31 August 2012

The Education Prison

Image by Ben Heine


In a country with a population of over 1,200 million people it is astounding to hear from almost all employers, "We can't get the people we need".  

India has one of the youngest populations in the world, and this represents a fantastic asset, if the people are productive. However a majority of these young and middle aged people are currently unemployable. If this situation is not corrected soon then India is indeed sitting on a gigantic human resources time bomb. 

Compared to earlier generations the opportunity to acquire knowledge was a great boon for the preceding two generations, with literacy rates and job skills being greatly enhanced. 

To meet the growing demand education institutions have mushroomed mainly owned and managed by politicians. With a focus only on maximization of short term profit  most of these institutions are providing education which is often hopelessly out of sync with current requirements of employers and society in general.

Learning which should be an exciting phenomenon has become a dreary and boring affair for students. So bad is the situation that the students are forced to attend classes which they would prefer not sit in. The system has come to represent a prison of sorts.

Indian educational institutes from school to universities have mandated that every student must attend a minimum of 80% of all classes to be eligible to be examined or tested at the end of each term.


___________________________________

Why was the rule created and why is it sustained?
   Parents do not have the time, energy or inclination to police or engage their children, they expect the educational institute to do that.  The system keeps children somewhat occupied with each other if not with their teachers and their subjects.
   When education becomes a drudgery, because of overflowing classrooms, poor quality of content, falling teaching standards, and indifferent or overworked teachers, the children will rebel.  The education institutions see it as an opportunity to earn more fees by imposing penalties, repetitive collections of fees from detained students, etc.

This makes everyone happy except the student, because they have to endure, long boring sessions with drudgery. No prisoner is happy, even if the attempts of teaching are claimed to be for the student's benefit.

 "You can take the horse to the water but you cannot make it drink", goes a well known saying. It is possible to force the student to sit in a class but it is impossible to force them to learn.  You don't have to be a genius to know that any kind of forced action always has unpleasant or problematic results.

Instead of treating the student as a lamp to be lit, our system now considers them to be vessels to be filled.

The situation is indeed alarming but can still be rectified. We need to restructure the way we ourselves and our children learn and acquire skills more suited to meet the challenges of the 22nd century. 

Readers are invited to respond with their thoughts and suggestions.



16 August 2012

Where the mind is without fear





"None  are  more  hopelessly  enslaved  than  those,  who  falsely  believe  they  are  free"                                  
~ Johan  Wolfgang  Von  Goethe. 




"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

 Where knowledge is free;

 Where the world has not been broken  up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

 Where words come out from the depth of truth;

 Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

 Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

 Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action -

 Into that heaven of freedom, My Father, let my country awake"


  Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore
       (1861 - 1941)

                                                    ___________________________



Come one and all, my fellow countrymen and women, let us celebrate our freedom. 
Why do you not celebrate with us on this Republic anniversary day of ours?
Let us sing and dance like all happy and free people.

Oh I see! You do not feel too happy or so optimistic.  

Freedom, what freedom you ask? 
Maybe you are right.  


We have traded in imperialistic rulers to replace them with self serving dynastic and often criminal rulers.  We lived in bondage under the Kings, Princes, Nawabs, British, Portuguese and French, now they have gone we like to believe we are  free.  But are we free? I think not. 


The enslavement of the mind and spirit is greatly more reprehensible and sad than physical slavery.  The physical slave is aware of his or her plight and either accepts or fights it. 

The tragedy of the people whose minds and spirit are enslaved is that they are not aware that they have been enslaved. They take great pride in their slavery and even preach the same dogma of their former and current masters.

This tragedy the great Rabindranath Tagore ji foresaw and prayed to God that  " …into that heaven of freedom, My father let my country awake" 


A great future beckons us, all we have to do is believe in it.  India can once again become a beacon of hope, health, prosperity and happiness for the entire world.

________________________

"The Bard of Bengal",  Rabindranath Tagore ji (1861 – 1941)  reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art.

Author of 'Gitanjali'  he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. Tagore's poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; his "elegant prose and magical poetry" had a profound impact not only on Bengalis but on the world.

His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh's Amar Shonar Bangla. The Sri Lanka's National Anthem was inspired by his work.

Entrepreneurs, professionals and entrefessional

I will digress here to explain my analysis of the difference between entreprenuers professionals & entrefessionals.  I don't really...