My son's class mate - a grade 7 student - came the other day to check on some course material. Casual conversation indicated that he puts in 9 hours of studies on holidays. Wow, this is real hard work. Further probe revealed, that parents are preparing him to be competitive and IIT degree is the aspiration. In the last few years , we notice that the intensity to excel has increased exponentially. The same student does not depend on the school academics alone. Off school, most of his time his spent jumping from one tutor to another. What about games ? What about a life outside of books ? For the available free time, sitting in front of a computer and chatting in a social networking site or playing violent computer games seems the best recreation. It is interesting to note , that many proponents of computer games opine that such participation enhances a child's mental agility. I will add one more to this one - also improves keyboard dexterity. School principals are extolling the academic performance of their students on number of toppers. It seems that the child only has to live above his neck. Is this the world we are creating now in middle class urban India ? A great example of education based hierarchial caste system. Where do you think the problem lies ?
Our education system needs a major overhaul in every count. While this may take pages of elaboration, let me reflect on two major ones for the existing set up. When did we last review the B Ed curicullum in India ? How much investment is going towards teachers skill development ? India has a close to 7 million teachers covering all types of education . Your guess is as good as mine that most are ????? Now let us look at the other concern . Are we ever going to see some overhaul in Instruction Design . Howcome , in this digital age tons of text books are the only recourse to learning. Why does a child need to carry a sackful of books to school ? Many educationists seem to be concerned about it, yet , year after year, this remains a lip service issue. How do we still encourage chalk and talk teachers in the classroom ?
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