Shiv Kumar Padha
The first concern of every parents is the education of their children.It is common experience that majority of the parents are unhappy and dissatisfied over the education and its quality being imparted in majority of schools of towns and village. There was a time when the avenues of education were very few, the economic condition of the people was also deplorable, the schools were situated miles away from their homes, and there was scarcity of text books and the teachers in the schools. Even then studies in the schools were not of that low quality as it is now. This truth can be experienced when we meet the persons who have studied in the schools upto mid seventies. These persons are found quite at home in languages and mathematics and majority of them have good hand also. Now, text books and uniforms are also provided by the government free of cost up to elementary level. The economic condition of the parents has also improved. There is adequate infrastructure like, teaching learning material and number of teachers in the schools .In order to retain the children in the schools they are served mid day meals .The teachers are imparted orientation courses in content and methodology from time to time in order to update, upgrade and renew their knowledge.
It is aYaksha prashan before every parent, afterall what is that hurdle which is coming in the way of quality of education in our schools having been stuffed with every possible and relevant material by the government? The reasons are not to be sought anywhere, but they are due to the lack in zeal and will on the part of the teaching faculty and the education department headed by the persons who don’t know even the rudiments of the educational system. Lack of regularity and punctuality among both the teacher and the taught, daily commuting by the teachers for hundreds of Kmts and other newly created problems of present time.
It is believed that a teacher remains teacher so long he is a student .It is obligatory on the part of every teacher to go fully prepared to the classroom and there should be no doubt left regarding any competency. With the efforts and toil the teacher should make his teaching most interesting .This is the skill which is expected of a good teacher. A teacher can be compared with a honey bee which sits on the flowers and sucks their nectar having different kinds of fragrance and taste, but when it adds its saliva to the nectar it is converted into sweet honey which every body likes to take and enjoy. Teacher after going through difficult and dry concepts should invent his own techniques and methods to make it interesting and assimilating for the children. But it is seen that utmost effort of the teachers is to finish the syllabus without caring, whether a particucular competency has been developed among the students or not. It has been observed in many cases that the teachers keep the pace of the class with the fast learning or the gifted students which results in the dragging of the slow learners who can not develop any competency in haste. Every teacher undergoes professional (B.Ed.) training and study about Individual differences in educational psychology but they do not apply its rules in the actual class room and makes their B.Ed. of no use for the children. Due to the non failure policy of the government in the primary classes and the faulty use of CCE the children reach up to middle and higher classes almost week in all the subjects. It gives pain when we find that many students are unable to speak out a number in lacs or crores according to the place value correctly, rather they read the number just like the telephone number for
Instance 3468753 (thirty four lacs sixty eight thousand seven hundred fifty three) will be spoken by majority of the middle standard or more like, three four-six eight seven-five three. History and geography are taught in air with out the use of maps and globes. The geometry subject has been totally neglected in the majority of schools , and even if it is being taught in some lucky schools the students in those schools either do not possess the geometry boxes or they do not know the names of its implements and their use, with the result that the students can be seen drawing arcs with free hands ,circles with the help of Kara or the bangle in the case of girl students The students memorize these subjects by rote and have no knowledge of geographical phenomena and geometrical terminology. Unless our teachers develope the habit of mastering the competencies in the students istead of finishing the syllabus, the quality in education will become a wild goose chase. There should be shift in the emphasis from teaching process to learning process.The focus should be on developing skills in the students “learning to learn at their own in order to make them capable of meeting life problems in the future.
(To be continued)
There is great load of paper work in our schools, even the services of two teachers of the school fall short, which affects the school
Functioning both scholastically and non scholastically. The department considers only those schools at number one which keep a hot line between the school and the head office and responds the correspondence at the cost of class room work.
The annual or quarterly academic inspection of the schools has become a thing of the remote past, because the education department is headed by the bureaucrats and not by the academicians or literary persons. The former has his relations in the galaxy of bureaucrats or in the departments where he has already worked and do not know the problems of the education department. They only know how to save their skin and pile up the problems for their successors. Whereas the later have interest in academic aspect of the schools. Whether they are CEOs or provincial heads, they are interested in making adjustments transfers sanctioning of grants and other funds instead of indulging themselves in academic side. This is the reason why do the schools become the rudderless vessels which often drift away from their course. Before appointing education officers it should be made compulsory that a person for the post of Director school education should have written at least five books on educational problems, methodology or philosophy. CEOs at least three and the ZEOs one book.
Road connectivity has brought about revolution in the working of many offices as the employees can commute daily for hundreds of kilometers a day. It is possible in big cities or towns where the roads are in good condition and have good frequency of vehicles .But it is impossible in remote towns and villages where the roads are rough and the numbered vehicles ply on the roads. The teachers who commute daily on such routs never reach schools in time. . The arrival of the teachers in the school after the students and leaving before schedule time affects the regularity ,punctuality and the study of the subject which the teacher teaches ,as the tired man can not do justice with the students and himself simultaneously consequently the students remain at sea in the subject taught by that teacher. This practice is seen in the government schools in the remote towns and the villages in general.
It is a universal truth that for gaining knowledge one needs concentration and seriousness at his part .But majority of students in the rural areas have been swayed away by the new arrivals of information technology e.g. .mobile telephones and dishe tvs. Nothing in the world is good or bad, only its use makes it so because excess of every thing is bad. It is common scene in small towns and villages where one can see the school going children holding costly mobile and listening the music of their choice. Great rush of teenagers can be seen on the mobile shops for the recharge coupons or getting the songs recorded in their mobile to listen at leisure time. The students leave no film, serial,chiterhaar or match unwatched and remain glued to the television screens hours together .Under such degree of madness for these gadgets, what fraction of time do they devote for their studies? The biggest impediment in the way of quality education is the tuition work which is spreading like epidemic and has taken in its ambit the innocent students who have totally become slaves to it. They confine the tution notes to the racks and avoid studies at home as a result they remain blank throughout the year.
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Though the facts and the causes responsible for the poor quality of education in our schools look trivial at the first instance but these are eating into the vitals of the academic life of our children and one day we will have to pay a heavy price for that, because a small hole if not plugged in time can sink the whole boat. The parents as well as the teachers are requested to identify their role
And play it honestly, other wise it will be vary late to mend as ‘time and tide wait for none.’
