GURUKUL FORGOTTEN

Ancient India had a feature rich civilisation of which, we the present day heirs are proud of( the indian pledge)and would, atleast in principle, be ready to give an arm and leg to go back in the golden past.
However, it has become an integral feature of the average and elite indian's persona to blame the loss of that rich learning experience to an entity called the "GOVERNMENT".

And before you dismiss me as some nutter let me tell u that this post intends to pick up a bone with those filthy hypocritical authorities concerned who say that the educational system(in india) needs to be reformed but eventually dish out the same old wine in the same old bottle with a new label.
Learning they say is an continuous process. If that is so, why does a 2 or 3 hour test decide what label am i going to be stamped with for the rest of my life?

In a world flooded with information do we really need a educational set up which tests our memorising skills rather than equipping us for the real challenges that lay ahead.
and NO! i am not making mere baseless points here.
Just so that you realise let us consider a specific case::
SCHOOLS:
i personally feel that a lot of our precious time is wasted in these temples of learning if u can really call them that.
learning by heart is no doubt an essential feature in the learning process atleast in the first 4 or 5 years of learning where in the child learns the alphabet and the number system and its role in distinguishing the race to which he belongs from the other creatures that live with us on this blue planet.
but even here i dont see the point in subjecting the kid to a year end exam on the pretext of testing whether he has imbibed what has been taught in the classroom. If the child has learnt his lesson wouldn't it be obvious when he shows a strong liking for certain subjects. of course, tests are essential to identify one's weak areas and work on them but what a terminal exam does is that not only does it spot the mistakes, it also makes sure that whether they are rectified or not, the scars of failure are very well documented in the form of marklists.
People who counter this observation of mine by saying that this would teach the child the price he or she will have to pay for his inability to learn from his mistakes are in my opinion angelically positive thinkers and that they should be packed of to a planet of much higher value than the one we inhabit.
come board exams and the student is reminded and rightly so that his performance here will decide how many options he will allow himself on the career path ahead.
my bone of contention here is that at this level where the student is at the end of his schooling the system, at least the present one plays no role whatsoever in teaching her/him to recognize what his passions are. Though my readers might say i am being a bit unfair(or may be more than a bit) when i demand of the system thus, i beg to differ because i know that there exists amongst us a section of people( and they are in majority) who would swear that had their creative side been not dampened by this system of "rote for the 3 hour grill" they surely would have been pursuing a more fruitful and satisfying career surely would have contributed in a much better manner then they are now. I believe them......because I am one of them.

What really catches my goat is the fact that there are people out there who cant and probably will never make any significant contribution to the country's brain bank but who nevertheless will be raking in the moolah.

COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY: This level of learning( lets make the IITs and NITs an exception)in india is just an repackaged form of the 3 hour rote.
if engg colleges are taken as an example, they happen to churn out engineers who have been termed by industries home and abroad as "UNEMPLOYABLE".
I fail to understand why does the need for a written theory paper arise here???
If the student is to be given a sound technical education, stress has to be laid on how he manages to realise and grasp the physical significance of the various principles involved.
I wonder how in a space of 3 hours the examining body thinks it can test the student.
Atleast at the university level a graded approach should be followed and by this process i definitely do not mean awarding grades for a 3 hour exam instead of marks.
By a graded approach what i want to project is a system of learning in which the examinations should continuously identify the student's strong areas and help him work on the weaker ones instead of just making his mistakes appear on a markslist.
bottomline:: let the student be able to apply his learning to a more practical problem rather than quote lines out of a text book onto his answer sheet.

bottom line::terminal exams which hand over a permanent grade to a student are of no use and suppress talent which the nation badly needs.
there are better ways of evaluating a individuals worth than a stupid 3 hour exam which rote learners can bypass inspite of their inability to grasp the significance of what they have read( i dare not say learnt!!)