Frogs in the well

Unless our education standards raise to such high levels, we keep breeding frogs in the well

I “was” an engineer because I got an engineering degree. I “tried to be” an engineer by working in an electronics company. I “am not” an engineer, because I explored and found my interests. Education in general and engineering in particular was a tool in my hands to peep out of the well. Once I got the taste of the outside world, I could muster courage to leap out of the well. I met so many such frogs in the well, on my first day at PMRDF today (May 1st), who took the great leap forward. Most of us have done engineering, may be because it was cheaper both money and time wise when compared to medicine, another standard career option; and may be due to lack of exposure to other fields, their prospects and opportunities they provide.  Engineering is also seen by many as an option with “guaranteed return on investment”

This is not an individual issue but a larger systemic issue. Our education curriculum doesn’t give space for experimentation. In its hurry to teach lakhs of students every year, the system is failing to teach the students to teach themselves. Either schools do not have labs or have outdated and inadequate equipment. Without practical experimentation, the theory is left to the imagination of the students. To cross the immediate hurdle, students take to learning by rote and teachers tend to encourage it for performance evaluation is done on the basis of marks obtained but not based on knowledge gained.

By the time a student finishes his/her 10^th standard all the basics should be covered and the student should be able to understand their applications. Precisely for this reason, many enrol in engineering courses, without having any idea of what the subject is about. Since we are failing to do this, students enrol to learn those basics again, at a later stage, to appear for competitive exams. It is a waste of time, money and energy today, which should have already been done yesterday. Unless our education standards raise to such high levels, we keep breeding frogs in the well. Year after year, the ASER Reports show that our math skills, reading standards are declining. We need major public policy decisions to keep the education system on the right track.

One, an unconventional evaluation mechanism, which tests students’ ability to visualise and apply the theory learnt in the school. An independent body with a clear mandate to conduct such type of exams should be set up. The schools should be given rankings through composite indexing – including quality of education, innovative and creative teaching mechanisms, infrastructure, teachers’ performance etc., which will ensure competition. Not all schools may be evaluated this way as the situation in many government schools, is so dismal that roof over the school building is a luxury. To start with, a few schools with minimum standard and infrastructure may be given rankings and gradually other schools should be supported to catch up. This would also ensure that there is no outright rejection of the idea by teachers’ union.

Two, teachers should also be made to take such exams periodically. Not as a strict performance based evaluation measure, but to make teaching more fun. There are studies that show that training teachers may not reflect in improving their teaching skills and thereby is not having any effect on the quality of education. Nevertheless, imparting innovative and creative training should aim at a larger attitudinal change.

Finally, and most importantly, the parents who rush their children into the competitive world without giving them an opportunity to explore, should be educated. Government should slowly move away from providing education towards provisioning quality education. It should build model schools to set an example to both the private players as well to show the parents what they should be expecting of any good school.   Currently quality wise both the public and private schools are worse. Therefore, we need a regulating government for quality, not providing education itself, where sufficient number of schools are present; and provide education itself in those areas where private presence is minimum or zero.