Daytime Prisons - 2

Let’s get a few things out of the way. There are some who think the English language is evil and is destroying original Indian or Hindu culture. Their reason being, more schools are adopting English as the medium of teaching. This is one of the silliest arguments going around. English has not been a “foreign” language for Indians for a long time. It is the “second” language and also the “official” language of GOI. These folks suggest India must teach in the mother tongue just like France, Israel, Japan or China do. The problem with this is, India doesn’t have one unifying language like these countries. And except for China, these countries have tiny populations not comparable to India.

If all states resorted to teaching all subjects in the home language one cannot imagine how a Tamilian will communicate with a Bengali or how a Gujarati will communicate with a Telugu. Besides, parochial Indian politicians have turned language into a “Conflict” issue. South fights Hindi, northern politicians try to promote or impose Hindi and it goes on and on. Often times, these conflicts have created riots. So, to suddenly throw away English and turn everything into local language is one dumb, stupid idea. Mother-tongue will be learned by kids anyway if parents and family use it. I happily speak five languages, including English, and no school has made me proficient in the local languages. I learned them with friends and their families.

Secondly, rural folks are now catching up on English and it is no more a language of the few who became dominant and mocked Indians because of their English language skills. Even material things change. Once upon a time, friends or relatives returning from the US or the West used to bring goodies home for everyone. These things were not available in India. Even small things like high-end chocolates and stuff weren’t available in India. George Fernandes also banned Coca Cola from India. Today, there is nothing that a common man would want or need that is available in the US that is not available in India. Even perfumes and body-spray brands number in hundreds.  

Our schools need a dramatic revolution and the problem is not the language or the medium. Since the previous part was written, more molestations and rapes have been reported from schools. Perhaps, many are also not being reported. And a spate of such incidents gets knee-jerk reactions from school Boards and the govt departments:

They will have such meetings that usually have nothing transparent coming out. Schools don’t need such band-aid, they need a dramatic revolution in terms of reforms. Nobody in the boards or govts seem bothered that life is miserable for kids and parents alike. Let’s see a few things that ails schools (for primary classes up to 7^th):

Schools have unusually long hours, from 6 to 7, hours. Add commuting time of another hour or so and the kids nearly have a full office day. What do they with all this time? Absolutely unnecessary and can be cut down to school time of 4 hours. And these 4 hours can include a short and long break.

Even on I-Day and R-Day schools make it a torture for kids. Get up early, assemble and wait for over an hour for some guest. Flag hoisting done, a long lecture by a few followed by a long lecture by the chief guest. Brevity in this day and age of all these functions on TV seems to be lost on them. Schools can’t seem to cut down these functions to 90 minutes or so. Beyond that, every activity becomes boring like a long Bollywood movie.

Excessive tests – From class-1 onward, there are monthly tests of some kind (or even fortnightly). For what? That’s like 15-20 tests every academic year. First term, second term, finals and a couple of class tests in between would do. Burdening kids with nonsensical tests is a pain and produces no real learning at all.

Simplify the syllabus – Some people have commented in the previous part that “All subjects” are important. That is sheer nonsense. English (Or medium language), Math and Science are they key subjects. History, Geography, Civics etc can be bundled into one text book for just enjoyable reading and learning. There is no need to test these subjects so severely that kids have to cram facts. Even the history taught is mostly garbage peddled by Commies for a long time. Math is the foundation for multiple subjects. Whether science or geography, a good grounding in Math has to be the topmost priority. How to make teaching Math easier and enjoyable to learn has to be the highest priority for educators and govt.

Heavy Luggage is still a problem. There have been many attempts and many court orders even, to reduce the heavy bags that young kids carry to schools. But there hasn’t been any great improvement in this. Kids still carry a heavy load of books and have to carry their lunch box and water bottle. And when tragedies happen, it is again more knee-jerk reactions by the Boards, with members having no clue about what they are blabbering:

Sudden psychological tests will solve these problems? School education is a completely broken down, dilapidated building that deserves to be condemned to demolition. What is needed is a complete ZERO-BASE start-over to think through primary education all afresh from scratch. And the way to do it is to not hire or employ the moth-eaten brains that brought us to such a situation in the first place. An absolutely new task force with fresh thinking with clear goal of revolutionising and simplifying school education is what is called for. No amount of lipstick and knee-jerk reactions will solve any problem. School-life for children has to be good and learning an enjoyable experience. Anything else is nothing but a bunch of jailors holding their prisoners for 6 hours.

Concluded.