THE FLAW-FULL INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

THE FLAW-FULL INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of others. This article doesn't mean to criticize the Indian Education System at all rather it just highlights the problems associated with it. If any individual doesn't agree with this, please feel free to comment your views :)                                                                     P.S. The author is also a 10th Grader studying in a CBSE school :) 

Introduction: This article mainly deals with two problems which are: one, how the education system is not at all structured properly and how they treat their students as lab rats (for more information on this topic refer to my previous article : www.bit.ly/TheIndianEducationSystem) and two, how corruption in India not only affects the integrity and the functioning of the government but also affects the education system and its students as a whole.
On the 28th of March 2018, the Central Board of Secondary Education conducted the Mathematics board exam for grade 10 which was conducted not only in India but also in schools affiliated under CBSE which are based outside India. Same goes for the economics exam conducted on the 26th of March 2018 but for grade 12. 

However, the common thing between these two exams is that the question papers or parts of them were leaked through WhatsApp a few hours before the exam as stated by the HRD Minister of India. However, there are some other sources which show that the paper was also leaked on the popular app Instagram.  



1. The Very Idea of Education is not Justified

Our education system just loves to experiment with their students. They consider themselves to be the scientists and treat their students as rats. The homepage of the cbse website (www.cbse.nic.in) says that it is "committed to equity and excellence in education". Now, is introducing full portion out of the blue excellence in education? Is mugging up bookish language and not being allowed to express your own views in subjects like economics and political science equity and excellence? Is glorifying the science stream anywhere close to equity or excellence?

The answer was, is and will remain a BIG NO. This is because the education system has a flawed structure and its ideals are utter nonsense. It is focused on producing students that have the ability to mug up and vomit whatever they're told to, from the textbooks. And for once, if you write something that is outside the textbook and even if your content is right/ true, you will lose marks because "It is not given in the textbooks". You know why it is not given in the textbooks? Because our textbooks are a joke for the present. For example the grade 10 Civics (Political Science) textbook was published in 2006 and has never really been revised since then. Dear CBSE, it has been 12 years since then, and very less pieces of information in the textbook have been updated, I mean the textbook says our ruling party is still Congress and 2 elections have taken place since then. All the statistics, graphs etc. in the book are of census 2001 and it has been over half a decade since the last census was conducted i.e., in 2011. The books have in a way become obsolete and just contain data that is not true for the present or is irrelevant.

Now to the structure and the functioning of this system,the CBSE, DID NOT EVEN HAVE A CHAIRPERSON FOR 2 WHOLE YEARS! For 2 years ladies and gentlemen, the CBSE was in a way, on its path without a leader. And even with a leader, it is on the path of destruction. Destruction of out-of-the box thinking, destruction of creativity and destruction of the very idea of education which is to not only develop the child academically but also to develop the persona of the child. This is the sad reality of the education system and the only way this could be reformed would be to bring huge reforms into its structure and functioning and introduce strict measures to prevent malpractices like the recent paper leak which I will be addressing in the next section. Our education system is needed to be revamped and must be designed according to our economic policies. This education system has also failed because it has not been able to reduce the social disparities. In fact these disparities have gone up. It is such a shame that education itself has become a tool for creating divisions. A child of a rich parent would get good education and a child of poor parent cannot afford good quality education. The government spends only few percent of the GDP on education, and education is one of the most basic and key factors that plays an important role in the overall development of the individual. So our government should make education its first priority. All these problems bring us to the second problem that is, 

2. CORRUPTION (also involves other problems)

Corruption in India not only affects the ideals and the functioning of the government but also affects the education system as a whole. Now, corruption in an education system obviously involves malpractices like bribes, other illicit financial means and methods of cheating. However, it also involves the recent form of malpractice that has gained national attention, PAPER LEAKS. Paper leaks are the worst form of malpractice that can be carried out. This is because they provide an unfair advantage to the students who have access to these papers. It is a clear example of how the education system was unable to handle a few pieces of paper. Now, All Indian citizens have the right to education but is that norm of Indian democracy actually practiced? Does India treat all students equal and gives them equal education and opportunities? Is the Indian education system corrupt?

Yes, the Indian education system (in this case CBSE) is corrupt. There have been numerous instances of corruption yet no one decides to resolve these.

For example:

MBBS seats sold for between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 40 lakh by two private colleges in Chennai and this barely exposes the tip of the iceberg. The scam gets bigger, more brazen as medical graduates embark on specializations that are necessary for a successful career. The price this year for a post-graduate seat in radiology in most leading private colleges across the country is Rs 2 crore while in cardiology, gynaecology and orthopaedics are priced around Rs 1.5 crore

