Education System :What would I like to do

(First draft. Requires a lot of editing to be readable)

This is first in a series of my dreams about what I would like to do if given a chance.

In the post I discuss the steps that I would like to take or would love to see the society take them.

My aim with improving the education system is mainly to enable kids to face the real world. This may require a trimming of a few courses while adding up a few extra. The kids in India are today so overloaded with single track study that it actually kills all the creativity and thinking power.

Till Class 8/10

If given a chance I would like to re-prioritize the courses in the following manner.

1. Language/ Communication

2. Mathematics/Analytical techniques

3. Yoga

4. Ethics

5. Computer Literacy/Education

6. Logical Reasoning

7. Science

8. Economics

9. Geography

10. Civics and Constitution

11. History and rest of Social Sciences

1. Language

The ability to communicate is the single most important trait of most of the successful persons. But, somehow I have a feeling that in recent years the curriculum is being designed in a manner which heavily favoring the comprehension part at the expense of writing/speaking capabilities. The way majority schools teach writing skills is.. all they expect you is to write few answers in the exam. There is no real push to improve the sentence formations, their sequencing, dramatization and use of complex phrases. I don't think that there was any substantial improvement in my writing skills from class 6th to 7th or to even 10th. There might have a been a little, but if I compare that to my learning in other subjects, say maths (think of algebra, trigonometry, statistics etc..), my improvement on language part was almost negligible. Basically, grading should be based on these parameters and not just correct English. The focus should be set on the above parameters even if that means covering just four short-stories a year (there could be a few more optional ones for more interested kids). The stories should be well selected ones based on their complexity and the intended teachings for the class.

2. Mathematics

This is one area where I feel that the curriculum is pretty good. Though the teaching quality varies according to the teachers (at times even our teachers aren't good communicators.. though I don't blame this to be the main reason but just wanted to site the importance of communication).

3. Yoga

The problem with implementing yoga in schools will be lack of infrastructure and instructors. But, we can start slowly and gradually try to reach everyone, including adults and senior citizens. Health improves one's efficiency and the more efficient the population is the more prosperous it will be.

4. Ethics

This is one subject (along with logical reasoning) which is very close to my heart. Firstly, I would like to clarify that I distinguish between something being legal/illegal vs it being ethical/unethical. Illegal activities are a subset of unethical activities. It may not be illegal to kick out your parents but can be termed unethical. It may not be illegal in certain cases to favor your kins while in a position of authority but may be unethical. A politician/officer may be able to purchase a piece of land at a cheaper price "legally" but given their public duty it may be unethical. The list can go on but I think that now the distinction between legal/illegal vs ethical/unethical is clear. Now coming to it being introduced in schools, I feel that we have a very urgent need of it. By urgency I don't mean to imply that our junta is unethical. But, in lack of formal guidelines we face dilemmas even for small issues. We at times tend to take the easier but possibly wrong route in such cases, may be because of laziness or lack of clarity. At other times, we develop a false sense of ethics, like the oft-seen justification of bribery by public officers infront of their friends and kins. This course may consist of few guidelines and standards along with stories. Simple questions may consist of description of a situation and may ask the examinee about his/her opinion. The situation can go on to become more complex or may be case study kinda by class 10th. Anyways, the curriculum needs to be designed fresh since I don't think that we ever had any such things. The closest thing I can think of is the Moral Science classes we used to have but even that never made us to think in very critical terms. What I want here is actually the branch of philosophy but we have to introduce it in a very application oriented manner and set guidelines.

5. Computer Literacy/Education

I don't dream of turning everyone into Knuth, but, they all should be comfortable in the use of computer. The way the popularity of computers is increasing, a large population will have computers in their homes and will be "computer literate". This 'computer literacy mission' is more needed in government schools and school where under-privileged stdents come in as they are more probable to lack computers at home. Beyond, computer literacy we have to introduce the concept of embedded systems along with the regular programming stuff kids are already doing in schools.

6. Logical Reasoning/Discourse

This is again something which has been badly neglected. Very often we find people who think of solutions and then try to find a way to prove it right, and most comically they never try to define the problem, which anyone can tell is not the correct way. But, unfortunately that is what most of us do daily. The simple reason is that we have never been formally trained to analyse things. We have never been trained to first find out the facts and then state the assumptions and the deduce something in steps. We usually love to take the opposite way. In fact, I have seen a lot of people who find it difficult to even distinguish assumptions/opinions from facts. At times an opinion of a journalist in a newspaper is misunderstood to be a fact, while at other times we fail to question our assumptions, assuming them to be facts. This again is a branch of philosophy that I wish to introduce into schools. Even here a fresh curriculum needs to be designed starting from simple situational based teaching to symbolic logic.

7. Science

Some people may argue that Science deserves a higher priority. I would like to clarify here that I don't want to take this thing out of the curriculum but just felt that there are things more important than understanding 'the law of conservation of energy'. In any case fre courses like yoga and computers are expected to be light weight courses and therefore science can very easily be sneaked into the curriculum without increasing the load on kids. Also, I fail to understand that without teaching students the observations skills, the ways to approach a problem etc, how can we expect them to understand scientific concepts. This is the reason that I have emphasized the need for a dedicated course on logical reasoning. This will enable more students to actually understand the scientific concepts. Needless to say that we need to incorporate more practicals in the curriculum.

8-11. Social Sciences

With all due apologies to the social scientists out there, I do feel that the subject doesn't actually deserve the kind of weightage that it currently gets. The simple reason is that a majority of our population doesn't need to know the Bronze age civilizations and Copper age civilizations. Their top-most priority is their own civilization and their current society. This is not to deny the fact that we don't need to tell our kids the story of our freedom struggle, but a lot of details can be stripped out and the syllabus can be trimmed.