QUESTIONS ON EDUCATION SYSTEM
Why do we always see students being envious of
their counterparts in the USA?
Answers- It’s because there are just three options
that students have after class-10 they are stuck with Science, Arts and
Commerce. If they are not good enough for either of these, they jets set
straight into diplomas and certificates courses. Do not you think the Indian
Education System needs to introduce combination courses in which students can
opt for major and minor subjects? If students in America can pursue
physiotherapy with Art History and Biological science with Photography, why not
in India?
Is
it justified that a student is evaluated only on the basis of his/her
performance for the duration of three hours of the exam?
Answer-All the other evils of the Indian education
system ultimately come down to the method in which students are marked. It is not
justified that a student is evaluated only on the basis of his/her performance
for the duration of three hours of the exam. If the axis of grading and marking
is shifted to classroom participation, project work, communication and
leadership skills and extracurricular performance, only then genuine student
shine out. This might sound like a utopian proposition but the Indian education
system badly needs to bring about this change. Students are just not evaluated
on the basis of exams, they should be evaluated on the basis of overall
development and attention and their mentally level. Because some students just
do ratafication during the exams and them able to get good marks but in real
they are not attentive with the knowledge and use of that knowledge in
practical aspect.
Is
there is respect for all streams?
Answer- “Oh has
she done a MA in English? She will end up becoming a teacher”
“What
good is a diploma in hospitality management? It ultimately means doing a job in
a hotel a cook right?”
If you have heard these lines time and again from your
elders, do not you think it is time to stop them? How long are we going to look
down upon vocational streams and look up to medicine, engineering, the IIT’s
and the IIM’s? Students at the school
level need to be educated through career counseling regarding the kind of
streams that exist and what importance each of them plays to make an economy
diverse. There should be respect of all kind of streams.
What
are the reasons for the tuition classes mushrooming nowadays?
Answer- Commenting on this subject is like plunging
one’s hand into a vicious cycle which seems to have no beginning or end. Reason
for tuition classes mushrooming are because students say that the teaching in
school is lax and not good enough for them to clear exams. Whereas teacher say
that students jump ahead many chapters in the tuition classes before they are
even taught in school. This makes them loose all motivation and stream to
attend school in the first place.
Beyond
the figures, what do we know about the excluded?
Answer-
Exclusion has many faces. Despite real progress since 2000 towards universal
primary education, 72 million children are still not enrolled at all in school.
More than half are girls. Seven out of ten live in sub-Sahara Africa and south
and west Asia. Poverty and marginalization are major cause of exclusion.
Households in rural or remote communities and children in urban slums have less
access to education. Disabled children suffer from blatant educational
exclusion- they account for one third of all out of school children. Working
children, those belonging to indigenous groups and linguistic minority’s area
among the vulnerable groups. Some 37 per cent of out of school children live in
35 states defined as fragile by the organization for economic Cooperation and
development, but these do not include all, places facings conflicts and post
conflict situations. In every case children are at enormous risk of missing out
on an education.
Research
on out of school children suggest that many countries are now promoting access
to school but not ensuring decent education quality. Why?
Answer- Once you indentify who the excluded are and
why they are not in school, Strategies can be developed to get them into school
and keep them there. The challenge is to implement policies and practices to
overcome the sources of exclusion. It is necessary to look at what happens in
and out of school-from children’s daily reality in their homes and communities
to what happens when they go to school, what they are actually learning and in
what conditions.
How does inclusive education promote
successful learning?
Answer- Efforts to expand enrolment must be
accompanied by policies to enhance educational quality at all levels, in format
and in non-formal settings. We have to work on an access to success continuum
by promoting policies to ensure that excluded children get into school coupled
with programmers and practices that ensure they succeed there. It is process
that involves addressing and responding to the diverse needs of learners. This
has implications for teaching, the curriculum, ways of interacting and
relations between the schools and the community.
How does education need to change the
accommodate everyone?
Answer- The overall goal I to ensure that school is a
place where all children participate and are treated equally. This involves a
change in how we think about education. Inclusive education is an approach that
looks into how to transform education systems in order to respond to the
diversity of learners, it means enhancing the equality of education by
improving the effectiveness of teachers, promoting learning-centered
methodologies, developing appropriate textbooks and learning materials and
ensuring that schools are safe and healthy for all children. Strengthening
links with the community is also vital, relationships between teachers,
students, parents and society at large are crucial for developing inclusive
learning environments.
Teacher has a foremost influence on learning.
Yet their status and working conditions in many countries make it difficult to
promote inclusion. What can be done to improve their lot?
Answer- The way teachers teach is of critical
importance in any reform designed to improve quality. A child centered
curriculum is characterized by a move away from rote learning and towards
greater emphasis on hands-on, experience-based, active and cooperative learning.
Introducing inclusion as a guiding principle has implications for teachers’
practices and attitude –be it towards girls, slow learners, children with
special need or those from different backgrounds. Adequate pre-service and
in-service teacher training is essential to improve learning. Moreover,
policies must address their status, welfare and professional development. But
there exists not only a severe teacher shortage, especially in sub-Saharan
Africa and south and west Asia, but a lack of adequately trained teachers. This
shortage has unfortunate consequences for the quality of learning. A new curriculum
cannot be introduced without familiarizing teachers with its aims and contents.
Assessment can help to teachers to measure student performance and to diagnose
difficulties. But teachers need to understand the value of good assessments
practices and learn skills to develop their own tests.
