Revolution and Evolution in Educational System

WHAT IS schooling and SOCIETY:

“ schooling is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it”, Martin Wright Edelman.

The growth of society solely depends on the type of educational system adopted. schooling makes tremendous impact on the society. The quality of the society depends on the quality of educational system implemented. Some one correctly said, “Better institutions are essential if they are to lead better lives”. Right schooling makes the people build character, values, ethics, and prepares the society and country as a whole to meet up with the remainder of the world. Right schooling is the legacy or the gift, which they pass on to our next generations. George Peabody said, “Education: a debt due from present to future generations”.

schooling provides the man with information, imagination, knowledge, ideas, values, ethics, reasoning and over all makes the man complete man. schooling brings refinement, adds to intelligence, and makes independent and assured man. it is only the human beings who can get armed and equipped with schooling, which is missing in animals. schooling does not mean only reading and writing but also thinking, learning, reasoning, practical experiences and so on. schooling is a learning system from cradle to grave. it is schooling that has brought out plenty of changes in this world and transformed the entire civilization since time immemorial. Ariel and Will Durant quoted, “Education is the transmission of civilization”.

EFFECTS OF schooling ON SOCIETY:

Kerala is the first state in India, which attained cent per-cent literacy. It encouraged other states to contribute their best so as to attain total literacy. Kerala has become a model state and ideal state to be emulated by the remainder of the country in providing importance to schooling.

No nation can create without proper schooling. and India developed as a society and as a nation for the last 60 years. India has now massive human resources and it's the thirst highest technical manpower in the world. Although the effects of schooling in the society are tremendous, yet there are grey areas, which needs to be addressed. India as a nation has developed politically, culturally, economically and socially but yet much needs to be focussed in a right direction.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, said Nelson Mandela. it is very obvious that no weapon is superior to schooling. Apart from schooling, the influence of know-how has brought out significant changes in the society. If know-how is used in the right direction and if it is coupled with schooling, they can expect miracles in the society as a whole.

schooling and EXPERIENCE:

“Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get in the event you don’t”, said Pete Seeger. All human beings make plenty of mistakes leading to bitter and, of coursework, experience. If an individual is educated, they knows the things because they reads the fine print. they tends to make a few mistakes in his life. Where as if an individual is not educated they tends to make more mistakes because they does not know the fine print. An uneducated individual believes in trial or error system. If they succeeds in his trial, they pursues or else they drops. The uneducated man mostly believes in observation and practical knowledge. The success rate is far higher in educated man in an uneducated man. schooling brings down the complexities in one’s life thereby making life simpler, simpler and comfortable. John Dewey rightly said, “Education is not preparation for life; schooling is life itself”.

India is the second largest populated country in the world and regrettably it is nowhere near in number qualitatively. It may be again due to gigantic population and the type of administrative and political system they have. There is stress on cramming, memory and mugging up. One who mugs up and puts in examination paper is treated as a meritorious candidate. It does not encourage imagination, creativity and originality. There is no effective emphasis on practical aspects of life. it is mostly beset with theoretical aspects and ideas, which any one can read even without going to institutions.

issues IN PRESENT schooling:

School children are loaded with plenty of books and they find it highly stressful. schooling, in fact, ought to be filled with entertainment and fun so that student can discover the enjoyment of learning, which is missing now. children find it sinful to be going to schools because of much of study. Even at home children engage themselves a lot on school home-work. Such things do not promote the relations between parent and child at home. Inadequate infrastructure and inexperienced teaching staff are another bane. regrettably, in India, both the primary and secondary level schooling is still struggling to survive qualitatively. The views and opinions of the scholars are not being respected. Students are always imposed whatever is there in the textbooks leading to lack of imagination and innovation. R W Emerson rightly said, "The secret in schooling lies in respecting the student”. Only when students are respected and valued, they will try to think creatively, innovatively and out of the box. Students ought to be provided with more freedom of thought.

it is very unfortunate that the teachers are not paid handsomely. Best brains are pursuing other careers for financial benefits and for better prospectus. it is a pity that those who stick to teaching profession either due to their aptitude and taste and temperament towards teaching or because there is no other alternative (TINA factor) career.

TOOLS and TECHNIQUES TO OVERCOME:

Pandit Nehru’s policies and Kothari commission have brought some significant changes in the schooling but still there is no healthy and constructive impact. There is commercialization of schooling, as well as a few fly by night operators entered into this sacred field and spoiled the standards.

“He who opens a school door, closes a prison”, Victor Hugo. children from the age of 6 to 14 are to be admitted in schools to provide schooling, as this is the best age to tune them for generating interest in schooling. Child labor has been abolished but regrettably it is not enforced effectively. children ought to be encouraged by various innovative ways and means to get into educational institutions.

Teaching faculty must undergo regular training to update and upgrade their skills and abilities. Encouraging regular workshops or seminars or courses related to teaching methodologies can enhance and sharpen their skills. Such seminars will encourage the teaching faculty to exchange and gather more information.

Content and curriculum in the educational system needs to be addressed. Streamlining the educational system on national basis from Kashmir to Kanyakumari will raise the educational standards. There are disparities in the educational system in various states and efforts must be made to fill those gaps.

Govt. levies 2 per-cent educational cess and authorities must be sure that the money go in a right direction to generate strong educational infrastructure. Nobody is against the levy of 2 per-cent cess but the right application and mobilization of the resources will bring right results quickly.

it is essential to bring reforms in schooling from time to time as the tools and techniques involved in teaching are changing quickly due to the influence of know-how.

Focussing more on vocational schooling is the necessity of the hour. Presently there is a massive gap between industry and academics. Infosys has come out with ‘Campus Connect’ initiative to bridge the gap between the industry and academics and it is a step in right direction. The corporate leaders have a vital role in funding the educational system. they make money for themselves, pay good-looking salaries to their employees and paying dividends to their shareholders and all the individuals who're involved in the business are earning one way or the other. But what are they contributing for the schooling and society? it is a well admitted fact that the helping hands are much better than praying lips. Corporate, whether massive or small, can wholeheartedly come forward to contribute their best for bringing Indian educational system on par with global standards.

Providing interest free educational loans will help the deserving and poor students. Also, it is desirable to encourage non-professional degree holders to get vocationalized. “Education is not filling a bucket, but the lighting of a fire”, said William Butler Yeats. schooling must ignite the minds of the scholars and it must move the scholars from comfort zone to effective zone. the scholars in the comfort zone won't accomplish as much as that of in effective zone.

For professional qualifications like engineering, management, medicine, computers etc., the scholars ought to be engaged in the practical schooling and project works from the first year itself. Such activities will build more confidence in the minds of the scholars as they grasp the needs of the industry and thereby fine-tuning as per the industry expectations. Fee structure needs to be rationalized and the deserving students ought to be provided with scholarships.

There is a powerful want to streamline the present educational system. The issues in the educational system want to be addressed immediately. schooling ought to focus on ethical, social, vocational and academic aspects. schooling builds man and man in turn builds nation. a powerful nation can be built only when there is a powerful character schooling. Abraham Lincoln aptly said, “Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what they think of it; the tree is the actual thing”. Hence the essence of any schooling is the strong character. The evolutionary approaches and revolutionary changes in the present educational system are the necessity of the hour. they must build a nation where children have a vision to think beyond their geographical boundaries. There ought to be scope for the scholars to expand intellect, reinforce mind and make them to stand on their own feet.