Need To Improve The Education System In India

Greetings!!

Today I would be focusing on the quality of Education in India. No doubt we have so many learned men & women; but there are a lot of things which are keeping us back. Let’s discuss these vital points in detail.

Recently education has become a mere competition between children. I might not comment about other cities and their respective education system, but the city in which I grew up (Mumbai), Education is not about gaining knowledge at all. The only thing a student is taught is ‘To get better grades than Others’. Grades have become an addition to the basic necessities of life which include Food, Clothing & Shelter. People are judged not by their character, or their knowledge of a subject, or their analytical skills etc. Judgment is only on the basis of grades.

Let’s start with the ‘Schooling of Children’. When I was in School, environment was highly competitive. I have no problem with competition. Competitiveness will definitely bring out the best in you if & only if you’re determined to succeed. But the competition wasn’t a positive one. People weren’t competing for the knowledge they had acquired, instead they were competing for Grades. Do not have the misconception that I was different or a world class student who had an immense hunger for knowledge at that time. I was forced to follow the crowd because I was made to believe that it was the only way. I was made to believe that Grades were everything you need in school. I was made to believe this equation, 

Less Marks = No Admission in Renowned Colleges = No Respect = No Recognition

I thought this would change over time but it has become worse. Students do not learn anything; they just memorize to get good grades. This has been a bigger problem than it seems. Because of less learning in the first step of our education, students do not develop a greater vision in their respective fields.  

Many a times, even schools do not take proper care for the student’s future. I do not think any school pays attention to a student who scores less. Attention only goes to the one who tops the class. Does anyone ask – Why someone failed? Why someone is getting low grades every time? A big NO. If you get good grades, you’re a scholar. If you don’t, you are just insulted and taunted by your Teachers and your Parents.

Moreover, based upon the Grades students are classified into groups by their Parents, Neighbors & Society. The 3 groups are,

  1.     Outstanding and Brilliant

  2.     Average

  3.     Poor

Of all these, only the outstanding students would be in limelight and the rest would be considered useless. You might be thinking why I have a problem with these so called ‘Outstanding’ people. Honestly I don’t! From where I’ve seen, I’d say these students are outstanding in their rote skills. They are not at all outstanding in their knowledge. Yes there might be a few geniuses out there but let’s ask this – Why all are not Geniuses? To this many people say that the students who are poor at studying do not become Geniuses. So this is the problem where our mentality has stuck only on Grades. If students get lower grades, they are poor in studying. This is the tag that is given to all such students.

I think that everyone out there is a Genius. But it’s hidden. It will never come out as people start blurring it with all their criticism. Students getting lesser grades would always be told that they are poor in studying; they cannot do any good in life. People make them believe that they are less in life. This halts the students at one place. School children are influential and they would feel as others will make them feel.

So then these people send their children to Tuitions. So ideally if a student goes to tuitions, he/she knows much more and he will score well in his exams. Outstanding students will again score well. Why? Outstanding Rote skills! But the rest of the students who scored less initially would score lesser in their examinations. Why? No one cares to ask..!!

The reason is this – Students who score less do not have a studying issue. They have either of the two problems,

  1.     They need personal attention which would help them grasp things slowly and properly.

  2.     They are the ones who are learning things and not memorizing it. They are trying to be unique but the people are forcing them to do the opposite. Ultimately they follow the crowd but fail as that is not what they wanted initially. And since they do not want to memorize, forcing them to do that would ultimately decrease their performance.

So it is the job of parents, teachers, friends or whoever concerned, to understand the plight of students and help them accordingly instead of scolding them. Scolding won’t do any good to students. I’ve got a good example of this. Recently a boy approached me with tearful eyes. When I asked him what happened, his answer was, “I go to school for 6 hours, then tuitions for 6 hours and finally 2 hours of studying at night. If I don’t study, I get beaten by my parents. I am very stressed. They don’t even let me play. What should I do?” I was completely shocked. I had no idea how to reply to that one. I think that boy is the reason I am writing this and creating awareness. 

So this is the pressure that school students are facing. 14 hours of Studying? That too the boy is studying in this manner since 6^th Grade. I’ve interacted with many such students and I get random answers from their parents like, ‘Dull people should study more’, ‘They won’t get a good college’, ‘since we (Parents) could not study, we will make them study’.

The last one is intense. No doubt our parents have struggled way too hard to come up in life, but they have this dream that their children should become great people in life. For this they make them work really hard. They keep scolding them, keep pressurizing them to work hard and become something. Becoming something means to become only Engineers or Doctors. You just cannot choose your career apart from that. You cannot become a Musician or a Choreographer or a Cricketer or a Footballer. You have to become what your Parents want! No other Choice!

So the freedom to become something is gone. And the heart required to become what your Parents are forcing you, is wandering somewhere else. 

