Wakeup Call

The race is on for putting children in elite schools equipped with state-of-the-art technology and brilliant infrastructure.The parents today want their children to study in the grandiose schools even if it means they have to pay for it through their noses.But the question that most of them forget to ask before they plunge is......Will such schools provide a true and all round education?

"Ofcourse it will....It has a computer on every desk, a very nice sports facility center, cctv cameras, digital boards and what not...it can compete with any international school..!!" they say.And when in spite of all this, if the child fails to perform, he/she is emotionally tortured.."Do you realise how much we pay for your education?You seem to have no sense of responsibility......." etc etc.

My question is, Is the bombardment of information sufficient?Is not the purpose of education to equip the students with a mindset which can enable them to collect,decipher and implement that information all by themselves?While these kind of schools rank high on facilities criteria, most of them rank quite low on teaching criteria.The teachers are hardly concerned about the development and prosperity of the student, except for the Parent-Teacher meets where they pretend to show a lot of concern.

And how can they be concerned?With a class of 40 to 60 students, one hardly gets time to know and help each student individually.While the management is busy churning out strategies to evade paying taxes and hiding black money in bogus accounts, the students are everlastingly ignored.At the same time, parents believing that they have finished their duty by paying schools fees, accuse their children of insincerity.

If the scenario continues to be the way it is, we will be seeing more and more of "dumb" students.Students that might know a lot but understand a little and can utilize nothing.Students that are qualificationally superior but ethically apathetic.Students who,trained in consumerism, care only about profit and loss and not about anything else.If this is to be prevented, we individually need to take responsibility to spread awareness about the capitalistic nature of most of the schools and vow to educate ourselves ,adopt a sceptical attitude and strive to become self-made.It is time to WAKE UP!!

Insight

Come the board exams and all hell breaks loose.Student helplines constantly ringing,newspapers filled with news about suicide attempts and the rise in the depression rate of students.The question is why so much fuss about a mere examination?Answer is quite simple.It is because we have been educated to treat everything like a means to an end and nothing else.It is because our learning is constantly led by either greed or fear.Greed to secure rewards/fame and fear of not doing well in life.And this takes out all the fun out of learning.

When we look at our books and the words, letters and sentences in it as dead objects incapable of bringing any significant transformation in our lives, we begin to find it boring.But a degree being a necessity to do well in lives and marks being a medium to 'prove' ourselves we strive to get marks.Some numbers on a piece of paper become an obsession...so severe that it causes depressions and suicides.But even if we manage to survive, the life doenst get any better.This mentality of treating everything as only a means to an end continues in the job.Everyday becomes hectic ,boring,lusterless,dull and prisonlike.....

If at all there is an urge to change things, the thinking must first change.Learning can be fun, it can be innovative ..ALIVE.Knowledge itself might not interesting, but if we combine it with out imagination to use it ,apply it,to alter the world around us,even if little, our learning becomes worth it.Creativity combined with knowledge can work wonders.Then learning no longer remains a chore, as you fall in love with it.Just as a 'not so famous' saying says:

Learning should be full of ideas instead of stuffed with facts