LAST WEEK , an elder cousin of mine called me up. He is 5 years my senior and has a three year old daughter. We family members have got a tradition of exchanging ideas and try, as much as possible, to take suggestions from each other for any major decisions of life. It is perhaps only a coincidence that a recently released film has opened a debate up on the faults of our education system and teenage suicides just when my cousin’s facing the dilemma of selecting a school for his daughter. He is stuck in between the social craze for high-fees private schools, wife’s obvious wishes and his own belief that real classroom education should start at the age of 8 to 10. And till that age, the type and standard of school makes no difference to the kids’ overall development, as long as there is reasonably good attendance of kids and teachers.
My cousin’s belief has got practical support and evidence from the successful stories of us cousins. We are from a village in a least known district of Kishanganj on the border of Bihar and Bengal. Our fathers are primary school teachers and small farmers. We all attended not-so-disciplined government primary schools of our village and majority of us went on to top in high schools of our town and achieved good results in national level colleges. Now, we are engineers, managers, teachers, clerks, technicians etc and living happily with our personal, professional and social commitments together in a balanced manner. Few cousins are doing farming and daily labor jobs as well but as a whole our education has served its purpose: It has given us employment for livelihood and empowered us with social values and awareness about our rights and responsibilities. Our family case may probably be shrugged off as a matter of destiny. But then destiny plays its role in the so-called failed cases also and we should not blame the educational system of the 1980s for that.
Let me have my say in this interesting and important debate. I am beginning with the basics. In this life, every individual has to deal with three things: Self, Society and the System. And education should prepare us for the same. The society is like a well-knit fabric of individuals and the system is like a steel structure of individuals, ideas and institutions. A self is a person with three dimensions, namely physical, psychological and moral, and is always bound by four P’s: his Problems, Priorities, Profession and Passion. All these factors also vary with the person’s age, gender and socio-economic conditions. Any individual or institution has to take these into considerations while setting goals and formulating rules. Negligence on any of these interlinked factors can over-stress the individuals and lead to chaos.
This is most true for kids and teen-aged students because they still are in the learning phase of their lives. The society, the parents and the educational system, each has to be balanced and sensible in their approach to educating the kids. In the persuit of excellence, the young minds should not be left unattended or pushed to become eccentric. The environment of creative freedom should also be there in academies along with the conformist syllabus. Approach towards students of all ages should not be same. The students’ may be broadly classified in three age groups: kids of below ten, teens and twenties. Teaching style, timing, course volume, content etc may be kept different for the three groups to suit their health and other requirements. Kids should be given least of conformist syllabus and most of creative freedom along with enough of sleep. Teens should divide their time equally between creative/ social activities and academic commitments after eight hours of daily sleep. College students group may do as per circumstance and career requirements but 6 – 8 hours of sleep is a must for them too. Sufficient sleep is very important for better development of young minds and is big determinant in saving them from major diseases like hypertension, diabetes, depression, anxiety, personality disorders or suicidal tendencies in later stages of their lives.
Classroom activities should not be thought as the only means of education. At least one of the parents should give enough time to their kids. Parents should not expect unreasonably from their wards and rather should provide a moral support after any failure and always remind the fact that this is not the end of the world. Destiny can also blamed for individual failures and the faith should be kept that something different and better must be on the cards. Students’ merit should be rewarded not only with financial temptation but also with a sense of intellectual pride and social responsibility. Children should be discouraged from exposure to the extremes of sex, crime and war in the forms of games and films. They should be encouraged for the conventional sports and literature to inculcate controlled behavior and thoughtful attitude. In these days of profession-driven nuclear family and money-driven busy life, new subjects like health and family studies may also be introduced to teach students the 'apparently unimportant' topics of life : sex and gender, moral values, local traditions, social behaviour, ethics and relatives/ neighbours’ role in human lives.
Education essentially is meant to be a tool of empowerment and employment but certainly not that of ending one’s life. The number of student suicides in our country for last one decade is indicating that our present educational system needs restructuring. Indian society and system should come back to their wise ways and take a balanced and human approach towards education. I hope that happens sooner rather than later.
