Real Nature of Education

There was a time when I used to mock CCE and Formative Assessments. The reason was that I was ill informed, ignorant. Though the truth was glaring in front of me, I chose to overlook. But then I came around and today I can safely say that I am a proponent of CCE and FA and very frankly I want thing to improve further.

When I was a student in school, I used to wonder why I need to study all the subjects instead of those that I really love to. Why can’t I just play cricket and become a cricketer? Why does everyone compare me with someone else when we two are different people?

The reason is a flawed education system which has become flawed because of our wrong assumption that MONEY IS SUCCESS. This ultra materialistic view that we have borrowed from the west has led to our downfall. If students across the country are committing suicides over exam failure, the reason is this wrong definition of success. And amazingly this has led to a severe down gradation of our education system and values.

The real nature of education is to enrich and empower a person to face and deal with the world. But are we doing that?

No. Our perception of success has turned education into a marks crunching machine. A student is taught to score marks. Hardly ever to understand the concepts. We are always looking up to the so called brilliant 1% students who constantly score above 90%. What about those who don’t score above 70%? They are in majority.

Well we push them into oblivion. At least we try our best to do so. And interestingly throughout history it is these BELOW AVERAGE guys who have shaped and reshaped the world as we know it today.

The purpose of education is to make the students achieve their potential. They should be doing what they love to do. In fact that is what the true idea of success is, “A MAN IS SUCCESSFUL IF HE WAKES UP IN THE MORNING AND GOES TO BED AT NIGHT AND IN BETWEEN, DOES WHAT HE LOVES TO DO”. Going by that ARTISTS and SCIENTISTS are the real successful people.  And exactly how many are they in number? Well less than 1% of 1% of our entire population.

To a huge extent we parents are also responsible for this entire problem. The following will indicate the problem cycle.

MONEY IS SUCCESS --> Parents want their ward to be SUCCESSFUL --> Schools want their CUSTOMERS (Read STUDENTS and their PARENTS) to be satisfied --> Teachers want to be in jobs so have to listen to school admin --> Completion of syllabus takes center stage --> Understanding goes for a toss --> Students become problem solving, marks crunching, lesson mugging devices --> Students either become SUCCESSFUL or not --> In both case they too propagate MONEY IS SUCCESS and the cycle continues.

It is high time now that this pattern be broken. It is to be understood that SUCCESS is about positively influencing as many lives as possible in one lifetime. It is about pursuing your PASSION and making a contribution to the world. And in the process enjoying and reaping the benefits that life presents you.

I, being a teacher, has taken it on myself to positively effect as many students as possible. Each and every student is special and is a powerhouse of possibilities and potential. Only that they need the guidance to achieve their potential. Charity begins at home.

I hope people including school teachers, parents and kids should understand that achieving their potential will be the real success.