It would not be
an easy task to define Education System; rather I would start with an
understanding of the entities involved in the education system and interactions
between them. Assuming that “Education” starts only at educational institutes,
that itself becomes one of the primary entities of the education system.
Students, Teachers, Subjects, Syllabus, Classrooms can be seen as other primary
entities.
The
concept of education dates back to Indus Valley Civilization. Then and even
now, these entities have remained the same. But the interactions, need, style
and methodologies of interactions has either evolved or simply changed over
time due to social, political, scientific and cultural reasons. I would call
these reasons as secondary entities.
Further,
educational classrooms itself took various definitions; from Indus
valley as Veda paata in gurukulas to madraasa of Mughals to schools and
collages of British, along with the changes in subjects, syllabus and so on.
The question posed inhere is not which one of these are right. The question is
what combination of these would best suite the current needs of the society and
country.
With
the advent of British rule, the scope of teachers has been limited to the
boundaries of educational institutes, unlike monarchal times; where the
teachers made major political decisions, took responsibility of the king
himself and hence the society. Due to this limitation, the value and quality of
the very profession took reverse direction leading to poor quality in students
- cascading to social and political downfall in terms of ethics,
responsibility, moral values and expertise in various fields.
At
the same time on a positive front, British system of education gives an
opportunity and capability to interact with the global world as equals. The
competitive nature pushes the smartest, fittest up the economic wheel. The idea
of providing a same ground for all the players rules out reservation. However
in India,
this came along with reservation; over time cast and creed has become the
canopy of current education system.
I
call here, inviting you to speak, debate and try solving various issues and
also try to strengthen the positives of current education system.
