Education: the System and its ‘Lollipops’

Education is a word which mostly discussed by ‘educated’ people, as being educated they can acclaim the authority over the understanding of it. With the process of urbanization the middle class mind set has changed over the years. Small town parents allow their daughters to live in hostels or paying guests in order to seek better education thus the opportunities. Marriageable boys seek for educated girls and educated girls look for educated in-law’s family besides an educated groom. 

So, what the ‘education’ is all about? Is education means obtaining the academic degrees which could generate a source of income? Or source of income can only be generated by an academic degree? The first is a question here and obviously the rest two are not the answers. This Sunday morning while putting earphones into my quenchless ears, as they hardly get to hear radio jockey’s voice these days, fortunately found Kailash Kher’s interview to listen. A self taught singer who doesn’t need to be introduced. It is said about Kailash that the way Eklavya became adept into archery by watching only to Guru Dronacharya doing it; similarly he has accomplished himself as a singer by listening to music.

Singer Kailash Kher

One could love the words when kailash said, ‘there are two kinds of people in world, one is ‘padhe hue’ (educated) and another is ‘garhe hue’ (chiseled). But are educated ones not the chiseled? Or chiseled ones didn’t need any education? These are the questions to be analyzed and answered. Etymologically the word ‘education’ is derived from Latin word ‘educatio’ which means a breeding. Few educationists say that it came from Latin term ‘educatum’ meaning the act of teaching or training, and according to few others,  the word has originated from another Latin word ‘educare’ which means ‘to bring up’ or ‘to raise’. All these meanings indicate that education seeks to nourish the good qualities in human and draw out the best in every individual. Education seeks to develop the innate capacities of man.

And to fulfill this purpose the society and government establishes institutions like schools and universities providing various curriculums and different subject lines. It is not different than our ancient ‘gurukuls’, the thing is after British rule India were introduced a western education system by Britishers, by founding a plenty of institutions which continues till the date. The question is, ‘are the institutions imparting the exigencies to the nation successfully?’ The answer may be ‘yes’ or ‘no’ but the need to analyze the ‘system’ of academic institutes is felt inevitably.

The questions of education have much floated in my thinking process, not because I consider myself educated but because I came from a business based family, where education were not given any importance. In which boys are considered to adapt according to parental business, which doesn’t require any ‘outside’ learning, as it can be transferred hereditarily. And why do girls need to do something ‘outside’? when they would be married to ‘well doing’ guys, those can avail all ‘crownery’ facilities to them. Although there were no estoppels if anyone wished to pursue something ‘outside’ but anyone should come ahead to have the experience of the ‘air’.

But ‘air’ like ‘art’ is something in which all can’t enjoy breathing. A passion only can lead to one to do so. Although during my earlier bachelor degree, I don’t remember whether I had any passion for art. But one thing was clear to me that I won’t be able to sit at home ever enjoying the stuffs availed by an opposite gender called ‘husband’, I wanted to see and experience the world containing both goods and bads. So it was the passion towards ‘work’ which was obviously the academic studies that time.

I don’t recall my school days much as comparatively being less attached to that time. Although I was a class topper student in school, participating almost in all the activities, but the reason of less attachment was may be because it was not a 'specialization' based course. Afterwards during my BA, I used to sit in second or sometimes in front row in classroom and till the end of the first year was quite less noticed girl. But the academic result at the end of the year, brought sudden changes to me, and I was noticed by my professors and also by peers. An interest towards active participation in various competitions held at college campus was raised (mostly because of the creative interests). And right from the BA second year (it was 2002), I was getting more and more involved with academics and extra-curriculars, which started giving me an insight into the importance of education.

Here, education for me was an outside learning, which I could not obtain at home, although I believe that the capacity of grasping something good by a pursuant of any educational institute depends on his/her pedigreed personality also.  An educator or teacher can affect it at some extent, as for me all my teachers’ especially of all three colleges swaddles an immortal place around the heart, even if I couldn’t able to believe in their ideas at times. They believed in me so I believed in me, they expected something so I tried to complete that expectation, otherwise I had no one who could have faith in me or could spent any amount of expectation over me.

