Thoughts on the Future of School Education in India

This post is a brain dump of some of the issues that I hope to explore in future posts. So I am making no attempt at fleshing them out here, but just spitting out the issues here.

• Have you seen the state of CBSE and ICSE textbooks? Ouch! There aren’t many things that make me want to cry, but textbooks do. When you’re in the mood for taking some time off from life, I urge you to look at the grade 1 textbooks of a CBSE or ICSE school. If it doesn’t make you want to throw up, NOTHING can make you throw up
• Why do we even have textbooks? Especially at the primary level?
• Look at how MOOC platforms are structured. You basically log in, choose what piques your interest and then enrol! Simple. Why can’t high school education be like that? Why do I have to study the entire freaking text book to prove that I know a little bit of a subject?
• Some schools have 1,000+ students. What? How? Why? Are they producing widgets? Or ‘educating’ humans?
• Regulation in India, particularly in education, is about 20 years behind the industry. So if you are trying to innovate, you are basically at the mercy of a bunch of morons who won’t know what to say when you present your case on ‘micro schools’
• The curriculum sucks. I think this is more so a problem with the India focused boards, but applies to other curricula as well. Perhaps to a lesser extent. Is there scope for an open sourced model where interested people contribute to developing curriculum, which is then free for parents / schools to use as they desire? Assessment can be done using a variety of tools.
• Parents queue up to get their children into the better known schools, some of which are basically institutions where children are turned into rote learning machines. There doesn’t seem to be any logic to what children are doing in class — it has been handed down by an authority and the teacher makes sure that the topic is covered in the time slot allotted. All of it is totally abstract. ‘Draw a rainy day’ in Grade 1. Genuinely, WTF?
• I haven’t explored IB in very much detail but I like the practical, hands on aspect. But not everyone can pay 6 lakhs a year for this. Why aren’t we working towards an Indian model of the baccalaureate? One which is more affordable, yet retains the practical aspects. There is no point trying to make the existing boards change — it won’t work. It has to be something new, which has more of a focus on project based work.
• Your worth at the end of 10 or 12 years of schooling is assessed on the basis of your individual marks in a variety of subjects. This is so old school. Assessment should be project / collaboration / teamwork based now. We are in 2016!
• How can we reduce the reliance on marks as a signaling tool? It is very clear that they are poor predictors of life success, and even worse predictors of happiness.
• There is so very little of working with one’s hands, especially after the primary years. This has to change. There are so many crucial life skills to be gained by working with your hands. Make furniture, make electronic gadgets, make art, make videos, make anything you want! Just look around you, and there is so much BAD design in the world. I think I know what the reason might be!
• Again, an India specific problem, but children as young as 3 are shipped off to ‘assessment centers’ because they are suspected ADHD / dyslexic etc. Why can’t we have a uniform policy, based on best practices, so that children are given a fair chance?
• Related to point above, may be we should stop labeling differences as ‘disabilities’ and instead start terming them as ‘variations’. Let’s get used to the idea that every child is different in terms of abilities, interests, emotional aptitude and background. And appreciate and work with these differences, as opposed to expecting uniformity.
• Everything that is studied should have a corresponding ‘why’, which the student should be able to relate to. ‘Why do I have to study this?’ should always have an answer that is rooted in the real world, and how it will help the child in life.
• MOVEMENT has to become a core part of every school day, for every child. Humans learn, communicate, innovate and develop ideas by moving around, not by sitting in one chair for extended periods of time.

That’s about it for now. Some of these are huge issues which need to be addressed. I think there are plenty of educators who are willing to try new approaches, but we need parents on board as well if any real change is to come about.

What do you think?