Karnataka recently witnessed a sad mockery of competitive education as "practiced" - and the problem with the percentages, and how even students have come to look at those, is discussed here.
Aren't our marks supposed to reflect what and how much we know ? And should we not take pride in what we do get, without being completely focused on what we did not ? Should A-grades, and 4.0 GPAs, etc, be so common ? Should they not reflect a very high degree of interest as well as understanding of the particular subject ?
One often hears all that wrong with our education "system" with the government and institutions of learning being the accused. I believe it runs deeper than that - unless we rank colleges, courses and professors based on what we truly get to learn there, and along more dimensions than what percentage of students secure jobs, or seats in the next level of institutions, or crack a scholarship abroad, and suchlike, the "market" will continue to serve our base, crass needs.
Unless we want better, we're not going to get it. And I mean want better really really honestly - not the mere lip service we see today - the kind that cannot stand the scrutiny of the moments when its about actually choosing colleges/courses, etc.
But then, too much of a social change, huh ? And after all, its the job of the government, or someone in some position of power on whose doorstep responsibility can be transferred such that our conscience continues to stay clean, and we continue to indulge in fake helplessness and acquired cynicism - right?
Aren't our marks supposed to reflect what and how much we know ? And should we not take pride in what we do get, without being completely focused on what we did not ? Should A-grades, and 4.0 GPAs, etc, be so common ? Should they not reflect a very high degree of interest as well as understanding of the particular subject ?
One often hears all that wrong with our education "system" with the government and institutions of learning being the accused. I believe it runs deeper than that - unless we rank colleges, courses and professors based on what we truly get to learn there, and along more dimensions than what percentage of students secure jobs, or seats in the next level of institutions, or crack a scholarship abroad, and suchlike, the "market" will continue to serve our base, crass needs.
Unless we want better, we're not going to get it. And I mean want better really really honestly - not the mere lip service we see today - the kind that cannot stand the scrutiny of the moments when its about actually choosing colleges/courses, etc.
But then, too much of a social change, huh ? And after all, its the job of the government, or someone in some position of power on whose doorstep responsibility can be transferred such that our conscience continues to stay clean, and we continue to indulge in fake helplessness and acquired cynicism - right?
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1 comment:
Hey. My bro (and myself helping him with it) are trying to do our bit for education. Currently we are figuring out the best ways of teaching kids such that they actually know what they are learning, instead of memorizing stuff.
And there again, we faced this problem u r mentioning here: "wanting"' the change. The parents think that its not necessary, so long as they can 'score well'.
So part of our plans is to give the parents what they want, i.e. 'make them score well' and yet get our purpose served i.e. knowing the stuff. A hard thing to pull off probably, but we are experimenting it out at a small scale.
Our site:
http://www.cradlesofinnovation.org/
(Still not completely constructed)
Currently we blog at http://urborn2blossom.blogspot.com
Btw, the oldest of posts by my bro are a real good read. The things that tempted him to start this.
And, i would totally love it, if u can give inputs. Anything from how to pull this off, to how to generate the 'want'. Ur entrepreneurial expertise will be great too.
Mail me whenever u get the time.
-Sudhir
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