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Sunday, May 11, 2008

BAD IS SCHOOLING

By Nav Raj Pokharel

Nothing and no institution or mechanism has ever destroyed a man as bad as schooling has in Nepal.

Poor life quality mostly found in the third world countries largely ramifies on bad schooling.

A school, college, or university teach a student to memorize dull information about a lot of subjects they have little or no interest at all. They are given a heavy load, from the morning to evening in the name of teaching them the skill for their life. While doing so they are destroying the talents and intelligence of the human beings.
Everybody is different to each other. Even the twins have different predilections to understand and explain things around them. Their latent potential cannot be honed by implementing one set of teaching technique. If implemented, you are making every one dull and stupid instead of intelligent. However, our education system is implementing the one of the worst teaching methods found in the world.
Our School, college, and universities are producing only non-intelligent dudes in the name of education. Their hackneyed parameters of testing abilities in students are set of questions in between and at the end of session on different subject. They are asked, for an example; who is who or did what in some particular place in some specific year. Or, what is the height of Mount Everest and location of Sahara desert in longitude and latitude. Or, to narrate the probable consequences of global warming. And based on the memorized answers of the nonsense questions, the students are given marks that denote how intelligent a student is.

Have the institutions ever brooded over their gauging stick of intelligence? Are you sure that right answers to those questions make a human intelligent and wrong answer a stupid, a clumsy, a tactless in real life?
On the first day of schooling, a sense of fear is instilled in a child’s mind. Fear of being a gauche if he/she is not able to parroting what the teachers teach them. Intelligence- the inner potential of human being- never thrives when your heart trembles with fear. Second, school does not focus on each and every student based on their ability to learn and subject of interest. Third, students are given notes encouraging them to memorize the information given to them. They never help students to internalize the essence of information and reproduce it in their own language based on the students’ intelligence. If the students feel that they need notes to get into the technicalities of the subject and problem, themselves will prepare notes. Teachers should encourage and guide them in doing so, instead of homework. Students will use their interpretation, reasoning, and intelligence while making notes, and teacher should encourage them to express their view on the subject candidly, and not repressed fear.

Students fear that if their answers are different from teachers’ notes or the textbooks, they will be termed as gauche. Teachers never encourage the students for their creative answer and fresh reasoning of their intelligence towards a perspective and problem.

School, colleges, and universities are hurriedly becoming enterprises where commonplace information is sold to the students. Educational institutions, we have so far except for one or two, are the place where intelligence of the student, in true sense, has nothing to do with. It remains suppressed though out their schooling. Very few people are able to escape the valueless education and preserve their intelligence who passes the school, college, and university under our education system. Most of them come out as educated gauche.

I visualize the educational institution where dormant intelligence in human being is given priority to flourish. Their reasoning faculty is encouraged to develop and teach them how they can gather information on various subject, topic, and issues and understand the real essence of the subject based compatible onto their intelligence. Their boundless potential to interpret, internalizes, re-define the spirit of the subject and issues, and resolve the problems facing them are essence of schooling. In short, their intelligence is given chance to thrive.

When the students have their intelligence honed, they come out as intelligent person and use their intelligence in the area of their interest. They exhibit confidence in life. Then, everybody will love doing what he or she is doing. Their real intelligence will be utilized in their lives and work. Education becomes meaningful to them.

At present, no body is happy. There is tension in the profession they hold. It is because every body is caught in wrong job. Good educationists are forced to opt for politics and persons with political predilection are in business. Most educated gauche are teachers and teaching penchants are put in surveying roads. No one is happy.
Educated people these days are not happy in their work and life. The schooling neither developed their intelligence nor groomed them to love the work they do. The school, college, and university only sold them information of their priority.

Life without intelligence and love is bound to be miserable..
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Many are aware of the issue you have raised...but none ever voiced it...if we really care about this alarming reality ..and wish to see a better future it is high time this be made anational ...agenda....the transition time is ripe enough.....