The category says "Education as a business". I wanted to write my views about the overall education system of India, but that would warrant a book . Hence I would limit myself to some thoughts that point towards the inadequacy of proper planning, measurement and control of how education is imparted in India.
How do we define "Education"?
Since I was too uneducated to define it myself, I took the definition from WikiPedia. "Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positive judgement and well-developed wisdom."
Education as I understand has a wider meaning than what we learn from text books, class room lectures and lab experiments. It is the summation all information that gets into us by means of our all our sensory organs(sight, sound, touch, taste, smell etc.), the way it is understood by us and the ways in which the same manifests itself in whatever we do in our lives.
It keeps growing by the second, and we are supposed to get wiser by the second so that all our future actions get more "educated". We are likely to err on the way, but mistakes occur only when we overlook some known fact or assume something unknown, exposing our actions to a risk. Learning form past mistakes is education too.
Where and when do we find "Education"?
Simple Answer: Everywhere and all the time. We need to keep our sensory organs receptive.
What do we do of "Education"?
I think there is nothing we can do without it. It helps us do things in a more systematic and informed way, thus incresaing our chances of success. It easy to get degrees / diplomas / certificates but do they really prove that we are educated and can use the certified skills when they are required?
Are we sure we are "Educated" enough?
Now comes the biggest question. The answer would vary from person to person, depending on how he / she fares on the above 3 questions.
It goes back to our schooling, our parents' guidance, our exposure to the real world, our higher education - in a way our overall upbringing. Hence parents who think sending their child to a good School does enough for his early education are wrong, as they have an equal job cut out(and a very difficult one, as you see results only after 15+ years of hard work).
Is our Education system mature enough?
Few would agree, many would not. I belong to the crowd here.
Things may have evolved since I completed school, but most the the focus upon text books, class room lectures and labs is still where it was.
1. Most of the schools still use a grading system that presses students to vomit what text books say without getting an understanging of what all that means. There is no good way of measuring their "Educatedness".
2. Tests and examinations are very predictable for the smarter ones, and students often "gamble" and ignore a few chapters realising that there would be choices in the examination. Real life offers no choices.
3. Lab practicals for science students are a set of spoon fed instructions, expecting the student to walk the dotted line, fill in details and get results. Rarely will a student be motivated to understand the concept, see it in reality and thus add to his knowledge. One has to make his own path in the real world.
4. Subjects like Moral science take the back burner. One of the reasons why we are low on Ethics is that these things are not explained and taught in those days when minds are impressionable. This is again more of how one's family treats moral values than how it is taught in school.
5. Awareness of our environment finds a second grade treatment. Institutions should partner with information networks like Discovery Channel, National Geographic etc and help students learn via a more interactive medium that text books.
6. Scrutiny around the financial prowress and the education levels of parents' is nowadays a bigger concern for those institutions that consider education as a business, than the fact that every child should get proper education. I wonder how a 4-5 year old would fare in interviews that in a way decide his future.
7. The focus on teaching children to learn new things themselves is weak as well. All of us do go on to learn that in our own way, but by then we would have possibly squandered few good opportunities.
What's the future of "Education"?
This is a tough one again. Here's what I forsee:
1. The rise in fee structures could beat the rise in real estate as some of our metros have seen. You might find new breed of criminals - those who steal / embezzle to pay for the tution fee of their ward.
2. More interactive teaching methods would emerge. Use of audio / video / graphics is already catching up. Use of advanced mnemonic techniques would be recommended, including listining to chapters while asleep with the use of a CD player and headphones.
3. Parents may have to attend lower classes along with their children, or maybe in the evenings, so that they know what they have to coach thier children upon. Now that's what I call holistic approach to primary education.
4. Banks may start new student loan services that offer to pay your child's tution fee from Nursery. The student can repay the same when he / she grows up and starts earning. I wonder what the EMIs would look like.
5. Further in future, we may have a bio-chip implanted in our minds recording all that we ever learn. Memory loss can be a thing of the past, and students can concentrate on more creative usage of their knowledge than learning poems and prose.
6. Cheating during examinations will get a new meaning too. Students will be able to share knowledge between their bio-chips using bluetooth. Invigilators amy have to use a similar device to track such misdeeds.
7. Since education would be marketed better, younger siblings of existing students may get a rebate on their tution fees. Students recommending other students may get a reward in a one time waiver of their monthly tution fees. Student gift vouchers may be available too, so that others may gift it to children on their birthdays.
8. Virtual museums to show the once existing flora & fauna will be commonplace. Lions & Tigers would have vanished from the planet, hence the emphasis.
9. Senior students would be asked to provide regular feedback about their teachers by filling an electronic survey, citing examples to justify their ratings. I love this one. The ratings would be on a scale of 1-5, 1 meaning "dissatisfactory" and 5 meaning "superb". Teachers rated 4 or 5 would be considered for promotions while the ones getting 1 or 2 would lose some of their performance linked salary. 2 years in a succession with a low rating would lead the teacher to attend the same class with students.
While all this may not happen all of a sudden, we do realise that our current education system, though complex, has started looking at education as business more than ever before. There is still some time before professionalism comes in. Let's see whether we are ready to learn from our mistakes and grow wiser or not.