Apart from the stress given by Parents, don’t you forget the Tuitions! In all the tuition classes that I know of in Mumbai, there are Preliminary examinations (Prelims) before the final 10^th grade examination. So the Tuitions keep 2 prelims and the School undertakes 1 prelim to test the students.  Again the students get so pressurized because if they get low grades, they are told that they will fail their finals. So for 3 Prelims, do we actually think that students will try to understand anything? Understanding concepts takes time that is not given to them. So ultimately the students memorize all the things and pass the examinations. So when they are asked anything about their concepts, all they know is nothing! And no student tries to be unique and understand things. All they do is follow the crowd.

Let us speak about these tuitions in more detail. Tuitions are nothing but Money Collection Centers. They do not want to educate children; all they want is a good name and good fame as compared to their competitors. One thing I’ve noticed that these tuition classes provide ample amount of Books, reference materials etc. Students do not even know their textbook contents and they are burdened with all this useless stuff! The situation is that students are directly thrown on a mountain top and told to get down from there. But no one has cared to teach them how to climb and get down from that mountain in the first place. This is the problem I am focusing on. I’ll give you a beautiful example here. I’ve been teaching this boy of 9^th Grade some concepts of Geometry. The boy has paid 90k in his classes for his 9^th and 10^th Grade combined. And yet he comes to me as he does not have those basics required to climb the mountain. So when I was teaching him, I found that the School had taught him a different method and the Tuition classes had taught a different one. 

When I compared the methods, I found out that the school method was quite easy. But the method taught to him in classes was way too difficult for a school boy to even remember. This was confusing him. So there are such small reasons that Parents do not see. They just scold because of fewer grades! There is an immense urgency to understand the plight of school children. They should be walking on the path of Learning and not just studying for clearing examinations. Their interests should be noticed and be motivated accordingly. But all we want is good GRADES! Sigh!

Such events keep happening till 12^th Grade. People then choose careers forced onto them by their Parents and they start the same procedure again. Even at Masters Level, I’ve seen people studying only what their syllabus tells them to. They won’t even read a single word apart from that. This is very sad. This has been a mindset for so many years and I don’t think it’s going to change ever.

Ultimately the thing that education is linked to is MONEY. When I first joined Bachelors in the Field of Biotechnology, everyone told me only one thing, ‘What is this field? It does not have scope. You should’ve chosen Engineering over this.’ I did not understand why this field does not have scope. I have finished my Masters in Biotechnology and I am so amazed with this field. It holds the basis of Life processes. But it is given very less importance. The reason for this is that is does not have enough Money output. You have to study a lot before you start getting money. Then I realized that people do not want to study, they don’t want education, they are just waiting for the Money behind it. There is no Job satisfaction. There is a hunger for Money which will never get satisfied.

Yes Money is very essential in life but it does not succeed the satisfaction of oneself.

So it is the education system which has taken a very different direction. I know that writing these kind of blogs won’t bring any improvement but it should be enough to open up our eyes. We should create an environment such that students learn a lot of novel things. They should develop that interest in learning. When I speak of Education, people don’t take it seriously. But this has caused enough damage already and it will continue to do this. 

How to Improve this Situation? It has very simple solutions.

1. To all the Parents out there: Your Children are born geniuses. If they get low marks, find out the reason for it. Scolding won’t improve it. Shifting them to Better Schools or Classes will neither help. Make your children stress free and then allow them to learn all kind of things. Do not make Percentage; a priority over your child’s life.

2.      Don’t just fall for a School’s reputation. Reputation does not always mean Quality of Education. Try to find the difference between that.

3.     Instead of wasting so much money on Tuitions, try finding a person who would have a greater knowledge of a subject. He would be far better Professor than the School teachers or any of those high class tuition teachers. Save that money and try to educate poor children who cannot afford to study.

4.     To all the Scholars in their respective field of expertise, Please and I mean it; Please help all the students behind you. If we all work together, this kind of disrupted system would change one day.

Education is the only medium which would make us a bright Individual. Be hungry for learning always.

I’ll tell you why I could see all these problems and spread awareness. I haven’t joined Tuitions in my entire education career. I had the support of my greatest Elder Sisters (Yogini & Asmita) who forced me to learn things and not memorize them. I was not a bright student but I kept learning things. I still do! I had that perfect environment of education. My father (Dinkar Chauhan) made me understand the value of education whereas my Mother (Pushpa Chauhan) made me fit health wise in all walks of life to make me reach where I am today. So ultimately, it’s your Family who should support you. This support will develop you into a greater being.

Lastly I would like to mention a quote from my Father which I always keep in mind. He says, ‘Average to Everest’. This is my ultimate Motivation. Always be an average student who has a hunger for knowledge. Do not call yourself Outstanding or brilliant because that is the time when you will stunt your Growth. You would no longer have the hunger to improve. Bring that change, Motivate your children; they are our country’s biggest Wealth.