I didn’t ever think of getting a merit at state level in Bachelor of Arts, but it was Hindi Literature's professor Dr. Madhurima Singh’s words when she said to me, ‘every degree topper’s name is written on inerasable board with the father’s name, makes you and your teachers proud, you should think on it’. I thought on it and achieved that also but why my name could not appear on that board, is a different story. I don’t want to recall the stories containing unpleasant memories but those memories showed somewhere a morbid face of education.

Although I was living the most ‘attached’ years to my work place during graduation days, but the ‘real attached’ years started with the entry into Fine Art College by starting a BFA in Painting. The first year of BFA made me realize that for first time I have taken a right decision to come up with a ‘skill’ based subject after circumambulation around medical science and arts. Now whatever I was doing, it was the self exploration and fabrication of the rusted capacities. Throughout the first three years I put all my efforts as a obedient student, acclaiming the tag of most ‘sincere’ student not even of the class, but of institute, obtaining the best student award of the initial years and becoming a topper of the academics. But nearly to the end of the BFA all the tokens of ‘sincerity’ started seeming like ‘lollipops’. Lollipops are the attractive candies, generally given to kids for propitiating and to make them deviate from their real obstinacy. 

Token of hardworks should not be considered as ‘lollipops’, but if I felt so it had the reasons. Our academic structure or the treatment of teachers tells students to explore their capacities. But in every professional course there are the fields in which every student need ‘introduction’ along with ‘exploration’. Exploration can be to a thing/quality which one already has, but what about that which one doesn’t have but hold an extreme need of it?, which called introduction. For example if a fine art student is good at work but not communicative, S/he would be facing a problem of suppression and depression at her/his most ‘energetic’ age. Similarly if another student is good at communication but cannot sit for a while and work, there will be no meaning of that communication.

And I have seen educators boosting the capacities of students which they already have, but they are neglected where they needs their teacher’s belief. If a teacher keeps confidence on a student’s ability, even if there is a lack of it, students get a plenty of confidence to acquire that lacked one. After all, Education is not about the development of innate potential only; it is about an overall development of the personality. And a person having a negative overtone to a wider structure is ultimately suppressed and depressed by his own failures, can’t become a real educator. Pursuant should learn all the qualities of head, hand and heart through the process of education. And lacking of the ‘introduction’ part all tokens of the patient hardwork may seem like ‘lollipops’. Because lollipops are given to you in order to remain yourself as you are, almost making you forget the mulishness which is not always bad. Having those lollipops into hands one could be ‘honest’ to the limitations of a structure called institution but cannot ever capable to walk over a path which leads to an ‘ambitious’ and open pursuit. 

Another biggest problem of educators is trying to make students a believer of their ideas rather than to give freedom to explore their own creativity. Abided within someone’s influence cannot give birth to a fundamental and seminal personality. It can generate only the followers and ‘following’ to someone and ‘trained’ by someone are two diverse things. And a student should feel proud to tell the world that by whom S/he has trained despite of feeling satisfied by following someone. In the time of social networking sites which provides us more easily accessible options of ‘follow’ it’s a bit tough to save the soul by influences.  

Being an educator, I have also seen educators running into a race of becoming a ‘best teacher’. Institutionally the best teachers are those who make their students to score high. And every teacher wants his/her student to score high, by assigning newer projects and more homework to them. But no one can manage to think for a while from a student’s side. If all subject teachers would be assigning and pressurizing for his/her subject’s work, what will happen to an individual called ‘student’? S/he would not be less than a restrained donkey. In this process teachers are not erroneous but system is. If a system would restrain an educator, the educator would restrain the student. And if we don’t want to continue the chain we will have to change the ‘system’ from where the chain begins.

Now let me try to attempt the answer of the question of ‘padhe hue’ and ‘garhe hue’, from where I started writing. I feel ‘educated’ and ‘chiseled’ are two interrelated terms, if education is not considered the only knowledge obtained at a specific place or institution. As books and educators need not be necessarily appendage of any institution or curriculum. At certain level curriculum has its own importance, it frames the working criteria which can bring both positive and negative aspects. By emphasizing on to necessary framing and bringing him/herself out of the limitation of curriculum, a student can do best with it. Because education not only comes from the books and institutional teachers, they are the path showers, the guides and the trainers, but most important knowledge and experience one gain by socializing in life, thus the end of an academic education should lead another education, that is the real aim of education.