The Teachers’ Day- The Education System Gone Astray!

 

 

The Teachers’ Day

The Education System Gone Astray!

 

The ecosystem of education in India is very alarming. When the system is totally commercialized and the stakeholders look to monetary and material gain, the joy of teaching and learning is lost. The classroom as a vibrant platform to discuss and debate, to expand intellectual horizon- has lost its relevance. A teacher is no longer free to teach his students what he genuinely believes to be of value, what Bertrand Rusell called a teacher’s “business to instill into the young the habit of impartial inquiry, leading them to judge issues on their merits.”

 

The Indian higher education system gone astray for the following reasons, among other:

 

Curtailing Academic freedom

 

A teacher is functioning in an environment of religious polarization. A Hindi teacher of Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, Pune, was arrested, after registering FIR, on the basis of a compliant by a militant Hindu origination allegedly for "deliberate and malicious acts that are intended to outrage religious feelings." And the College quickly suspended him. The teacher Ashok Sopan in his class XII was drawing parallels between Hindu deities and Islam and Christianity to convey the message that ‘God is one’.  A student shot a video of the classroom discussion that went viral inviting the wrath of the Hindu religious extremists. We are destroying the spirit of studentship. As Professor Avijit Pathak says, “when the politics of hyper nationalism with the aggression of religious identity enters our schools, colleges and universities, teachers are expected to be one-dimensional and docile conformists…what prevails is an environment of fear, suspicion and surveillance. The classroom is destroyed” (IE 9/8/23).

 

The so-called autonomous private Ashka University, supposed to promote liberal education and encourage critical thinking, is on the verge of collapse, facing exodus of faculty. After Pratap Bhanu Mehta, its Ex-Vice-Chancellor was forced to quit for his views critical of the ruling regime, a few years ago, there was an understanding between the faculty and the governing body to uphold the academic freedom in the campus, and not to allow the situation that led to his resignation. And yet, Professor Sabyasachi of Ashoka University was forced to resign for writing a research paper Democratic Backsliding in the Worlds’s largest democracy that documents irregular patterns in 2019 general elections in India, listing electoral manipulation and precise control, expressing concern for the future of democracy. The Economics Department of Ashok University, in an open letter to the Governing Body, registered its strong protest:"Prof. Das did not violate any accepted norm of academic practice. Academic research is professionally evaluated through a process of peer review. The Governing Body’s interference constitutes institutional harassment, curtails academic freedom, forces scholars to operate in an environment of fear.”

 

This subversion of academic freedom, and controlling the thought process, is a new disturbing development in our campuses.  What is the meaning of a college or university education, if teachers do not have the academic freedom of expression which is central to creativity? What is the relevance of higher education, if it produces only conformists who toe the line of the establishment? In the absence of critical thinking, teaching and research are reduced to a farce.

Ragging

 

Ragging is a sadistic cruel practice in our higher educational institutions, particularly in medical and engineering colleges, the most uncivilized, barbaric criminal act. It is the work of sick and perverted minds that not only humiliates the victim, hurting his self-esteem and dignity, but also leaves a permanent mental scar.  On 9 August, a first-year student of Jadavpur University was pushed to death from a hostel by his seniors due to perverted sexual harassment.  Irony is the juniors, who are ragged today perpetuate it when they become seniors. There is a way of entertaining and welcoming freshers to campus. The heads of institutions can initiate a healthy academic practice to eliminate ragging.  In my college, we had a practice of seniors organizing a grand welcome party to the freshers in which the principal and teachers and administrative staff would participate.  The principal and senior teachers would address the gathering, welcome the freshers, briefing them about the rules and the norms of discipline. The party would conclude with a cultural programme, followed by high tea. This had created a healthy academic ambience in the campus. And we never had any instance of a senior bulling a junior in all the 18 years that I had the privilege of running the college as its academic and administrative head.   

 

The Perils of Parallel Education

 

On 27 August, Sunday Times of India carried an article No Place for second best in winners’ Kota.  The city of Kota in Rajasthan is a coaching and suicide capital of India.  It is a home to nearly 4000 coaching centers, preparing teenagers for medical and engineering examinations- NEET and JEE. More than two lakh students seek admission in these institutes every year. The Allen Career Institute-the largest coaching center- alone admitting 1.25 lakh students in its 23 campuses spread across Kota.  The city’s coaching business, including the auxiliary services, is worth around Rs.12,000 crore a year, with a student paying fees up to Rs.1.3 lakh per year, and around Rs.30,000/- in a month for food and stay. Of 4,000 teachers in the coaching factory,10% of them come from IITs, with the ‘star’ teachers earning up to Rs.2 crore a year.  

