Sudhir, 301.
The
review of the National Curriculum Framework, 2000 was initiated specifically to
address the problem of curriculum load on children. A committee appointed by the Ministry of
Human Resource Development in the early 1990s had analyzed this problem, tracing
its roots to the system’s tendency to treat information as knowledge. In its report, “Learning without Burden,” the
committee pointed out that learning at school cannot become a joyful experience
unless we change our perception of the child as a receiver of knowledge and
more beyond the convention of using textbooks as the basis for
examination. Therefore the National
Curriculum Framework 2005 gave emphasis to the learning from “known to
unknown,” from “concrete to abstract” and from “local to global.” It favored child as a Natural learner who can
learn from different activities and construct the knowledge from his past
experiences. Initially, children are
cognitively oriented to the here and now, able to reason and act logically on
concrete experiences. Children may
remember many facts but they may not understand them or be able to relate them
to the world around them. So the main
purpose of the teaching is to provide proper environment where the child can
construct their previous experiences in the present scenario. But the ground reality is completely
different. Though NCF 2005 has given
emphasis to learning without burden and presents the child as the natural
learner who can learn from his own experiences but still in many schools the
old techniques and methods of instructional base of teaching has been adopted
where the child is still the passive listener.
The main emphasis is only given to memories the facts and information
and reproduces it in the examination.
·
The
ground reality: The
ground reality is that in most of the schools in India, students, teachers and
administrators are apathetic towards the process of education, fraudulent ways
are being adopted to complete the process and a large number of educated youth
find themselves without jobs. It is
quite anomalous that when the people, government and those involved in
implementing it, consider the education to be desirable thing, they choose to
ignore the real state of affair on ground.
Policy makers, politicians, social activists and education experts are
seen taking idealist positions when talking about education, most of the
time. Do they really want to continue
and expand the existing education system in its present form? Besides the
degeneration of the process, education as an activity seems to be going without
any direction.
·
Lack
of supervisory staff: Sources
in the department admit that the educational standard has taken a hit due to
severe crunch of supervisory staff. Of
the 49 Mandal Education Officer (MEO) posts in the Krishna district 27 are
vacant while only 22 have regular appointees.
If such is the conditions of our Government schools then how can we able
to fulfill the aim of constructive learning because if there is a shortage of
supervisory staff then who will judge the performance of teachers and the
outcomes of the learners?
·
Extra
burden on Teachers: Because
of lack of infrastructure and staff in schools the teachers have been given the
extra responsibilities which further affect the performance of the teachers. Students are the natural learners and they
learn from their surroundings but if their surroundings and environment lacks
the infrastructure then neither the student nor the teacher in being able to do
anything. No doubt teacher is the game
changer and it is the teacher who helps the child to construct his knowledge
but if teacher is loaded with extra burden then what would you accept from
teacher?
·
No
emphasis to the learning based on understanding: Though NCF 2005 has
given emphasis to the constructive learning which is purely based on
understanding but still in school the old method of Jug mug theory has been
given importance. Still no one believes
in the natural learning of the child rather in many schools child or learner is
still a passive listener. Today the biggest question which is rising in front
of us is that why there is so much difference between policies and the actual
ground reality? Is it because of poor
implementation or because of the lack of will on the part of administrators?
·
Rote
Learning: Carl Jarvis, an educator from London, is helping
'abillionideas' in creating awareness about the rote learning mentality
gripping our school system in India. It is ironic, that we still follow what
the colonial system Britishers left for us whereas Carl (another Britisher) is
now propagating how harmful that can be for true education. A group of parents
are meeting Carl on Friday in Gurgaon to discuss the same. Over the last couple of years, studies reviewing the
performance of students in professional courses show that they don't meet the
benchmark. Nearly 75% of second year engineering students in colleges in and
around Chennai failed in at least one subject in the third semester. Months
after acing their Class 12 exams, nearly 40% of first year medical students in
27 colleges across the state failed, a review in 2011 revealed. Among dental
students too the pass rate of final year students in the state was around 40%.
Now, a perception survey shows that more than
80% of school principals across the country blame rote learning for the poor standards of learning in students
passing out of schools. Nearly 70% of the principals surveyed feel that today's
curriculum did not give sufficient scope for creative thinking. Experts
believe that the educational system followed in most schools today is the
'factory model' designed between the 18th and 19th century to suit the needs of
the Industrial Revolution. Since then, there have been dramatic changes in the
learning environment and lifestyle. Researchers across the globe have reached
the consensus that the key to addressing these challenges is to bring a
transformation in student thinking, classroom dynamics, learning ambience,
technology integration and teacher empowerment. The above information reveals that still our
education system needs a change in the ground level because though policies are
made for constructive or co-operative learning which is completely based on
understanding and develops the mental abilities of the child but still it is
far from implementation.
·
Corporal
Punishment: The
news published in Times of India in August 13, 2012, 2:50am emphasizes that
corporal punishment is required for the desired behavior of the child which is
against the norms of NCF 2005. As many as
30% principals and 40% teachers surveyed believed that strict enforcement of
discipline is necessary for proper teaching and the teacher's control over
students is a must for discipline. They
also said that there can be no discipline without fear of the teacher in students and those not paying
attention to studies should be physically punished.
·
Less emphasis on co-scholastic
activities: The
News also explored that over 70% of the
principals said that co-scholastic areas are definitely relevant to curriculum
and for building students' self-confidence, self-control, sportsmanship,
solidarity, teamwork, competitiveness, health, etc. However, less
than half of who said so mentioned that their school places no major emphasis
for these areas in curriculum. Schools on an average spend 9% and 10% each of
time, respectively, on physical education/sports and co-scholastic activities
like music/art/dance/ elocution/dramatics. About 60% of class time is spent on
learning academic subjects. The above statement completely presenting the contradiction
between the policy of NCF 2005 and the ground reality.
·
Dominance of Number system:
In school there is the dominance of number
system. Schools don’t have any concern
with learning rather their main concern is to produce scores which further helps
these institutes to get more admissions.
Parents also don’t bother about real learning of their children, they
only have the interest that how much score their children got during
examination? If such is the recent
trends of the present schools then where is the implementation of NCF 2005?
Thus the biggest question which is now
rising in front of us is that: is there any co-ordination between the head and
hands? And if there is no coordination
then what is the cause of it? Education
will become burden if these institutions practice such kind of wrong ideas. We need the Education in which the child’s
natural instinct of learning cannot be suppressed and if it is suppressed by us
then we all are the culprit of humanity.
The futuristic society will not spare us if we don’t rethink about it
and find the exact measure to curb it.
Reference:
NCF 2005
Pandey,
Sandeep “A critique of the modern education system.” (India together, Feb 20, 2015)
M
Ramya, “Rote
learning an evil in education system, national survey reveals” (Times of India,Dec 11, 2012)
