First NEET exam was cancelled, then CBSE results and revaluation problems made the students cry. The Supreme Court has strongly reprimanded NTA in the NEET case. But is anyone paying attention to the fundamental flaw in our entire education system? There are at least three trends which put this education system in danger. The first thing is that we have made examinations synonymous with education. Education is just about taking exams. Whereas many corruptions in education start from examinations – many inequities also. The difference between good and bad schools, tuition, coaching, paper leaks, efforts to increase marks – all this does not happen if there are no examinations. But the question is, if there are no examinations then what should be the method of evaluation of education. Why should children study and why should teachers teach? In fact, this very question makes it clear how much we have limited the purpose of education – it has become just a means of getting marks. While education should be an autonomous thing in itself – it should plant the seeds of information, sensitivity and concern in children or students – it can also lead them towards knowledge and expertise. The teacher can take the responsibility to ensure that the children have completed the class studies and can move on to the next class. In such a situation, no one will come first or fail. At present, the teacher merely plays the role of an agent, who conveys information from a pre-determined textbook to the children in such a way that they can convert it into numbers. But our complete dependence on examinations is so much that we are not even ready to think in this direction. The second crisis of education is its excessive centralization. Till some time ago, the boards of different states were mainly responsible for the education of their children, but gradually they have become almost irrelevant and are being used only by the government schools for the resource-less and marginalized children. Whereas the misleading concept of one nation, one education has spread from bottom to top in such a way that it seems that this will bring equality in education. Earlier also children used to take admission in colleges, but now they have to go through examinations like CUET and for this also a business called coaching has started. Earlier too, people used to study medicine and proved to be excellent doctors without any competition, but the attempt at excessive centralization has made this entire admission process very doubtful. The third crisis is the half-baked technicisation of education and examinations. It was during the Covid era that we found out how huge the ‘digital divide’ has created inequity in online classes. Now children are facing the havoc of OSM i.e. On Screen Marking System in CBSE examinations. Was the evaluation process already in place flawed? Are our teachers not worthy enough that we can even trust them with proper evaluation? This is the real thing. We have made the teacher, who is the most important link in education, almost invisible and redundant. Shiksha Mitras are being used like gig workers. At a time when the school system in India was not so well organized, it was these teachers or gurus who brought out many promising generations – from their hands came our doctors, engineers, writers, artists, scientists. But now that we have made many arrangements, the teacher itself has been sidelined. If we continue to ignore the basic questions, then neither the scams in the name of education will end nor will our education system become a medium to produce better human beings or professionals. But who will think in this direction? (These are the author’s own views)
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Priyadarshan’s column: So much in our education system "Why are there ‘examinations’?
