‘Minor reforms will not work, need major overhaul’

NEW DELHI: For many years now, India has been witnessing incremental changes in its academic policies. However, experts believe the country’s need of the hour isn’t minor reforms, but a major overhaul as far as its education system is concerned. According to educationists, teachers — who form the very backbone of the system — have not received a lot of attention. “Upscaling and updating teacher empowerment, besides capacity building, is the only way forward. Also, teachers must be given the dignity and recognition they deserve in society. Some people still view it as half a day’s work; we need to make teaching as glamorous as an MBA job. We need to dignify the teacher,” said Lata Vaidyanathan, former principal of Modern School, Barakhamba Road.

Vaidyanathan further stated that the high cut-offs in select colleges place a huge burden on students, even good ones. This inadvertently encourages rotelearning, resulting in students not assimilating anything substantial by way of education. “Even schools that think differently in terms of teaching put reforms on the backburner when it comes to Class 11 and 12, and say: ‘You want the marks and we want the marks, so go get it!’ The race for marks is such that we have lost an understanding of knowledge itself,” she said.

Vaidyanathan suggested that an examination on the lines of the US-based SAT test be introduced to bridge grading discrepancies between various state boards.

Teacher training is yet another area that has turned into a mere formality, with educators attending the sessions but learning very little from them.

“Our teacher training programmes need a major overhaul. We continue to use archaic tools of training, which need to be changed. We should also engage the students, and not encourage rote learning by focusing merely on numbers. Besides this, the dismal teacher-student ratio needs to be addressed – a single teacher can’t hold the attention of a very big class,” said Dinesh Singh, former vice-chancellor of Delhi University. Other experts believe stern action should be taken against administrators if they are caught promoting unfair practices among students.