EDUCATIONAL QUALITY - CURRENT PRACTICE AND EXPECTATIONS

               One of the educationists of Nagpur, Ms. Manjeet Bedi, says,"Schools in India have merely become curriculum delivery machines." If this becomes the biggest tragedy, then our nation can be dilapidated. There are no endeavours to spend quality time and effort in fostering the mental and intellectual development of the students. As the educational sensex soars to new heights each year, with 90 percent plus being regarded as peanuts, schools are struggling to transact the normal curriculum. This enormously pressurized scenario creates a certain culture of its own, a culture where the cut-throat competition is the order of the day, where the devil takes the hindmost becomes the beacon for all. The education sensex is touching unrealistic heights but the country is paying high price for the bloodbath following its wake. We have not ensured quality education. Some who have access to elite schools pass out as mere literates. We are getting literate people with big heads but small hearts. In a nutshell, the education system is churning out Homo sapiens and not human beings. The emphasis is given only to bookish knowledge and pedagogy or curriculum which is prosaic. The spotlight on creativity and innovation is nadir. In many schools, students are not given opportunities to explore and create but to mug up answers. The students are thus bound in chains.

               This gesture of reckless irresponsibility keeps them bereft of quality education- personality development, life-building, man-making, character-building and assimilating fine ideas. They do not strive to expand their horizons of thoughts and amplify their vision. A plethora of students do not upgrade their skills, talent and mettle. The learn to make a living but not a life. They restrict themselves to sheer academics. Their potential, therefore, remains untapped and untested. The root cause of this debacle is the deficiency of Quality Education as lifeblood.

               The existing education system is ramshackle to the core of it. The system has a myriad of loopholes and drawbacks. There are seemingly overt demands for marks being made by the system. The education system is money and marks oriented. But the onus doesn't entirely lie on the schools and the education system, the quality of individual students also plays a top-level role.

               Indira Gandhi said,”Education is a continuing process from the minute we are born until we die.” Education has prodigious and momentous might to empower the citizens to conquer the world. Education can revamp a nation, give hope for a better future and ameliorate the lives of individuals within a society. Education takes human beings to higher plane of existence, a world found through perfection of knowledge. With education, we get a key to the vast ocean – “An ocean full of treasures and gems, knowledge and wisdom. The treasure that will change our life forever.”

               The great philosopher Socrates had said,” Education is not the filling of a vessel but kindling of a flame.” The word education itself comes from the word “Educere” which means to bring out what is already in and not blindly stuff in. The purpose of education is to detect talent proactively. For this it is indispensable that education has to be based on the application of mental development. Swami Vivekananda said, “Education is the manifestation of perfection already present in man”. Unless there is perfection in education that perfection cannot be drawn out. Real education should enable a man to discover what is uniquely in him. This is what matters in practicle life, not bookish knowledge. Education accomplishes the full sense of its meaning rather than being restricted to bare academics. In the end, the students will have a final treasure to take home, the sense of empowerment.

               Vinoba Bhave said,” It is enough if the children know how to obtain items of information when they have a use for them, and it is the task of the education to teach them how.”

   An education system isn’t worth great deal if it teaches young people how to make living but doesn’t teach them how to make life. If ethical practices do not grow in proportion to the growth of knowledge then there is a possibility of the misuse of knowledge. Growth of knowledge is indeed horrendous if there is no subsequent growth of moral obligation. Education simply meant for the promotion of new knowledge may prove dangerous to the society. Education should be for the flowering of a personality and not for the subjugation of creativity or natural skill.

              Swami Vivekananda said,” Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brains and remains there, undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, character-making and making them your life, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library.”

              Education, in scientific sense should flourish and proliferate moral principles which have been proves bountiful from the point of view of Darwinian evolution. The role of the moral education should be one, of enlightening the learner on the blueprints of good and bad actions in the light of scientific truth about human behavior. The mind should be led forward into ever-widening thoughts and actions. We need to revamp the education system so that we can effectively collaborate mental development with academics. It is incumbent on every student to receive education of highest caliber. We need such a blend of education which can turn out a new manhood, vigorous yet calm, mighty yet tolerant and sympathetic, idealistic yet practical to the backbone.

“Die with the sinking ship or jump for life”

        Rajkumar Hirani, the maestro who knows the pulse of the nation, in a very subtle manner, has portrayed the loopholes of the existing education system in his blockbuster- “3 IDIOTS”.He points out how academically oriented our education system is where we are more bothered about the marks rather than learning something new; our educational institutes do not nurture the talents, they do not impart the education, they simply tell us to read and spew in the exams what is written in thick fat books. Aamir’s prolific mantra was, "Pursue excellence success will automatically follow you."

               To make education an efficacious tool for the social transformation for a better future, the education system should be based on rational principles and policies, especially relating to the subject matter of education. A scientifically oriented education with strict adherence to the pedagogy of psychology is what is needed for a better and intellectually free society. If education is not found on rationalism, motivated by democratic socialism, the fate of the society will depend not on the education but in beliefs and practices of the mob, which may lead the country to catastrophe. It is only if the education system is guided by benevolent intellectual force, it can be an instrument of social change towards a sane and free society.