Dear friends,

How much of what we study in schools / colleges is relevant or useful to leading a good quality life? Have the maths, geography, English subjects we studied in schools and colleges given us the much needed character & life skills for our life and made us healthy, productive , happy persons?

More than 90% of us never use the knowledge of calculus, matrices, algebra, geometry, geography & mineral wealth of Africa / America / Australia, advance English grammar etc. that we study in schools / colleges. Then why are we studying these subjects and wasting colossal amount of time / energy in schools / colleges ?

The current education system, especially the school education, is very stressful to our children and not very relevant to life. We are not learning what is basically needed to lead a united, disciplined, peaceful, productive, socially responsible, good quality life.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi, has published the draft National Education Policy - 2016 and invited comments / suggestions from public to improve the NEP-2016. I am suggesting the following changes in the Vision / Objectives / Curriculum sections of the NEP-2016, to make the school education very pleasant and interesting to our children. Please read and support these suggestions, to develop an education system that is more relevant to our life and that facilitates building a great, happy, developed India. Thanks.

WONDERFUL QUOTATIONS ON EDUCATION

The following quotations form the basis for my views / suggestions on the National Education Policy-2016:

1) Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his book “ Hind Swaraj “ (Pages 76,77) :

“I have learned geography, astronomy, algebra, geometry etc. What of that? In what way have I benefited myself or those around me? Why have I learned these things? It (this education) does not make men of us. It does not enable us to do our duty.

Both you and I have come under the bane of what is mainly false education. I claim to have become free from its ill effect, and I am trying to give you the benefit of my experience and in doing so, I am demonstrating the rottenness of this education.

It now follows that it is not necessary to make this education compulsory. Our ancient school system is enough. Character building has the first place in it and that is primary education. A building erected on that foundation will last.“

2) To quote Swami Vivekananda , from NEP-2016 (Page-20) :

“Education is not the amount of information that we put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas.“

RELEVANCE OF EDUCATION TO LIFE

Both the above quotes emphasize two very important aspects / goals of education, viz. 1) The relevance/ usefulness of what we study, for leading a disciplined, united, productive and peaceful life   2) Man making or Character building.

It is my experience in education and life that what Gandhiji said holds very good even today! Even a vast majority of engineers / accountants today do not use the knowledge they gained in advance mathematics! Why frighten / demoralise / stress most of our students in schools with such subjects which will never be useful for their work / family / social life! This could also be a major reason for high drop-out rates in elementary and secondary education levels.

Geography is another subject we study in schools for many years and never use that information in life, except using maps while travelling! Because of this irrelevance to life and the enormous stress involved, a vast majority of our school children become highly averse to studies / books and, stop reading / learning / improving at a very young age. This is very detrimental to the life-long learning attitude that NEP-2016 envisages to inculcate in our children.

Currently, learning is a painful experience to our children! For the individuals, society and the Nation to progress & prosper, we should make it a very pleasant experience!

Man making

The worst fall out of this dumping of useless information, on the back of our children and into their minds, is that our schools have totally ignored the moral/ social studies for want of time! So much of time is wasted in studies totally irrelevant to leading a good life! Man making and character building, which should form the foundation of any high performing education system/ society, has become the casualty! This very bad effect has eroded our quality of living to a very large extent and, is the root cause of all evils we see in our families, society and Nation.

I do not mean here to say that advance level science, maths, English etc are a total waste. My contention is that such advance level knowledge is not useful to a vast majority of students in their life and makes the young minds averse to books/ learning. Majority of us need only functional literacy and, an attitude for life-long reading/ self learning for continuous improvement. Advance level units may be introduced in higher secondary and tertiary education levels as optional subjects. And, more time should be allocated up to elementary school level (VIII-Std.), on moral/ social studies imparting life skills to make great men of character.

The all important “relevance of education to life”, at least found a mention in the Education Policy – 1968 but, is not found in the Vision/ Mission/ Objectives of the current draft policy document. Man making, though mentioned in section 4.5 (page-21) of the current policy, is not covered by the stated Objectives. Similarly, the NEP-2016 mentions about moral/ social values and life skills in all the chapters but does not include them as main objectives of education.

Mind Management is the essence of Life Management ! To manage the mind easily and effectively, moral/ social education is a must and is more important than material education.

The best quality material education alone will never assure building of a great, secure and developed India! It is high time we take the views of Swami Vivekananda and the Father of our Nation seriously to lay a strong foundation with a man-making education system, to realise the vision of a great, developed, happy India. 

LIFE LONG LEARNING

The policy document talks about ensuring life-long learning opportunities for all. I believe, this can be achieved by inculcating the life-long reading/ learning attitude at the early stages of education. This attitude will make the 70% of children who do not enter secondary / tertiary education, to continue to read and learn for self improvement. The elementary education curriculum may be designed in such a way that it develops this attitude in children by motivating them to visit libraries / browse internet to gain the required knowledge for a given syllabus.

