Education system and practice: The present scenario

In order to cope with the modern technological world, many countries are spending more on
education and lots of initiatives are being taken to improve and provide quality education. The
trouble is its all going in the wrong direction. In my point of view, there are 3 principles on
which human life flourishes and they are contradicted by the culture of education under which
most teachers have to labour and most students have to endure. The first principle that drives
human life flourishing is diversity. Human beings are naturally different and diverse. Current
education system is not based on diversity but conformity. What schools are encouraged to
do is to find out what students can do across a very narrow spectrum of achievement. I am not
arguing against science and math. On the contrary, they are necessary but they are not sufficient.
A real education has to give equal weight to the arts, to humanities, to physical education and so
forth.

The second principle that nurtures human life is curiosity. Children are natural learners and
if they are curious on any discipline, they will learn without further assistance. Curiosity is the
engine of achievement. The reason I say this is because one of the effects of the current
education culture has been to de-professionalize teachers. There is no system in the world or any
school in the country that is better than its teachers. Teachers are the lifeblood of the success of
schools. But teaching is a creative profession. Teaching, properly conceived, is not a delivery
system. Teachers are not just there just to pass on received information. Great teachers do that
but what great teachers also do is mentor, stimulate, engage and somehow provoke.

As a whole, education is all about learning. If there is no learning going on, there is no education
going on. The whole point of education is to get people to learn. People often spend their time
discussing education without ever discussing learning. But if nobody is learning anything, she
may be engaged in the task of teaching but not actually fulfilling it. The role of a teacher is to
facilitate learning. And the part of the problem, I think, is that the dominant culture of education
has come to focus on not teaching and learning, but testing. Testing is important. Standardized
tests have a place. But they should not be the dominant culture of education. They should be
diagnostic. In place of curiosity, we have a culture of compliance. Students and teachers are
often encouraged to follow routine algorithms rather than to excite the power of imagination and
curiosity.

The third principle is human life is inherently creative. Thats why we have different
resumes. We create our lives and we can recreate them as we go through them. It is why human
culture is so interesting and diverse and dynamic. We create our lives through the process of
imagining alternatives and possibilities and one of the roles of education also is to awaken and
develop these powers of creativity. Instead what we have is the culture of standardization. A
recent study showed that 80% of engineering graduates are unemployable in India highlighting
the need of upgraded education and training skills. Education institutions educate millions of
youngsters but corporate often complain that they do not get the necessary skills and talent
required for a job. And the same statement was also given when I had attended the HR
CONCLAVE, 2016. And thats why the newly graduates are forced to do low profile clerical
jobs.

Hence, real education system should individualize teaching and learning and the system has to
engage them, their curiosity, their individuality, and their creativity. It is necessary to attribute a
very high status to teaching profession. You cant improve education if you dont pick great
people to teach and if you dont keep giving them constant support and professional
development. From economic point of view, investing a professional development is not a cost.
Its an investment that certainly brings fruitful returns. So, I think we have to embrace a different
metaphor. We have to recognize that education is not a mechanical system. Its a human system,
its about people.

Thank you,

Regards

Roshan chaudhary