This is an example of clear corruption in Indian Education System.
Middle caste students and poor students who have brains can never get into these colleges although they have the ability to perform. Marks, grades, percentages hardly matters to these institutions. Is this the sacredness these medical colleges are showing? (source: https://www.facebook.com/alicraj/posts/316101081829213)
And corruption is not only seen at higher levels of education like medical or engineering, in fact even if a child wants admission into a nursery school, schools demand huge amounts of bribes in the name of donation. The movie, Hindi Medium is a great portrayal of this situation.
Now coming to the recent events which involves the paper leaks. Due to these paper leaks, the 10th and 12th grade students now have to appear for a re- examination in the respective subjects of mathematics and economics. This might seem as a fair decision in a way, however, how does this promise us that the retest paper will also not be leaked? Does this mean that all the hard work the students have done for the exam is waste? What about those students who actually put their heart and soul into this exam and now they have to appear for a retest just because of a few? Why should I go through this exam once again when I was not even remotely involved in this paper leak? And this is not the first time the papers have been leaked, question paper leaks take place almost every year and there are numerous allegations regarding these, yet all these years the government remained silent. The only good thing I find in this is that the government actually agrees that a paper leak has taken place and they have at least addressed this issue at a press conference.
But the real question is, HOW DID THE PAPER LEAK TAKE PLACE? I have no answer to this but, isn't it quite obvious that it might have some internal involvement. Doesn't this clearly show, that the government employees themselves don't respect the sanctity associated with these exams, they themselves don't respect the ideals of its institution and are clearly not committed to equity and excellence in education. And how does India promise to become a super power when it wasn't even able to handle a single question paper? (source for this line: my friends instagram story). 

The worse part lies in the fact that CBSE knew about the paper leaks before the exam was even conducted. On the 24th of March the CBSE academic unit received an unaddressed envelope containing four sheets of handwritten answer papers of the class 12 Economics paper held on that day. The papers inside the envelope it was indicated that the papers were leaked and circulated through four different WhatsApp numbers (Source: Republic). This means that the CBSE was fully aware of the paper leak, yet they still didn't consider once, to even address this before the examination took place or cancel the examinations. This is a clear indication as to how our education system has degraded and has fallen to a level where it has no choice but just to be ashamed. Also, this incident can harm those students who are planning to study abroad. This is because, this incident can obviously cause all International universities to develop a negative mindset about the students coming from CBSE as they wouldn't want to case harm to their reputation. 

In conclusion I would just like to say that: This article cant do anything but raise awareness, and through this awareness we could try and bring radical reforms in this flaw-full education system. So please, share this as much as possible and don't forget the fact we still have to write those re-tests, so BEST OF LUCK! :) 
 

 

 

The Problem with the Indian Education System

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of others. This article doesn't mean to criticize the Indian education system rather it just highlights the problems with it and the current society. If any individual doesn't agree with this, please feel free to comment your views :) 

Introduction

Previously (i.e. from academic years 2009-10 to 2016-17), students of grade 10 had an option to appear for the Board Examinations or continue with the CCE pattern. The advantage of this was that neither of these involved the process of studying the entire syllabus that was taught. 
 From the start of the academic year 2017-18, CBSE had decided to scrape off the existing CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation) which was for grades VI - X and grade XII. It decided to bring back the old year-end examinations. This meant that the students of grade X would now have to compulsorily appear for the board examinations. Additionally, these board exams (or year end exams) would involve the entire syllabus that had been taught throughout the year for all subjects. 

 The Problems: 

1. Equating Marks with Success

This education system emphasizes on how our value in society is directly proportional to our marks. So, the higher the marks you score, the more importance you have in the society and the more you will succeed. Indian parents have over-hyped the value of marks. Most parents think that if a kid doesn't score marks in academics, his career is over.

Is this what our education system really wants? To focus all worth and importance of a student on MARKS? Are marks really the epitome of success?

No, marks are a mere number and it can in no way determine your worth in society. Your marks or your percentage are not the only thing in life , it's not a dead end if you don't score well. Focusing all importance and worth of a student on marks prevents the holistic and overall development of a child. Extra curricular activities like sports, drama, art, music, dance, etc. are basically neglected in a student once he/ she passes the 10th grade because apparently they don't get you marks, good marks don't get you into a good college and a good college doesn't get you a good job that pays well.

Well what good is a job if you're not happy with it? What good is an education system that doesn't allow you to explore your hobbies and your talents? And just to top it off, in most schools affiliated under CBSE, grade VI onwards the Music and Dance related activities are removed from the time tables because the student is supposed to focus on "academics". 

With the pressure of securing high marks and the idea that bagging the first position must be the goal, parents teach their kids that the end result is important and hardly emphasize on the importance of enjoying learning.

2. The over-glorification of science as an option and engineering/ medical as a career.

The Science stream is basically idolized as the "Best Stream" and other streams like commerce or arts are undermined. The student is never asked as to what he/she really wants to become or what he/she really want from life. Rather they're forced to become doctors or engineers and one of the reasons for this is money, how the "Package" or the salary in these fields are higher than any other. But, what is the point of earning money if you yourself are not interested in your job? Aren't there other career options like economics, history, music, geography, political science and the list goes on...

