by: Suhaib Idrees Lateef
Education, is the needful and necessary process of learning, nurturing, supplying, and receiving systematic knowledge of things that one needs to sustain and survive in this universe of deep conscience, Education, is the prerequisite tool enlightening the process for success, growth, and ascendancy with prosperity. Education, A reform in taking and racking up the challenges, the winds, and hardships that life throws upon us with the
solutions. Quoting Iqbal’s words :
نہیںتیرانشیمنقصرسلطانیکےگنبدپر
توشاہیںہےبسیراکرپہاڑوںکیچٹانوں
Coming upon Schooling, nowadays is an arduous and tiring job for the hapless child who always and ever gets crushed under the roots of stress and failed hope by the mismanagement of processes. A few years or a decade ago, the schools were a center of joy, hope, and happiness and a center of Culture and ancestry. It was an activity of ecstasy free from back-breaking burdens. The Education system was a couple of books and a little homework however containing a world of thoughts and themes. Students were having a good time playing and cheering happily. There was no competition at all and students were careless both about their careers and their courses. Still, they moved and we got and found great personalities like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and Stephen Hawking, Some socio-political giants like Ali Mohammed Jinnah, the Father of the nation- Mahatma Gandhi,
Father of Constitution – Dr Ambedkar, Dr Sir Mohammad Iqbal(R.A.) – The legendary Poet, and others. Our Valley carved with green shining mountains, verily contributed to producing eminent social, political, and religious souls, besides Scholars and Poets to the world in the form of Sheikh-ul-Alam, Lal Ded, Bulbul Shah Kashmiri, Mufti Molvi Ameen Shopyani, and many others, courtesy to respective Education.
Things have changed now. Children are loaded with responsibilities and put to forceful activity from day first. They are deprived of their babyhood and minor age. At the young age of 2 or 3 years old, they are put in schools. At the age of 6 or 7, they are demanded and forced to study for 3 hours at home. Such tiny school students are forced to understand complex grammatical rules, solve mathematical problems, computer science, and tough general knowledge with broad social science concepts. I was astonished to see a 2nd class student with the concept of photosynthesis. Because of this excessive non-sense homework, they are deprived of their babyhood, playing and cheering, and much-needed essential Sleep requirements.
They are mostly fed on junk foods and unhealthy food items, which retards them both mentally and physically. A delicate child can’t hold the burden, he is laden with. Preferably the child cum student himself defines to be a ladder. How much toll could they weigh on shoulders, please go through their delicacy and be the happy hood. The generation gap and similar situations have risen by this now. The system has become like, every little school going is demanded to show ascendancy of the positions bagged.
Heavy school bags with much of overweight books that is a definite cruelty causing them severe heath problems day by day. The weight of school bags is increasing and not decreasing at any rate, our school children, I think, have become easy slaves of an educational system where the commission of booksellers and teachers makes their bags heavier and heavier.
There is no scope for creativity, imagination, ingenuity, inspiration, and critical analysis. These children had no time to think except rote learning and homework. The system emboldens and promotes them for it highly. The little children didn’t get any time to ponder freely or think openly. This is an open oppression of them. We have kept them on the method of cramming and memorizing a selection of books is a hallucination and horror. Many companies are producing stuff in the name of books and there is no to ask them the level against the children, Schools and teachers get their commissions to choose the book publishing companies. It is a large misconception we are doing for our younger generation. It has become a disastrous disease among people that many difficult books mean informative and higher standard of learning. Alas!! It is a delusion that burdensome and difficult books are prescribed. Children of today are more sensitive than those a decade or decades before (unconscious children). The extra burden and deprivation of liberty put pressure on them. Then the children feel their life in despondency, desolation, and deprivation. Then what we can get are suicidal cases and drug addicts cum chain and there should be no doubt but we should be ready and obvious for such disaster.
It’s time to truly rethink education. And we see this as the new focus of our Condition of Education project. Over the coming year and beyond we will be asking bigger questions about how we rethink when, where, and how students learn.
For example, how can we rethink people? We know that educators are dedicated and highly skilled professionals doing their best to juggle the many responsibilities on their plates. But we also know that the teaching profession, as currently structured, often places a uniform set of demands on all educators without regard to their interests, skills, and experience. Instead, we can imagine learning environments where all adults, especially those who are most accomplished in their field, are available to support students across classrooms and grade levels rather than working with a single class. Or we can picture teacher teams that move freely in and out of classrooms, connecting with different-sized student groups around areas of specialty. This would lead to a more dynamic profession where teachers can pursue their interests, enjoy more flexible staffing, develop stronger relationships with students and peers–and hopefully, avoid burning out and leaving the field entirely.
Parents and guardians are aware of this kind of bad Education system, but feel helpless and they have ceded to it. No parent feels a need to go against the school system as the political potential of schools will send his/her ward back home with called off admission, with the school’s fame unharmed. The alternative of Government schools is not a good approach as they completely lack proper facilitated functionary. It is a desperate situation for everyone for every member of society. We establishing a good and adequate system for the next generations which they shall have to face individually and unintentionally.
One more nightmare is we have put our children on a continuous coaching system. It is a chief troublesome nowadays in our society. It becomes important for a student to attend coaching classes even at the rate of her or his school. It has turned a fashion for Kashmiri students to attend tuition classes rather than Schools. By this A student loses his or her precious time, playing time, and school life and thus fails to overlook the challenges of life as all-round development is possible only in school life. Also, the tuition concept has made Student’s minds such that he or she feels unable to clear their examinations without coaching classes.
I have now been in service of the Teaching, Higher Education department for a couple of years, both a sensible witness, silent analyst, and social human, I experienced that the majority, the even greater majority of Students have now started ignoring and bunking classes because of this unpleasant new education system. A roll of 250 to 300 students classrooms is marked with daily 7 to 8 students or less, despite counseling of experts and mentors,
Luckily, we are not incapable, the things are in our hands, and they have not yet been uncontrolled. We can change the situation provided we are willing to take an interest in it, in the overall development of children. We need to think sincerely about this for our coming up future. Stress upon them for grades for social status is a kind of suppression, that needs to be thought of.
Today students are learning from the next generation of technologies. In 20 years, VR/AR and other new technologies will further change our education system and improve the learning process while providing unlimited opportunities to creative educators and students. In addition, technology is enabling new models of learning that are transforming education. Early adoption of these technologies will signifacntly help an individual learner to adopt to newer technologies seamlessly in future.
All these developments should be thoroughly applied as a necessity. At last, I want to encourage the civil society members, Teachers, Parents, and councilors to assess the situation and emerge out of this state and special efforts should be made for them in this depressing and discouraging state. They are requested to come forward to address this problem very strongly before we go deep into the sea and lose our future generations too.
Quoting Iqbal;
دیار عشق میں اپنا مقام پیدا کر
نیا زمانہ نِے صبح و شام پیدا کر
Author is working in Higher Education Department. He can be mailed at idreesdalal865@gmail.com
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