Is Everything all right with the present system of Education?

By
Mrs. Nagamani Bhaskar
Dr. Mehboob Peeran

We see in our daily life any number of students falling a prey to “peer” pressure and many other kinds of pressure and are unable to cope with the stress of modern life.
It is a common observation that we would like to keep our homes clean but would not hesitate to throw the garbage in the direction of our neighbour.

There are teachers who in response to some clarification by a student say, “If you have not understood what I have said in the class room it is not my problem”.
There are students who ask the teacher, are these pertinent from the exam point of view? if not we don’t need it, when the teacher is trying to say something else in relation to the topic of the day.

The most common question a student asks these days is “Is it going to come in the exam?”
Sure some section of students are able to get jobs fetching considerable salaries, but often times the job is not related to their “educational” qualifications.
Again it is a common observation that many of them are penniless at the end of the very first week. They are made to spend their salaries of the next few years “now” it self through “buy now pay later schemes” and they are sucked into the whirlpool of a new culture of younger people who have to participate in the week end programs costing them a considerable proportion of their salary because it is the “in thing to do”.

In the recent past there used to be lively discussions in the classroom about the most recent topics of interest in a given subject, the teacher used to be inundated with questions many of which he or she was able to answer only in the next class, some times was not able to at all.
In the experience of the authors this intellectual activity of “critical thinking” in a teaching-learning situation has dwindled over the past years. This is an alarming trend.