Board aka BORED exams

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
 -Albert Eintein

 And that  in today's world means a high percentage of uneducated people. I strongly felt the need to write about our education system when I saw NDTV's report on how students get 100 percent in their exams and are still  left with no admissions (100 percent...!!! What happens to average students like me then!!see link) and the ongoing discussions about our education system.

My head refuses to process information such as kindergarten children being sent for tuition and schools urging parents to register their unborn children in order to get an admission! I find it preposterous.

When the whole world is looking at how India is the intellectual capital, our children are losing their childood to textbooks, tuitions, tests, tests.. and oh did I mention tests? Everyday there seems to be more emphasis on how important the board/public exams are to a child's future. Are they really?

If you're 20+, answer this for me - How many people have asked you "So, how much did you score in your boards?". Perhaps only those who cannot make a conversation .On the other hand, when you had a real conversation with a like minded person, you realize that board exams and results are hardly a topic of discussion except when you are criticizing it. Marks are no doubt important in deciding the course of your college career, but with the current system based mostly on management seats and reservations, its all about saving money for the seats than the marks isn't it? (Btw, I am not supporting that, I am merely stating a fact.) 

The much awaited games hour goes into 'extra' geography or chemistry classes. I do agree that education should be on the top of the list for any child's career but pursuing hobbies and interests outside the textbook is equally important to the development of the child's personality and overall growth. Correct me if I am wrong, I am no expert at this  - but common sense is all that's needed to figure that one out.

 An important part of our life has unfortunately been forced  to mindless studying. I choose to use the word "mindless' here because the schools only teach us how to score marks instead of helping us grasp the concept of the lessons. There may be several exceptions, but the majority seems otherwise. 
There is a huge gap between what is required to succeed in the real world and what is actually being offered. Take a look at these numbers:

Out of the 5 lakh engineers passing out every year,only 17.54 percent are employable for the IT sector, 3.51 percent are appropriately trained to be deployed directly in projects and a dismal 2.68 percent are employable in IT product companies, which require a greater understanding of computer science and algorithms (Source: The Hindu - March 12, 2012). 

I am not someone who crunches numbers or analyses statistics, but these numbers are clear evidence that the level and quality of our education is below par and doesn't serve any purpose-neither technical knowledge nor soft skills.  I am an engineer and I can confidently say that the training provided at Infosys taught me much more than my 4 years in college. We were taught coding, algorithms and given practical assignments; we were taught soft skills like team building, decision making, culture sensitivity - lessons that help students tackle their everyday life and work scenarios. 

Isn't that how our education system should be built? Lessons to get the best out of life, to realize our potential, to help us solve problems by thinking and not by reproducing from text books?

I believe that this should start early in schools where children begin their learning process. Teachers should be able to create practical scenarios or projects to illustrate topics, schools must encourage learning rather than pressurizing children and teachers to focus on scoring. Another important aspect is to educate the children on the various career options available to them in addition to the engineering, medicine and CA and throw some light on offbeat careers.

Colleges on the other hand should impart soft skills to their students apart from encouraging themto take up research and development (When are we going to start discovering and inventing things again???). They should encourage students by setting up entrepreneurial divisions to reward students with exemplary business ideas. And oh, how could I forget, both schools and colleges need to encourage sports and extra curricular activities , so that we can stop complaining about not getting medals in the Olympics (Don't we all stop playing, dancing and singing in the 10th standard in order to do well in the elusive board exams and then get caught up in so many other things that we forget to restart it..??)

Another important concern is that questions asked by children and students are shunned as disregardful, whereas they may have arisen out of sheer curiosity and the need to know. Not knowing the answer to a child's question is not wrong or shameful, but what is shameful is the decision to ignore the question by shouting or diverting their attention to another topic. As Albert Einstein  once said "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.” (Excessive usage of Einstein's quotes as he seems to have  some witty one liners on education and learning to his credit)

The suggestions above are ideas that institutions can implement. Isn't there a saying, all good habits start at home? We need to be the change, but how do we do that? The floor is now open to ideas, suggestions, discussions and most importantly, appreciation and criticism.