Article by Sachin Usha Vilas Joshi published in Deshdoot Times.
Why do you enroll your child in a school?
Does it sound absurd? You might be even compelled to think that why I am even asking such a question. But then don't you think that a most valid question when a child is born is that where are we going to secure his/her admission. What will they become when they grow up? Will they be doing a good job and earning a handsome salary? Based on parents feedback I have come to a conclusion that mostly parents do not have a satisfactory answer to why they put their child in a school.
The graph of any person's development depends upon his individual growth, his interperosonal skills and joy of living life to the fullest. If education is an integral part of life then joy of living should be matched with joy of learning.
Now if we question ourself that how we have been taught in our schools, and what methods were taught by our teachers to educate us I am sure we all will agree to one of the most popular method of traditional teaching which was " Mugging up the answers and writing the answers during exams." It is only an irony now that nothing has changed. Even today our children are learning in the same way at school. The only difference is technology has taken over and now google is the Guru, notebooks are replaced by tabs, students are still mugging up the answers from their tabs without opting for a in depth knowledge. In a way we have progressed from traditional to technical. Moreover, now we are producing robots in place of humans. These robots can be seen memorising facts from the touch screen of the mobile and rewriting the same data during the exams. What is furthermore saddening is that the child forgets everything he has mugged up immediately after he has left the examination hall.
So now it is the need of the hour to bring radical changes in the teaching learning methods adopted in the present education system.
Coming back to the point on what basis do we choose a school for our children. Maybe we consider financial and social circumstances and secure admission for our child keeping in mind whether we want them to become doctor or engineer. Infact we take decisions for them and put them in the rat race. We decide for future on the basis of present scenario when we are actually totally unaware of the future aspects and demands. If we believe in the reports -In the coming years i.e. 2040-50 there is a need of creative and productive man power rather than trained minds.
If you want Indian students to be creative, productive, talented and constructive then the teaching methods and learning practices along with the environmemt in school needs to be changed.
To become skilled and talented it is necessary for a child to get different experiences during his childhood. The basic foundation of decision making lies in a chance to get multiple opportunities for trying out various things at a very young age.
We have been considering education as accumulation of information.
If accumulation of information is education, then what is a difference between a child and a computer? Today Google has an answer for all the queries of the students. Eg:- When was Shivaji born? Or what is the full name of Dr. Ambedkar? So if google has all the answers for all the questions then why do we require teachers in the 21st century.
Maybe we need to redefine the role of teachers as well because now the teacher's role is not restricted to teach the child facts and datas like , "When was Shivaji born?". But rather their redefined role is to inculcate the values of these great leaders in our children. Education should be developed as a tool to find out answers to our problems instead of memorising solutions to our problems.
Sachin Usha Vilas Joshi
Education activist
Why do you enroll your child in a school?
Does it sound absurd? You might be even compelled to think that why I am even asking such a question. But then don't you think that a most valid question when a child is born is that where are we going to secure his/her admission. What will they become when they grow up? Will they be doing a good job and earning a handsome salary? Based on parents feedback I have come to a conclusion that mostly parents do not have a satisfactory answer to why they put their child in a school.
The graph of any person's development depends upon his individual growth, his interperosonal skills and joy of living life to the fullest. If education is an integral part of life then joy of living should be matched with joy of learning.
Now if we question ourself that how we have been taught in our schools, and what methods were taught by our teachers to educate us I am sure we all will agree to one of the most popular method of traditional teaching which was " Mugging up the answers and writing the answers during exams." It is only an irony now that nothing has changed. Even today our children are learning in the same way at school. The only difference is technology has taken over and now google is the Guru, notebooks are replaced by tabs, students are still mugging up the answers from their tabs without opting for a in depth knowledge. In a way we have progressed from traditional to technical. Moreover, now we are producing robots in place of humans. These robots can be seen memorising facts from the touch screen of the mobile and rewriting the same data during the exams. What is furthermore saddening is that the child forgets everything he has mugged up immediately after he has left the examination hall.
So now it is the need of the hour to bring radical changes in the teaching learning methods adopted in the present education system.
Coming back to the point on what basis do we choose a school for our children. Maybe we consider financial and social circumstances and secure admission for our child keeping in mind whether we want them to become doctor or engineer. Infact we take decisions for them and put them in the rat race. We decide for future on the basis of present scenario when we are actually totally unaware of the future aspects and demands. If we believe in the reports -In the coming years i.e. 2040-50 there is a need of creative and productive man power rather than trained minds.
If you want Indian students to be creative, productive, talented and constructive then the teaching methods and learning practices along with the environmemt in school needs to be changed.
To become skilled and talented it is necessary for a child to get different experiences during his childhood. The basic foundation of decision making lies in a chance to get multiple opportunities for trying out various things at a very young age.
We have been considering education as accumulation of information.
If accumulation of information is education, then what is a difference between a child and a computer? Today Google has an answer for all the queries of the students. Eg:- When was Shivaji born? Or what is the full name of Dr. Ambedkar? So if google has all the answers for all the questions then why do we require teachers in the 21st century.
Maybe we need to redefine the role of teachers as well because now the teacher's role is not restricted to teach the child facts and datas like , "When was Shivaji born?". But rather their redefined role is to inculcate the values of these great leaders in our children. Education should be developed as a tool to find out answers to our problems instead of memorising solutions to our problems.
Sachin Usha Vilas Joshi
Education activist
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