Let's take an example here. Consider the case of a 10-year old boy, who loves to watch superhero cartoons and as he enters the age of maturity, with the same love for superhero cartoons, he is supposed to make a career choice. A choice that defines him and not a choice that the society wants him to make. However, his idea of a career would be to be a hero for everyone, to save the world and make a difference. He wants to achieve something. But at the same time he doesn't know how. And with all the hype we give for JEE/AIIMS, he would think that it could make him a hero, and that it's the only way. So, he would start, assuming for himself that he wants to crack JEE. He would set up a pseudo-goal for himself .  Then, he would have to give up learning his first, second, third languages, History, Economics, Civics, Geography, Biology .That's the way he can face the competition(Is this a pseudo-competition? Let's see).

No problem dear, welcome to the corporate concept school . You can pass your 8th,9th and 10th grades like a piece of cake. We, the corporate schools already have the most 'important' questions that repeat themselves in the board exams every year. Your "Indian freedom struggle"  is an 5 mark question, "The Human Eye" is a 5 mark diagram, and you are going to do wonders by learning why "The Legislature, Judiciary and the Executive is important in India".

              So far so good, isn't it ? I think it's better to start asking the question "What If ?".What if your child did not pass the JEE? What if he/she were not among the top rankers ? Something is better than nothing, you wanna say ?What if it was too early that your child had decided his/her career ? What if something he would have learnt in his 10th grade economics that could spark him with some idea? Did you give him/her a chance to, leave alone pursuing them, know what their interests are ? But, you showed them a safe and promising career, right? Those economics ,music, history don't guarantee success, right? Are you sure about engineering?

You think engineering fetches you some job guarantee? OH NO!! Engineering is not  for jobs. It's to learn engineering, for god's sake. Uninterested engineers(results of Indian education system) rather destroy the meaning of engineering,completely screwing up their academics and finally end up learning a bit of SAP, .NET, JAVA and getting a 'software job' at some TCS,WIPRO or INFOSYS , you name it. You only see the whole pseudo-competition for engineering, and the pseudo-guaranteed job, on one side of the coin, but believe me,  you find lots of amazing things on the other side of the coin, unless you have a passion for it. Don't do engineering for jobs or don't recommend to do please, because engineering is not for doing jobs. The sad truth about engineering is that people want to become an engineer but no body really wants to engineer. So stop worrying about jobs and start worrying about interests. Find your interest , that's the goal.          NOT KNOWING/ NOT TRYING TO FIND OUT THEIR INTERESTS IS WHAT'S WRONG WITH INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM.

3.  Rote Learning

 Scraping of CCE just increases the amount of the rote learning a student has to go through.
For example in grade 10, the subject: Social Studies involves the study or more likely the "mugging" up of history, civics, geography and economics. And the worse part is, these four subjects are combined all into one exam (the board exam) and are only for 80 marks. So basically, a student has to memorize a total of 4 textbooks (22 chapters to be precise) and vomit it all out into that one examination. And just to top it off, these board exams (for all subjects) will account for an 80% in the final report card. Basically this implies the fact that passing the tenth grade is in a way, dependent on these exams. The rest 20% is the internal assessment, which involves the notebooks (5%), "subject enrichment activities"(5%), weekly tests and the Half Yearly examinations(5%).

This not only increases the amount of pressure and stress on students but also increases the rates of depression caused by this pressure and hence leading to tremendous rates in suicide. Yes, school students those are teenagers taking their life as a result of exam stress/ pressure. Here are some examples : 

a. Abhimanyu was a 16-year old student in 11th grade and was found dead on the terrace of his family’s apartment in March, 2014. He committed suicide in the midst of his exams and left a suicide note in his chemistry exam sheet. On it, was written,

"The CBSE system is based on mugging. Education should be about understanding and applying your knowledge. My death should be a lesson and a reason for the system to change.”

Source: Parents of suicide teenager get to see son’s final words on chemistry exam paper | The National

b. 17-year old Kriti Tripathi, a student at one of the Kota's coaching centers. She jumped to her death from a five-storey building in Kota in April 2017. Though she had comfortably cleared the IIT entrance exams, she complained that studies in these centers subjected the students to unbearable stress and depression in her suicide note.

"Please Government of India HRD do something about these coaching institutes. They suck and should be shut down as soon as possible," she wrote.

Source: ‘Shut coaching centres, they suck’: Kota student’s suicide letter

c.

15 year old girl name Devika Yerwar commited suicide after scoring 95 percent in class 9th.

The suicide note left behind by a 15-year-old girl, who hanged herself, mentioned that parental pressure drove her to end her life. Her parents were allegedly not happy with her result even though she secured 95% in her standard IX exams. The girl also wrote that her parents were not allowing her to use the cell phone, as they expected her to concentrate only on studies.

Source: Girl got 95% in class IX, ended life as parents were unhappy - Times of India .

d. Every hour, one student commits suicide in India.

India has one of the world’s highest suicide rates for youth aged 15 to 29, according to a 2012 Lancet report, which illustrated the need for urgent interventions.

Students are committing suicide due to pressure of studies , pressure from parents and society.

This problem really need to be solved. (Source: Unknown)