit. The Indian schools need to take the help of technology and use artificial intelligence and chatbots to help all kids. Challenges faced in the Indian education system.
Even movies have become a platform for learning. Such are these beautiful Movies-like Hero, tare Zameen par, and super 30 that teach and show us how alarming the situation of the Indian educational system is. And how the quality of education differs in the expensive and less expensive schools. The right to education and gaining knowledge should be accessed by all different kinds of individuals irrespective of where they come from.
Hierarchy System
The Indian stream hierarchy system of education is the reason why science has been put on the pedestal whereas other subjects like communication, language, arts, and commerce are belittled. The kids are pushed at a very young age to secure their life. They are told to decide their plans for the future in the 10th class when they are just 15 years old.
The parents force them into doing extra activities related to the subjects and instead of seeing the kids on the playground after school, they are seen carrying the same burden to the tuitions too.
Marks are continued to decide the fate of kids. The 3hr paper evaluation put a lot of pressure on the kids. Anything below 90% is said to be considered shameful.
The streams like arts and commerce are not even given the same quality education as science, which restricts their knowledge. Making them the victim of the taunts of society.
Indian obsession with English pushes the Indians to study abroad. And the great Indian minds sell out all their knowledge learned to other countries.
Lack Of Mental Health Knowledge
Instead of encouraging the students to consult with a professional therapist and take prescribed pills to reduce the stress and anxiety the kids are told to take a Chill Pill and not to overthink.
According to 2018 reports, 12% of students between the age of 4 to 16 suffers from a psychiatric disorder and 20% have a mental disorder and 2-5 percent have severe issues like autism and bipolar disorder.
And there have been several cases where the kids commit suicide because the marks attained in exams won’t be excepted by their parents or the world. Conversation with the counselors has revealed that students find it difficult to cope with the failure in exams and jobs, and life. And the students have revealed that neither the educational institutions nor the family supports them and offers them the support they need. There is an 87% shortage of professional therapists and services in India. India currently spends 0.5% to 18% on mental health
The New Educational policy
The union cabinet has cleared that the new educational system policy 2020 (NEP) is to be implemented from then the academic year 2022-to 2023. The NEP 2020 is said to reduce the gap between research and education in India. This national educational policy 2020 took 4 to 5 years of efforts to be formulated- says Narendra Modi.
Here is everything you need to know about NEP 2020 and its key points.
Empathy, kindness, caring, patience, embracing, and understanding are some of the universal teaching techniques that should be the core of all educational institutions.
And it’s high time for the age-old Indian educational system to rest in peace and be replaced with a new system so that kids and adults can reach their fullest potential becoming better humans and making the world a better place to live in.