CURRICULUM

1) Moral/ social sciences

Ego plays the spoil sport among most of the educated people, right from the home up to the assemblies and parliament! Ego spoils personal, social and work place relations very badly, makes us throw lots of hurdles at each other, damages team work and efficiency and, has slowed down our development significantly both as individuals and as a Nation.

Our moral/ social sciences curriculum should be designed to eradicate this menace at the very young age by developing activities to inculcate broad-mindedness, the attitude to appreciate, accept and celebrate better ideas / performances, to learn from others, to help others, to maintain self respect in all interactions and, to listen and respond with empathy.

It is also very important to develop the attitude of liking and respecting manual labour in our children. Practical sessions like planting saplings, cleaning streets in areas nearby their schools may be designed to develop such an attitude in primary / upper primary levels.

We may engage child / social psychologists to design and implement this very important curriculum. Quality education will give us the proficiency. But, an egoless attitude alone will give us the much needed team spirit and efficiency in all our endeavours.

Currently, many schools do not assess the learning levels in moral science and, even if they assess, the grades/ marks are NOT considered for ranking of students! Through this practice, we elders wrongly imply to our children that moral values and character are NOT important for life! No wonder the friction/ stress levels in families, work places and society are increasing daily! This is a hopeless situation and must be corrected with the help of the NEP-2016.

Moral science should become a compulsory subject at least till X-Std and, the marks scored should be included for ranking of students. This commitment is mandatory if we desire to progress, prosper and, live in peace and happiness.

Studies in geography should be limited to understanding Indian geography in detail and basics of world geography. This will save a lot of time. I would also suggest social services to be included as a part of social science subject. Students up to primary level should be taught / trained to do social service at street level and, secondary students up to ward level. Tertiary students should be trained to take up social service projects at town / city level. This will help us develop broad-minded, socially responsible citizens.

2) Health Science

We can not draw a beautiful picture without the canvas. Similarly, we can not do/ achieve anything worthwhile in life without a healthy body and mind. Today, even the highly educated individuals do not know how to develop / maintain a healthy body and a healthy mind. This is a major weakness of our current education system. An unhealthy human resource can never achieve its full potential and contribute to Nation building.

Moral/ social sciences curriculum should be designed to assure the mental health of the students. General science curriculum should be designed to learn and develop the physical health of the learners. The elementary education should impart basic knowledge in ayurveda and yoga, so that the students learn and understand how to develop / maintain a healthy body and mind.

3) General Science / Mathematics

Science is all around us! We experience it daily in our homes, streets and places we visit occasionally. If the basic science curricula and activities, up to the elementary level, in physics / chemistry / biology / environment are linked to this day-to-day experience, our students will develop lot of interest in science and may continue their studies in secondary & tertiary levels. This relevance of education to life experiences will keep their interests alive and impel them to continue their studies to higher levels.

How much numeracy skills we need to function effectively in home and society? Simple arithmetic, basic mensuration & geometry and, simple calculations to understand day-to-day commercial/ banking transactions. Almost 98% of us do not need any more mathematics than this! Then why waste time and get stressed on advance level mathematics! We should limit our elementary level mathematics instructions to this basic numeracy skills and make school life easy for our children!

Advance level science, mathematics and English should be made optional at secondary / tertiary education levels. Two levels (Part-A & Part-B) of class-X examination, proposed in the current policy document, is a wonderful idea! Compulsion to study advance level subjects will be counter-productive. The learners should be allowed to choose what they want to study depending on their interest and potential.

4) English

English language curriculum is generally loaded with lessons/ non-details from foreign writers/ poets. This does not help our students to imbibe our values, culture and history. At least till X-std, English curriculum should be designed to include lessons/ poems/ non-details from the great Indian writers, leaders, scholars and poets. This will help us become better citizens besides acquiring good knowledge in a foreign language. Again, advance level English is not useful for nearly 90% of us in life !

THE VISION AND OBJECTIVES

In general, the elementary ( I – VIII Std. ) level curricula should be designed in such a way that it

a) Develops healthy body/ mind and, builds moral character of the children.

b) Identifies the interest & potential of a child in academic/ vocational/ co-scholastic fields of education.

c) Motivates and guides the child to achieve his/ her maximum potential in the identified field of education.

d) Makes the children socially responsible and law abiding.

e) Makes education a pleasant experience for the children, motivates them to continue their education to the highest possible level and develops the life-long learning attitude.

I request the policy drafting team to kindly consider these important elements for inclusion in the VISION and OBJECTIVES stated in the NEP-2016.

FUNDING

It will also be very encouraging if the policy drafting team includes a time frame to gradually increase funding for the education sector to a minimum of 6% of GDP, as recommended in earlier education policies.

A GOOD, STRONG, LASTING FOUNDATION IS BUILT ONLY WITH BASIC MATERIALS AND, NOT WITH ADVANCE MATERIALS !

 

Sincerely,

In the service to our Nation,

S Murali Krishnan

Phone: 9865071445

Coimbatore, T.Nadu.

 ____________________________