Need top bosses to rethink education system

Representation pic

Minister of School Education in Maharashtra Deepak Kesarkar addressed a compact audience on the sidelines of a trailer release of a Marathi film, slated to hit theatres in the state on December 2. This was the release of the trailer, not the film.

At the function which took place earlier this week on Children's Day, the minister spoke about education and children especially. His statement which resonated sharply, as he gave a personal example, was that children as young as four years old were taking tuitions instead of using that time playing outdoors and growing as individuals.

While this was part of his short address, the ramifications were huge. The minister of school education himself was stating the hard truth - tuitions are literally run like a parallel truth, and parents, pressed to the wall, are sending very young children for tuitions or coaching so that they have that little edge over others.

We do live in a competitive world and education is one facet of that. Yet, there should be something wrong in a system if families feel compelled to send their three-, four- or five-year-old children for tuitions.

Since it is the minister himself who talked about this, he has thought about this. It is time for those in power, those who have the ability to bring about a change in small doses maybe, to start introspecting and acting.

Change the system so that such young children do not have to take tuitions. Even older kids are literally attending two schools, one is the regular institution and the other, coaching classes. There needs to be an overhaul at school level.

From ‘donations' for getting into schools to scoring 100 per cent even in subjective, language exams, it is those at the top who need to sit down and address the malaise of this system as they have the power to do so.