Our cities have beautiful structures whose grandeur often attracts our attention. Nowadays visiting a school feels the same. The parameters to measure an educational institution’s efficacy are now wholly based on the amenities it provides. Kjo’s movies are permeating its effects on our schools, which now boast of five-star facilities like horse stables, gymnasium and swimming pools.
But for learning, we have now diverted our attention to another medium — Coaching Institutes. The genesis of the word “coach” means to train and enhance one’s performance but with growing competition and the urge to outperform others. This inherent role of mentors has taken a backseat and business tendencies are now controlling the steering wheel. Dummy schools are the emerging business empires thriving on the anomalies of the education system.
Duplicate Maal
Millennials today are all about fusion, #modernsanskari. We can bring almost two unrelated things together, for instance, “Tandoori paneer- Pizza”, “Noodle- Samosa”. But our imagination is not restricted up till here.
Although Dummy School is not exactly an oxymoron, it is no less a hysterical mix. We are all aware that our favourite markets like Chandni Chowk and Sarojini have duplicates and dummies of authentic brands, but we have now come far enough to create replicas of educational institutions too. The sole purpose of these institutions, like a duplicate Sabyasachi lehenga, is to get that sudden satisfaction, i.e. to clear an exam is the threshold of happiness, as suggested by them.
Science vs Social Science
Dummy schools have developed another trend of unnecessary attention being given to STEM courses. These subjects are considered practical in their approach. But how many times in these institutes have students performed an actual lab experiment.
Engineers bag all the jobs today in India. Is it because they are smart, or is it just that there are so many? However, destiny is not so simple. The boring and repetitive social science comes back to the picture when there is a desire for a government office seat. Then we again revisit those old textbooks which were never taught in these dummy institutions.
Bas Yeh Aur Exam Pass Kar Lo
Often, a misconception is created in children’s minds that “once you clear the entrance exams, you can fully enjoy your college life with all its glitter, fests and parties”. But dummy institutes fail to nurture students with values and principles. They merely focus on creating ready robots to join the race of life, pushing students in the dark cave of laborious assignments, loneliness and depression.
So, it is high time that we stop fantasising about the future by making our present miserable.
A Yearly Package
We take pride in the magnanimity of our scriptures. But unlike the tricks and shortcut methods used to clear a simple test, it was not the way scholars like Kalidasa used to write their dramas. Guidebooks and tricks have now replaced actual learning.
Earlier education in India was restricted only to male Brahman society. But today although this has changed and education has reached the doorsteps of all, we have not left the old metaphor of padhoge likhoge banoge hoshiyar behind. Instead, we’ve modified this version and the new mantra is science aur bio se rahoge aage arts lekar ho jaoge kharab.
We Cannot Lose Another Stark
The Indian educational structure has become stagnant where conventional courses and methods are applied even now. Ideas, concepts and dimensions are to be explored in a classroom. “Knowledge without character” is disastrous, just like Thanos with the infinity stones.
Today education has taken a departure from creating citizens who are sensitive towards their private and social environment. Kids believe that studies are just a temporary burden that will end with a good yearly package in the end. We are growing every day, aspiring for new avenues for which doing a job is a necessity.
However, learning is not just restricted to that. Also, it is quite laughable that most of us are not even doing the job we studied so hard in school. Many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.
We look for enjoyment in every small thing we do, but should learning be boring? Even after writing so much about dummy schools, we know that they are here to stay.