 

The teenagers are under tremendous academic and parental pressure. They study for 15-17 hours day to take the grueling weekly tests, which 90% of them find the most stressful. No time for sleep, recreation, rest and friendship. It is a mad and mindless rat race. The coaching institutes practice discrimination by categorizing the students, based on class XII marks and internal assessments, the toppers getting special coaching. The students are unable to cope up with the pressure of excelling in academic performance to clear the NEET and JEE exams. Till August this year, 23 students from Kota have committed suicide- the highest ever-out of guilt of not living up to the expectations of their parents, who make heavy investment in their education wanting them to become doctors and engineers. There is a growing breed of psychologists and counselors who make a killing. Hostels now install collapsible ceiling fan rods to prevent suicide and nylon meshes to catch anyone jumping off. The Kota District Collector banned all the tests and exams of coaching institutes for two months to “provide psychological support and security to the students.”

 

The leading national newspaper The Times of India, in its edition August 28,2023, has offered a strange solution: “making mental health counselling mandatory in all institutes. But a long-term solution only lies in creating more institutions of top quality and increasing the seats.”  Today, there are more than one lakh medical seats. Even if the seats are doubled, can it stop some 20 lakh students chasing the seats and the students committing suicide? Another bizarre solution is offered by a Rajasthan Minister to arrest the spate of students’ suicides: since ‘major stress’ factor among coaching students is education loans, the Centre should ’formulate a policy so that parents do not have to borrow money for education’.  It is ridiculous to assume that such a policy would prevent parents selling their property-the land etc.-to raise money to make their children doctors and engineers, all other options closed. When Ukraine war began last year and the Indian medical students airlifted, it is revealed that about one lakh Indian students, who didn’t clear the NEET, took admission in medical colleges abroad, including the most backward African countries, like Sudan.  No one knows the fate of the students who subsequently fail to qualify the Indian Medical Test to be eligible to practice medicine in India. How does one explain this irrational and inbuilt prejudice?

 

The solutions offered are stereotypes, at best cosmetic. It is like missing the woods for trees. They don’t address the root cause of academic ad parental pressure on students. There is a need to deemphasis on academic performance judged by marks alone and say no to coaching classes. We are over-emphasizing on professional courses, like medicine and engineering, and pushing the students to the brink. There are hundreds of courses and job opportunities which are more creative and promising and emotionally and intellectually challenging and fulfilling, which these students simply not aware of. There is huge unemployment among engineers. And yet undue importance is attached to IITs. The contribution of the IIT products to the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission is practically zero. It is the less known and unheard scientists and engineers, the products of local institutions, including the ISRO chairman S. Somnath, working for the ISRO with passion, commitment and dedication who made it possible. And most of the IIT graduates, who receive state subsided higher technical education, and the students of other professional courses prefer to migrate abroad to make a living in a foreign soil They are disconnected to their motherland.

 

It is not surprising that the students in Kota do not worry about the increasing number of their fellow students committing suicide; but more worried about ‘the limelight on suicides hampering their studies, while parents are concerned that these deaths may disturb their children. Hostel wardens and owners fret that parents might call their children back home, and coaching center owners fear they may see poor results and reduced admissions” (The Hindu 2/9/23). How selfish and self-centered the people could be! How toxic the coaching culture is? 

 

Subjecting children to relentless study- school, homework and tuitions, resulting in more homework- impacts children’s mental health. A paper in the Global Journal of Human Social Sciences, 2020, indicates a high incidence of headache, compromised eyesight, cervical pain and obesity among students. And the one--size fits-all solutions peddled by tutors encourage rote learning and stifles creativity, the hyper competitive environment killing the spirit. According to the National Crime Records Bureau report, some 13,000 students committed suicide in 2021- at the rate of 35 every day.  One estimate puts revenue of coaching centers alone at six billion dollars annually and that of private tuitions at an astounding 45 billion dollars. Ten years ago, a study by ASSOCHAM indicated that a staggering 87% of primary school children and 95% of high school students received private tutoring in metro cities- the child of a domestic worker or autorickshaw driver no less than the scion of a high-profile business family. 

 

The parallel education industry points to a systematic flaw in our education system. It is a challenge: how to diversify the pool of energy and resources of teenagers towards more meaningful pursuits and careers. The heads of educational institutions should arrange special talks for students taking X and XII Board exams, giving them information about courses and job opportunities available and help them to choose the right courses, not blindly chase a trend due to ignorance.  And it is the duty of parents and teachers to destress students and address the system that is driving them to depression, leading to ending their lives.

 

On 28 August, some people on TV channels were demanding ban on the ‘coaching system’ altogether. Indeed, the best solution to reduce the stress and strain of students and parents is to ban the coaching classes that perpetuate the parallel education. There is need for a central law to ban the coaching for all the Boards and public examinations to rescue the education system gone astray. What is needed is vision and courage of conviction. The ‘coaching system’ is the product of monied people, and the poor chasing it. It denies the level playing field for the weak and the marginalized. The fact is that bright students don’t need coaching and weak students do not benefit by coaching. And without coaching, the merit system would settle on its own and both students and parents would be spared of mental trauma, besides escaping the debt trap.