It has been 74 years since our independence. If seen, India has not been able to make much progress in so many years. Be it on education or any issue, India has always lagged behind other countries. I think people in our country are educated, but they are not able to progress. The reason is our education system which is limited to books; it does not teach us about life. Education should be focused on gaining knowledge rather than only summarising chapters.
A child starts going to school at the age of 3 or 4 years, and like everyone else, follow the same routine because their parents do not show them any other way. Some parents even impose their opinions on their children. They want their children to fulfil their dreams. Every single child has a desire, and parents and teachers should show them the right direction to achieve those goals. Parents and teachers should help their children convert their burning desire into an obsession and then a physical equivalent.
Famous writer Napoleon Hill’s younger son came into the world without any physical sign of ears and the doctor admitted that the child might be deaf and mute for life. But Hill challenged the doctor’s opinion and didn’t accept the reality of the affliction. He said, “Our only limitations are those we set up in our own mind.“
He discovered that his son could hear him quite clearly when he spoke with his lips touching his mastoid bone. The outlook was far from encouraging, but desire backed by faith knows no such words as impossible. He noticed that the child’s hearing was improving and after a few years he was finally able to hear clearly with the help of a hearing aid. The point is, all impulses of thought tend to clothe themselves in their physical equivalent.
Our Current Education System:
First of all, our education system is confusing. In our country, we waste our first 10–12 years learning topics which are not related to our daily lives. In India, kids who are interested in sports or art or any other activities are forced to study math or physics or chemistry. They are not allowed to maintain these hobbies as their parents think that they won’t have enough time after school.
Whatever the reason is, this mindset is destroying the lives of children because everyone isn’t good at maths or physics or any particular subject. Every single kid has a different desire or potential or talent, and if moulded in the right way, these small desires can convert into physical realities. Parents may even think it is outrageous to allow children to choose singing, dancing, drawing, sports or any other activities as their career, but that is the right decision.
Recently, our Central Government launched a New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which brings about several significant reforms in education in India. Among these reforms, the 10+2 structure in the schooling system has been replaced by 5+3+3+4 structure and three years of Anganwadi and pre-schooling. The policy allows children to choose whatever they want as their core subjects. This policy focuses on mending the overall school curriculum for the students with reformed Board Examinations and a reduction in the overall syllabus to retain core essentials. The policy follows, “experiential learning and critical thinking”.
Schools are supposed to be the temples of learning, but the average primary educational institutions in India are likely to be a dingy, dilapidated place without access to electricity, water facility, separate boy’s and girl’s toilets, library, playground and not enough teachers. On the other hand, the conditions of the classrooms are worse.
So, for a better future of education, all of our citizens have to work hard to change the system. The Government needs to take the baton into their hands and eradicate note learning from school at all levels. The schools must be encouraged to introduce conceptual learning which avoids students to mug up what they are being taught. Learners must not only develop what they know but also skills, attitudes and values that will help them to be capable of everything. Only then the lives of our children will improve and unemployment will be eradicated from our country.