Let me be very honest with you, I am not here to criticise any institutional body, nor any person. Criticism never helps. As said by Dale Carnegie in his famous book How To Win Friends And Influence People, “never criticise, always complain”. We all know how bad the situation is. Allow me to share some data about the education system of India:
- We are one of the biggest hubs of education across the whole world, i.e. 1.4 million schools, 36,000 higher educational institutes, and 227 million students.
- Out of these at least 35 million children aged 6–14 years do not attend school.
- 53% of girls in the age group of 5–9 years are illiterate.
And this list can literally stretch till eternity. But as my title suggests, “be a part of the solution, not the problem”. I hereby extend my cardinal welcome to all my readers along a small trip where I can tell you about some possible ways to increase the literacy rate.
Some days back I read an article in the TOI newspaper: Sanitary vending machines in 1k schools to reduce dropout rate. It was an eye captivating news and my personal suggestion will be that every state government should also launch this idea. When girls will get a free sanitary napkin, they will definitely want to go to school. In addition to this, we can also give them Ajwain. It’s quite good at relieving yourself from cramps; if taken properly with warm water. This was my suggestion cum appreciation of how we can lessen dropout rates
Now my next suggestion is how to increase the productivity of the class or how to convince students to continue their higher education. For this, we need to understand the concept of “Flipped Classroom”. It’s the total reverse of the traditional method. In flip teaching, students first study the topic by themselves (using YT, notes, or any other source as supervised by the mentor/teacher) and then apply the knowledge in a class by solving practical problems. It has various advantages:
- You can learn and understand at your own pace.
- More efficient as students are prepared to contribute.
- Enrich the classroom as more time can be spent in group work and projects, and will surely create a healthy competition between the peers.
- Less homework burden.
- Doing homework in class allows the students to help each other.
And last but not the least, instead of instructing them from the front, teachers can guide them from the side. These two were my personal suggestion, send this to your teacher if you feel it was helpful.