This middle class obsession must be moderated!
Education is all about finding out about own personality and developing the same!
Let the government introduce a one year of national social service!
A gap year before students enter college would make a great deal of change in the Indian education.
Indian education has done much good for the country and the youngsters.
The latest election results also proves that the youth power is now a reality of the Indian democracy.
The point is that India is a great democratic nation and our youngsters are growing up in an open society, the fruits of freedom are now reaching even the very lowest social sectors.
So, this year’s school exam results and also the more prestigious IIT entrance test results show that even the youngsters who come from very deprived backgrounds can break through the barrier and reach the merit list so demonstratively.
So, the youngsters who topped the exam tables deserve the congratulations.
Having said this, we have also to remind ourselves the very many education degeneration that has crept into the Indian education system.
There is a furious commercialisation of education at all levels.
We see the pathetic scenes of LKG children and their parents getting trapped into this money-squeezing trap.
So much money exploitation, so much artificial donation demands made on poor parents.
So this generation of parents and children will remember, the time of globalisation and upwards mobility, the high noon of consumerism and mall culture also saw the greatest exploitation of the children.
So next comes the multiplication of the secondary schools, matriculations and their own set of exploiters.
In Salem district we see the utterly mind-killing education, children are treated as circus animals and shown to the gullible middle class that the toppers in school exams are the sure winners in life as medical doctors.
So, the next stage of exploitation starts.
In the same neighbourhood we see education sharks! Literally!
The very many illiterates, the milkman and the low grade government servant are today chancellors and educationists.
In Chennai, the state capital we see another set of education exploiters. This time, these worthies are chancellors, MPs and now ministers too.
The whole of Tamil Nadu and now Karnataka too we see a stage of Indian education, the poor Macaulay would not have dreamed of!
The educationists are now the very barbarians, the so-called educated professional classes are the very philistines, the gullible population, just the populace, to borrow from the high priest of the 19th century British poet and culture critic, Mathew Arnold.
I would urge every Indian educator, more so the new illiterate educators, to read Arnold’s “Culture and Anarchy” a text for this generation’s education enlightenment.
So, where do we go from here?
A new education minister is at the Sastri Bhavan now and what can we expect from this new worthy?
One hopes we in India have an education philosophy that frees us from the mental slavery of the Macaulay syndrome.
Making Indians educated in a new slavery!
We need in the new Indian education a scheme to cultivate patriotism, one India outlook and a new sense of national identity.
To achieve this, let us introduce a one year national social service.
This one year service, in a variety of social fields, from village development to social activists for human rights, dalit right women rights, girl child education etc.
This one year, the gap year can be credited to any one’s college education.
Let us think afresh, think radically and what is good for India, the only shining star of democracy in this part of the world.
Image Source : zaabiz.co.in