Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Education in different Indias

A kid turned up at our hospital today with complaints that she was unable to see the board at night. Confused, I asked her 'why would anyone wanna see the board at night'. Her dad replied, that at her boarding school, they have classes during study hours at night. Thinking maybe she was in class 10 or something, I quizzed her further... she was in class 7!

On one hand it's painful the farce thousands of kids receive in the name of education, teachers aren't regular, children can 'play' during class hours itself, they can go up to class ten without passing any exam or knowing to read or write even in their own mother tongue. These are the kind of children we at Bhumi work with. We know the education they receive is inadequate but aren't sure how much to supplement that with 'better quality' education without ruining their leisure time.

Then here's this other India which extinguishes their family time and childhoods for the sake of academic excellence and better future careers!

2 comments:

Ashutosh said...

True, its the sluggishness and lack of responsible nature of thousands of primary school teachers all across India, which is forming a huge "divide" between two different Indias.

Genuinely, what's your take on ability of nonprofits to penetrate all through urban, rural and tribal areas for better education by direct teaching???

Or do you see a possibility in working out a solution towards recruitment of teachers such that they are motivated for teaching and not just salary. When there's already a system (though inefficient) in place, won't it be easier tightening the nuts of the existing system rather than establishing a whole new one???

mak said...

Quite Ironical yet true..