The shrinking vision

Long ago, Dronacharya demanded Eklavya8217;s thumb as gurudakshina because he was not a prince, only a poor Bhil boy who excelled in archer...

Long ago, Dronacharya demanded Eklavya8217;s thumb as gurudakshina because he was not a prince, only a poor Bhil boy who excelled in archery. We continue to tacitly endorse an educational system where you can make it only if you have the right connections and the money.

Even children in middle school learn to be secretive, don8217;t like sharing notes and often don8217;t tell an absent classmate about a test scheduled for the next day. Teachers don8217;t have the time to correct their students8217; exercise books. Cheating is rampant.

Almost all prescribed text books in the twelfth standard indicate the marks allotted to each chapter. Today students do not study for knowledge but for marks, to ensure admission into professional colleges and so to a supposedly better lifestyle in a western country.

I recently received a printed plea for help from a local college, a 150 year old institution, ranked by surveys as the best Arts college in the country. The college has no money to maintain its heritage building.

The plaster is peeling, electric wires hang out, the campus needs a face lift. Students come in cars or on bikes, own cell phones, wear designer jeans, spend large amounts on movies and at fast food joints. But suggest a fee raise and the parent and student bodies come out on the streets in protest.

The same parents don8217;t mind forking out a small ransom for coaching classes. And the teachers who don8217;t teach in the colleges, spend the evenings teaching in coaching classes. Parents are willing to pay even heftier under-the-table payments for admissions to professional colleges. The Supreme Court and the Mumbai High Court have given some respite from capitation fees but there will be parents willing to make furtive payments.

Some states have come up with the novel idea of contract labour in education, forgetting that if you throw peanuts you will get monkeys. College teachers should be paid like other professionals to attract the best talent. The state need not subsidise education beyond the twelfth standard. Around fifty per cent of seats could be supported partly by government and industry funded scholarships and also by low interest loans from banks.

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Schools and colleges ought to have a reasonable student-teacher ratio. Teachers should be rated by a peer rating system, together with a rating based on their students8217; performance. It should be compulsory for teachers to go 8216;back to school8217; every five years.

It needs to be examined whether coaching classes for regular college curricula should be permitted at all. Instead of giving larger than life importance to CETs, uniformity must be ensured in the standards of university education by adherence to UGC norms. Admission criteria to professional courses should provide for at least five per cent marks for sixty hours of social work done by students in classes 11 and 12 in old age homes, orphanages, with street children, etc. This will teach them to think a little beyond themselves.