Ashok Sharma
It is an admitted fact that education is a powerful instrument of social change and the more educated and knoweldgeable citizens a nation has, the more developed and prosperous it is .In order to achieve the cherished objective of achieving the target of universalisation of primary education, the government of India launched ambitious schemes such as SSA,Midday Meal ,etc under which lacs of teachers were recruited on village and panchayat basis especially in far flung and inaccessible areas where the government teachers did not wish to join and serve.It was presumed that the locally recruited teachers would teach the local children in a proper and effective manner and thus help in reduction of dropout rate and achieve total literacy.Moreover, infrastructural facilities such as classrooms, toilets,etc were also provided to the schools.Grants under various heads such as library, maintenance, laboratories etc were also alloted to the schools to enable the schools to carry out minor repairs and purchase library books and seating material.Midday Meal scheme was also introduced to provide healthy and nutritious food to the students in order to attract children to schools.All these measures yielded spectacular results and there has been a significant increase in enrolment of students at primary and upper primary level.The scheme has now been extended to secondery level under the name RMSA under which the government is providing liberal funding to the states for the effective implementation of this ambitious scheme.New classrooms have been constructed and subject specific teachers posted in High schools to achieve universalisation of secondery education.The govt. has also implemented RTE Act under which every child is to be compulsorily provided education upto 8th standard.There is no doubt that the government has been able to increase quantity of students in govt schools and reduce dropout rate but there has been little success in the quality of education imparted to the students.Our rankings in various international surveys is dismal. Even universities and other institutes of repute don,t, figure in top 200 universities across the world.
The question is why we couldn,t catch up with the world in terms of educational standard despite huge investment in this sector.Surely,something is lacking in our system of education that we have not been able to produce a Nobel Laureate after 1930 when Dr. C V Raman was awarded Nobel Prize for Physics,despite being the second most populous country in the world.Where do we stand vis- vis China which has recorded envious progress in all sectors be it education, science and technology and other areas.According to survey of 15+ children of different countries which participated under programme for International Student Assessment(PISA) conducted annually to evaluate the Education Systems worldwide by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) Secretariat on English reading,Mathematics and Science, the Shanghai province of China topped the list of 73 countries with India getting the second last position.The Indian students got 200 points less than the Chinese students.In other words ,an average Indian student studying in 8th standard possesses as much knowledge as possessed by the Chinese student studying in 2nd standard.Moreover, none of the Indian universities or other Institute figures in top 200 top universities of the world according to Times Higher Education World Rankings for 2014-15.
It is time that we realized the importance of quality education of our children.We have to ensure that our students at elementary and secondery level acquire knowledge and skills which should help them to lead a meaningful life.They should be well conversant with the skill of reading and the skill of writing by which they can express their thoughts in an organised, coherent and effective manner.They should also be able to express themselves orally fearlessly and with confidence. We have graduates and post graduates who cannot draft even a simple application after having studied English for at least fifteen years.The education they have gained is not going to help them in anyway.Students at the elementary level need proper attention and a strong foundation.They should be equipped with qualities such as self discipline,self esteem,self confidence,scientific temper,quest for knowledge,positive attitude etc to groom themselves as efficient and enlightened citizens.They must be taught to use knowledge and skills as power to tide over their difficulties and face new challanges in an effective manner.Efforts should also be made to inculcate moral, ethical and social attributes in them.It is also the job of the teacher to develop in them the spirit of healthy competition and appreciation of hard work in them.The syllabi and courses of study should be such as should encourage more practical work and independent research rather than rote learning.Massive teacher training programmes need to be launched to train teachers and mould them into highly motivated and professionally competent teachers.Teachers showing exceptional results need to be rewarded to serve as models for others to follow and students securing merit positions should be appreciated by awarding them commendation certificates to boost their morale. Value based education needs to be given a prominent place in the system of education.Independent and empowered committee of eminent academicians and educationists should be constituted to conduct surprise raids and monitor and review the functioning of schools.
Model Government schools need to be set up in each educational zone and videos of best and successful teachers need to be played in the classrooms to make teaching learning more effective and enjoyable.DIETs and SIEs need to be actively involved in teaching learning process and specially trained DIET faculty should be entrusted with the responsibility of delivering model lessons in schools and training teachers at various levels.The renowned teachers and scientists of premier universities and higher institutes of learning should be deputed to colleges and schools to interact with the teaching faculty and students to motivate and inspire them for learning of higher order.All this will help in revitalizing our education and improving our ranking at international level.
(The writer is serving as lecturer in English in Govt.Hr.Sec.School Barolla, Udhampur)
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