WHAT SHOULD HE DO ??? -Story of a boy
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lifeiscool
Right from the day one he was different, someone who's born with half
of the Calvin's brain and quarter of his lunacy. Sadly there was no Hobbes but, there were plenty of sexy cars to fill in. Some of the scars on his face, though placed aesthetically - not to compromise the face value - stand testimony of a tumultuous childhood. Life wasn't any different for him even in the academics. Somehow at an early age he developed a notion that homework is a waste of time, which in fact is true and spent afternoons in the backyard imagining it to be his kingdom while people in the adjoining buildings as infiltrators. In our education system homework is perceived as something playing pivotal role in child's development.
The boy struggled his way out of the series of punishments ranging from abuse to being made to sit in a class level lower than his actual level. He sometimes had also been through the horrors of acquainting with the Principal for the same, but the boy stood firm and always took homework with a pinch of a salt. Though he was an average Joe, but managed steer clear through the examinations by all fair means. He used to do well in arts and had a creative bent of mind. He was a regular at various poster making, slogan writing and article writing competitions.He was always very excited about the writing section in English examination but never took it seriously, no one at that age does.
Before the turning of tables in academics, he encountered the last erratic year in which he eventually failed in the terminal examination but, later passed the finals with flying colors due to lot of effort and support from his mother. By the time he turned 14, he started taking interest in academics. He was doing great in Science and Mathematics. There was a coaching center right next to his school and another on his way to tutions preparing students for IIT-JEE. Students used to line up there as early as 5 in the morning to mend their future. Now he was in 10th standard and it was time to make that big decesion. He scored 75% which was apt at that time grab a seat in science, so he grabbed one and joined coaching for IIT-JEE. He was intelligent but, certainly this wasn't his cup of tea. After 2 years his hopes shattered and ended up in a rather clunky Engineeringcollege in suburbs.
It's in the due course of his Engineering, he realized his love and
passion for writing and creative arts, but now there was no way out since he opted for science and now had to live with it. It's the same time he realized that it wasn't an acquired taste, instead it's something that's been with him since childhood. But the silver lining of this cloud came in the form of INFOSYS, just days before the global meltdown he was selected in the country's most reputed organisation along with 10 others during campus placements. Today he is waiting for his joining which is scheduled on 29 march 2010 and is seeking few answers. Somehow he's torn between his passion, where future seems grim and a mundane 9-5 job, promising sustainable future.1) What should he do?
2) Why there hasn't been any reforms in our education system?
3) Why we have to make a career decision so early and why there are no bodies which can guide us through the process?
Status Quo
With the wave of blossoming IT industry in our country, we have seen proliferation
of rather incompetent private run institutions growing as a weed. What’s working as
a fertilizer for these weeds is our own perception of education, which is misleading
if not anything. The term education means to acquire knowledge, irrelevant of how it’s going to pay off in the future. But we as a society have become so lascivious that the term education has lost it’s relevance. Today education is considered as a fixed deposit or an insurance in which you invest a certain some of money, so that you get a guaranteed return every month. This has led to the corporatization of education and private players are cashing big time on that. What’s even more disappointing is that, despite being so much money thrown, children are still not getting what can be called as quality education. This blind rat race for Engineering and MBA has led to an unbalance in our poised society. When is the last time that you heard someone saying that “I want to be a historian” or “I want to study astrophysics”. In a recent
interview, Union HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal himself accepted the fact that we are facing a
serious human resource crunch across diverse fields. We still account only for 3% ofthe journals published across the World but, we are known for our mass production
of Engineers and MBAs, which even China can’t match.
Peers
Have you seen a herd of sheep? They always follow each other, and if one of them
end up diving into a gorge, there is a fair chance that all of them will follow.
Our condition is not much different from the sheep, if one is going for say A course, everyone will follow. There are so many MBA aspirants around these days, if you ask them about which specialization they would like to opt, they will react as if you have asked something that they never heard of. The only thing that matters to them is that they are preparing for MBA because, 90% of their peers are doing the same.With preparation comes the nexus of coaching institutes into the picture, preparing students for CAT, MAT,GMAT or whatever, all of which in a way evaluate your aptitude. Now can someone please tell me, how a coaching of 6 months can help you build a desired aptitude? They are into this business of fooling, and fools, is what we all are.
School
The lack of decision making power is seminal for all the colossal damage that follows.
But from where it all begins? Schools, where there is a rat race of another kind, it’s a race for that .1 percentage point. Mugging and homework are the two foundation stones of our schooling. There are not much activities happening around that empower students to express themselves and bring something different to the table, like it happens in ‘Show and Tell’ in the Western Worlds. Firstly you were not conditioned to make that crucial decision, on top of that you have to make that career decision so early, which shouldn’t be your precedence at that time. The outcome of all this is a decision that goes terribly wrong, taken under family and peer pressure. So, if
thing have to change , they have to start from here.
Is there a way out?
Recently with UPA coming into the power with full mandate and with Kapil Sibal
taking charge of the Ministry of HRD, we have seen lot of development on the
issue of education. From the Right to Education bill to scraping off the board exams for class 10th, these are all inviting changes from the government but, there’s moreto be done. Scraping off the 10th boards is not an all inclusive solution, it will only dampen the madness of the percentage wars between students. Firstly, the structure should be made modern with research and presentation taking place of the homework. Secondly, grades for the examinations is a good alternative because you can’t completely do away with examinations. And last but not the least, a special objective type paper should be designed, which evaluates your capability in various fields, and based on your performance, suggests a career path that you should opt. This should be conducted along with the usual examinations and at the time of results a panel of career counselors should be facilitated, who on the basis of your performance in the examination and interaction, guide you to make that big decision.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
