Warning: This piece is about CBSE.
Second Warning: This is about a course to be introduced in CBSE schools. So, it can turn as horrible as the CBSE syllabus at some points.
I was going to elaborate on another issue that I have been planning to write on for a long time now. In the process of articulating the challenge of good training facing the youth today, I stumbled upon a news piece that transported me to the year of tenth boards of my life.
After the Board results were out, we began the academic ritual of stream selection. Our batch had been termed one of the finest batches ever. And so, to take that ‘legacy’ (euphemism for burden-of-good-performance) forward, most of us opted for Science Stream. Having attained what the Indian middle class calls the ‘Science take-able’ threshold of 90+, I was all set to join the coveted PCM with Comp. Sci. stream. It changed my life for the next two years.
I underwent a transformation that most other students of my group did. While I was jubilant on the idea of having become a ‘senior’, I was still making efforts at comprehending what was it that I had gotten myself into. While my chats and gossips had matured, I was still trying to come to terms with what the textbooks had wanted to communicate with me. In other words, Science stream was a disaster. I cursed myself every moment for having taken up a subject that only those with a genuine interest in becoming Engineers could study.
And oh, let me be very clear here. I was a confident ‘prospective’ engineer when 11th began, but a discouraged and hopeless one when I passed out of school. Back then, I blamed myself for the complete complete u-turn that my learning graph had taken after tenth. But when I look back today, I realise I was not the sole culprit. I realized that apart from the incomprehensible textbooks that had been designed for us, CBSE’s general approach towards Science education was totally flawed. And that is exactly what I wish to write about today.
Recently, CBSE announced that it will be introducing Artificial Intelligence at the level of 8th, 9th and 10th standard. At the very outset, I would like to congratulate the board for at least having thought about it at this juncture. This indicates that CBSE is indeed concerned about keeping their students in pace with the current times. AI is a field that is fast growing. It is literally in every sphere of our lives and will be amplified in its presence in the future.
So, a CBSE kid gaining acumen in the field would add to her overall personality.
Umm. May be not. And this is where my Science-story could give some evidence drawing insights from which, I must highlight the three major issues that I have to voice:
1. Mission Impossible: The Transition
The way you are taught things till tenth changes drastically during the final years of school. After explaining ‘Photosynthesis’ and a rote-learnt formula of ‘Snells Law’, you are suddenly expected to master the formula of Projectile Motion, its derivation, its explanation, etc etc. You are unable to tell which one is worse: Your learning graph or the movie direction of Jaani Dushman:Ek Anokhi Kahani: Awful is the word.
2. The Disguised Hierarchy
Hierarchy which none pays heed to. It is a known fact that coaching classes take precedence over school attendance for students. Many students commence their ‘dream IIT’ journey and appear in school only for the sake of either minimum attendance or the term examinations. Gradually, these coaching products, kind of, become the top-notch who score good not just at the coaching exams but also at the school ones. As a non-coaching student, I was often left wondering where their high scores came from. Moreover, the attention of the teachers went mostly to them whom they considered the face of the class. The declining marks of the other half of the class did not bother them. Naturally, neither the school nor the administration was concerned.
3. The Absolutely Incomprehensible Content
CBSE schools teach via NCERT textbooks. NCERT has the repute of giving the best books for forming basics and learning for competitive exams. Except, I ask, HOW? How as in just H.O.W.?
NCERT books have just no compatibility with the curriculum ever. As a ‘Central’ Board of Education, CBSE should focus on how to make things readable even for a beginner. But that is exactly what it fails to do. Apart from the total lack of a detailed explanation, NCERT books for Science expect you to know ‘many’ things in advance. And worse, if you have unfriendly teachers who throw the random ‘others can do it, why cant you’, you are left with nowhere to go. The content delivery in Science books is horrible beyond imagination. The text content and questions at the chapter-end are also greatly divergent at times which only adds to the misery of those who wish to self-study without any help of coaching or help classes.
CBSE has close to 20k+ schools in the country and each year many students pass out with its tag. It has a huge impact. Having said that, I must mention that I am totally worried about the quality of this impact. A major reason the CBSE marks rise so high every year is the rote-learning approach. You cannot expect to have a question even in the textbook, let alone in the examinations, that actually test your mental abilities. They only do your memorization skills. While such skills are absolutely important (Facts DO need to be memorized for any further analysis), the ability to deduce something of them is rarely tested.
People may oppose me on this, but the CBSE curriculum does not implement things in the right order. What the Board must realise is mere introduction of a course is not indicative of accelerated learning – a well-planned implementation might be. For example, in the case of getting AI incorporated in the syllabus, can the Board ensure that all the prerequisites to AI will be provided to the young minds in their initial years of school? Will the course introduced at that level be holistic enough for ALL students across the wide continuum of learning capabilities to grasp? Who will draft the textbooks? Would they be able to write as if they were actually sitting with the child to teach?
AI is not just about technology or conventional Science. It is a culmination of various sciences for pursuing which – knowledge of fields like linguistics, cognitive science, grammar, and many more is required. Will the Board plan to include all of this in its curriculum? In the ‘holier than thou’ approach, the curriculum refuses to go inter-disciplinary. As a person working in the field, I can say with great confirmation that the requirement of the current and upcoming decade in the field is to be greatly interdisciplinary. Moreover, such an approach must be advanced in stages, not be thrown on the face of students all of a sudden. However, given the disappointing background of my story, I am less sure that will happen.
I wish to see the day when NCERT or the prescribed textbooks take ample care of the kid’s concept clarity and no reference books are needed. I wish the board recognised that a major chunk of learners get so over shadowed by high scorers that they gradually gain invisibility, are rarely heeded and that many of them are unable to transition from low to high because they trust the system to the extent that they do not enrol in coaching classes (only to be disappointed later). Also, because they have already lost hopes of making a career in that field, they consider joining guidance classes a waste of time.
A multitude of talent is lost in the process. ‘Work where your passion lies’ is amazing, but have the authorities ever cared to nurture a potential passion? What if I told you that many passionate hearts are systematically coerced into believing that they were not meant for that field ever – that a prospective Engineer or Doctor or Architect was told to become something else because the syllabus seemed incomprehensible to her. I wish CBSE saw that courses are no guarantee of comprehension and that it must work vigorously on improving the style of communicating ideas to the students.
I do not want the same to happen to a prospective AI-scientist. AI must not become the new academic tyrant. It must become a friend. If nurtured well in the initial years, the skills could help craft a wonderful mind of the future. With good implementation and student-friendly books, this can always become a possibility. And with great hopes, I do wish to see it happen one day.
Cheers!