Friday, June 10, 2011




The following article was written by me in the hope of sending it as an entry to a particular magazine. By the way that particular magazine was an initiative of my friend and his mates in a reputed Indian university. But sadly till date that magazine has not become reality and the blame lies squarely on the contributors like me who never showed up after they got that message. Let me explain, the following article was written by me in the hope of sending it to him but I never did actually send it as I thought it would never comply to the top standard maintained by the other contributors (journalism students of that reputed university). Anyways I wish to thank him (let him be Mr:S) for asking me to contribute even though he had a great number top quality journalism students in his friend circle. Yeah it would sound pretty lame, but I thought to write something about our education system. As this is my blog, I can gladly publish it as I don’t worry about the standard maintained here. So bear with me my dear readers and brace yourselves for this high school level essay nah…article :P

(Sorry Mr:S for breaking your trust :P )




                                      Educational Reforms A Necessity  


Education is very important in everyone’s life. Our educational system is one of the best in the world which boasts of producing thousands of professionals each year. And yet there is an incredible sense of unease amongst us youngsters about our educational system. I will try to point out some of the most important concerns that our generation is having with regard to this.
In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. But our current educational scenario will not probably come inside that definition.

Our world is no longer the same place as our ancestors thought it would be. It has undergone lot many changes. We have grown up with the notion that teachers are 'God Incarnates'. Does that notion hold true now? I for one seriously doubt that.



In this age of modern technological advancements, the role of teachers in the life of an average student is seriously nothing . Take the case of our generation. Isn’t it true that we gain more knowledge from Google than an average professor or teacher in our school or college could offer? If someone asks me who my greatest teacher is, my answer would be without any hesitation as Google. Yes, this is the change that has been brought on by the huge advancements in technology.


If teachers aren’t that important anymore where would it leave our current educational system, more so in our particular Indian context??





Our educational system will have to adapt itself to the change that is happening around the world. It is ridiculous to find that our system is absolutely against the use of technology in helping accelerate the process of learning amongst the children. I would give you a very good example. How many of us have not wasted hours and hours of our childhood for memorizing the multiplication tables? Wasn't that absolutely mundane and foolish on our part to have done that when we had the luxury of using calculators? I used to say that we Indians are great in mathematics. But today I realize how smart the entire western educational set up is. It didn’t stress on boring things which any machine could rattle out. The focus was on doing things easier quicker and smarter. I’m sure that no westerners would have ever learned the multiplication tables like we Indians did. This probably explains why they are so ahead of us in creating new innovations.




Technology is an increasingly important factor in education. Computers and mobile phones are used in western educational system both to complement established educational patterns and develop new ways of learning like online education. This gives the students the opportunity to learn what they are interested in. Technology offers more powerful learning tools that demand new skills and understanding from students. The government considers technology as a threat rather than a tool for education here.



The focus of our educational system has solely been on examinations. The person who is successful in mugging up the textbooks and reproducing that in the examination hall comes out as a knowledgeable person. All others are deemed as worthless. What a joke in this age of Google.



But I still don’t advocate copying of the western style of education completely and implementing it here in India. We have to manage a delicate balance between the new modern techniques and the age old values to bring about proper educational reform. Our educational system would have to evolve itself according to the changing circumstances in our society and be open to new ideas which would help in fostering many innovative minds.    


What do you think about this ??  Comments are welcome :P



11 comments:

Snair said...

I agree with the technology part.The authorities,Parents they only see the 'bad' or 'negatives' of technology.as far as am concerned,technology didn't do anything mate.Its the humans who does that.Blaming it on technology aint cool.But i disagree on the multiplication part.Although i undersatnd what u meant.Eating a book wont get u anywhere.but take a better example.am sure everyone has to learn the multiplication table.u cant carry a calculator everyday every time,can u?
But ya, iliked your article.good to see u writing.cheers. :)

Unknown said...

:)

sreenath said...

i disagree with you on skipping on learning the multiplication tables and the basic stuff .... yes there are devices and technology that can easily do many of the stuff that we study about but i still think its essential that we learn what we do now because every innovation starts from some basic need ... like , you can create applications and stuff for your phone but a person who does not know how to use one in the first place it at a loss .. so computers and technology on its own cannot solve everything if we just put in the data and that's why we still learn so much of the basics .. :)

Shruthi said...

i truly agree that our educational system should introduce a syllabus that makes students more innovative ..... and ..... teachers who should welcome innovative ideas from students :D :D !! nd the best part in learning multiplication tables is ..... V r "memorizing" !! atleast for some time our brain s working (esp n my case :D ) .......
Gud work friend !! excellent article :)

Joseph said...

good read mate

sree said...

excellent article dude....keep writing...;):D

Narendran Vasudevan Mappat said...

kay u asked 4 it.A thought provoking article and excellent job.U have put up some good points but ill disagree with u one major thing google is NOT ur ultimate teacher WIKIPEDIA IS :D (just joking). But if it wasnt for the teachers who molded our characters when we were tiny toddlers we would have learned squat.Technology or no technology.And yes our system is flawed.WHY?? mainly because everyone is hunting for a well payed job and because of the disparity in the pay everybody wants b an engineer so every tom dick and harry heads to the "Technology" field and how is it humanely possible for any genuine original idea to satnd out in the midst of a a BILLION.

ramya said...

gr8 work....superb...because outdated theory with no innovation or any practical work will do no use.....its high time that our education system must take a new form

vivek said...

"Education is the manifestation of perfection already exist in man"-golden words from Vivekananda......it is that i follow and agree.....but now the hectic world not only the western but also Indians failed to admit it.........these lines are so simple but it conveys a great message.i being in the field of teaching when i was 15.i force everyone to study table....for 10th standard student too.i used to give them impositions for this simple multiplication table.Do you know why?everyone including me have an opinion that maths is tough...but i make it so simple by giving them confidence that it is easy as a multiplication table,you said that now we are living in an era of Google..and western students are more advanced.i wont agree with that,becacuse machines can only reduce the time of doing a work.but it would not increase ones intellectual potential.

Unknown said...

i'll elaborate on my views in the nxt blog post nd provide ma counter arguments...
thnks again for all dose comments :)
wud luv to hear more critical comments

The introspective wanderer said...

Good article this one, and I'm sure Mr. S is rather happy that you put in the effort :P You'll actually be surprised at how well your writing will stand up to 'professional' journalists!
As far as opinions are concerned, I think everyone has already given a fair view on the topic so there isn't much to add. Though I agree with you wholeheartedly about technology and the Google-Wikipedia theory, the people who commented before had a point about us needing some rudimentary knowledge. The day our own creations better us will be a sad day indeed!

Follow Living_Legend47 on Twitter
By TwitterButtons.net