Education sans joy and love

How prophetic were the words of the man who told little Rabi (Rabindranath Tagore) when the latter was insistent on accompanying his nephew to school! The man said, "Now that you shed your tears in order to go to school, time will come soon when you will have to shed several times more tears in an effort not to go to school". Sure enough, Rabindranath found school education terribly unattractive and so he had to be given a break. From then on, he never went through the process of regular school education, although the base of his schooling at home was pretty strong. No wonder, therefore, that the apathy for conventional education prompted him to establish a school with a difference - so different that its setting was Nature itself. What he wanted to do was to bring back the joy missing from education. Education that cannot keep students interested is of no use. In today's Bangladesh, schooling has turned into a joyless exercise. Learners are overburdened with syllabi, class work and homework in schools of repute. But the picture is completely different in poor performing educational institutions in villages. These are in fact two extremes of the malaise in our education at the primary and secondary levels. Since our policy-makers would rather have poor performers left aside when they gloat over the ever increasing rates of pass percentage and high achievers, let us focus on the factories producing the highest number of high scorers. The cadet colleges, to our knowledge, enforce the most rigorous discipline imaginable. Sure enough, discipline backed by facilities of almost every description with a bias for military service gives the small number of students an advantage of building a strong mind in a strong body. But, it is the selection process that clinches the day for such educational institutions. Similar is the case with the reputed schools in towns and cities. They accept a few hundred of freshers every year, on the basis of admission test, out of several thousands. The crunch of the problem - or advantage in case of the privileged - lies here. Fairly or even highly educated parents engage themselves as well as hire services of the professional tutors or coaching centres to prepare their children for such admission tests. There is no guarantee all of the little ones of aspiring parents make it to the list of qualifiers of all the high-performing schools but chances are that they do so for one or the other. The preparation at this level is so extensive and elaborate that it can easily be called an industry. Thus the people running the coaching business take enormous pride in demonstrating how strong a supply line this or that coaching centre is. Once this dependence on coaching centres or tutors is established, its products have to undergo the entire length until it turns out to be a finished good. The finished good in this case is GPA (grade point average)-5 at the SSC and HSC levels. The most desirable product though is the unofficial golden GPA - at least 80 per cent or more marks in every subject. Schools can demand little credit for the achievements although the successful students at the euphoric moments immediately after the announcement of results give credit to their alma maters. This is rather natural. But knowing people would confide that both students and at least one of their parents had to go through a trauma before the SSC and HSC examinations. Why one of the parents? Usually, it is the mothers who have to accompany their wards to coaching centres or tutors round the clock and fathers have little time to spare. After all, they have to earn the extra money needed for paying the tutors and coaching centres. Education is a world unto itself wherefrom joy and mirth have taken leave. Our children are becoming morose and robotic with no time for games and sports or other entertainment except perhaps playing games on computer, which cause further damage to their physique and eyesight. Under pressure, gifted children do not even have any chance of developing their natural talents. All the students under a tutor are given the same notes; or, worse still, 'made easy' guides or suggestions can give students nothing more than the same form and substance. Are we to produce types or archetypes? This is a gross injustice to our young learners. Education really needs to be given a fresh look. Coaching centres and guide books have to be banned altogether. Teachers will have to spend productive time in classrooms so that students can learn what is there to learn. The invasion of private coaching has gone to such an extent where a teacher can now tell his or her students if they do not enroll with his coaching centre, there is no chance of obtaining pass marks in the subject she teaches. How outrageous! Will the heads of the institutions ever care to monitor how many of their staff members issue such threats to students and take appropriate action against those disgrace incarnate?