Discussion on Quality Education/Schools/Teachers?

Dear Friends,
Education has the function of transmission of culture, social control and social progress. It is always based on the philosophy of the people of a nation. In India, we follow the Philosophy of Scientific Humanism. Our Educational System is based on Macaulay's Minutes and hence it is an alien system transplanted in our Country. It has been surviving on a patchwork of recommendations from Commissions and Committees since 1942.

We had the Radhakrishnan Committee Report for improving University Education in 1942, then the Mudliar Committee in 1952-54, looking in depth at the Secondary Education and why it was divorced from the realities of life. Again we had a very Comprehensive Kothari Commission Report in 1964. The Indian Educationists regard it as their Bible in education. We followed it with the NPE-National Policy on Education after a Nation-wide debate and then for the first time we had a POA-Programme of Action- Goals were decided, Time-frames were set and every thing came to naught with a change in Govt. We have the latest Recommendations of CABE-the Central Advisory Board on Education and in Feb.2005, the NCF-National Curriculum Framework was decided, announced and implemented in a phased manner. I gave this historical background so that we have a clear perspective of what went wrong. We never had an indigenous system of Education. Experimentation, sudden changes and drastic reforms with changes in Govt's have left the Educational System in shambles. This is our first casualty. Let me honestly share with you, these Recommendations decorate the shelves in our Libraries and we only pay lip service to them.

Our schools which we regard as our ‘Temples of Learning’ got into the ‘Business of Education’ and soon made ‘Education their Business’. These Educational Institutions over a period of time lost their missionary zeal, their social character and ignored the stakeholders thus distancing themselves from those, whom it was meant to serve.
We do have a few Good schools here and there but that is just an Oasis in a huge desert. Schooling has become drudgery, routine, monotonous and there is no scope today for innovations, creativity. Status quo is being maintained rigidly and we find a lot of gimmickry in the name of Education. Our kids are being treated as guinea pigs for being experimented upon by quakes and novices.

Teaching has and never was an occupation in our country. Teachers are there more by chance rather than by choice. They are humiliated, exploited, blamed, used for every work and drilled into practices that are meaningless. Their Pre-Service Training is defective, there is a huge yawning gap between Theory and Practice and once appointed in a School, they are regimented and carried along. By the way, our Country happens to be perhaps the only country in the World where Heads of Institutions are appointed because of their experience as Teachers and there is neither a training before appointment as a pre-requisite, nor do we make a sincere attempt at Training them in Administration and Management of Schools after appointing them.

The Curriculum is lengthy, concept ridden and encourages rote-learning. The teachers take great pains in covering the content and Examination is the End. All possible means are adopted to get through these exams and hence we have malpractices, depressions, suicides, disappointment and yet a few excel and we forget the rest and bask in the glory of the achievements of the few.

Finally, Quality in Education is a misnomer. We are unaware of its true meaning and in spite of some Schools having started Quality Circles; we are not a Quality conscious community of people.For me Quality would mean meeting requirements. It is that Zero Error state where you are aware of PONK. Quality in Education is nowadays- a misnomer and we are paying the price for not maintaining or even aspiring for Quality