It is a high-pitched affair of nigh life in villages and colonies these days as there is relative regular power supply just because this is one period of the year where the power department shows its ‘generosity’. This is the season of school examinations. But the flame of the raging students burning their body calories will last only for about a month and so is the over brimming enthusiasm of parents towards education of their wards.
The simple reason why we are obsessed with this exam-education is because we are driven by the prevailing system that discourages the focus on values. In other words, we are giving over emphasis to the so called academic excellence.
They said a right education system is one that gives importance to attitudes and values which is the frame of sustained growth of a society. According to eminent educationist Dr N M Bhagia, it is the attitudes and values of individuals to themselves, to their fellows, and to their surroundings which determine the decisions they take and activities they conduct. It is also said that the “man-values-education is a sacred triangle where education is a vital medium to imbibe, foster and perpetuate values in man.” However, due to faulty strategies we employ, we do not give value to these ‘values’. Our concept of education is always correlated with jobs or materials. According to eminent educationist V R Taneja, for failure to reach situations of profit and power, the students condemn education as irrelevant. Such people resort to deplorable means to achieve success even at the cost of their self-respect and dignity, V R Taneja added. For these reasons violent discords have become parts of our life. Hence, our society degrades in want of a sound education system.
For a long time now experts have been expressing that skill and fact learning will see their full meanings and purposes when values inhere them. It is sad to see that the people at the helm who talk of bringing egalitarianism and quality education are insensitive to the views of the experts.
What we don’t understand is—the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) spending huge amount of money with its top think tanks scratching their heads all these years trying to refine our education system, is still unable to prove its worth.
Meanwhile, the urgent need to dilate on the issue at the appropriate platforms arises today. Hot debates and more hot debates should be encouraged by the Ministry of Human Resource Development towards refining the system.
