(24 Sept ‘06)
Read in the newspapers
of a girl who jumped to her death because she found the CBSE maths exam too
tough. That’s what she wrote in her suicide note. She wanted half an hour more
to finish her work in. This particular exam was her third attempt. I don’t see
how half an hour extra would have helped her. If she hadn’t cleared it again,
she’d have asked for an hour extra maybe? And would that have made her good at
the subject? Not in the least. (If stretching timings were to make a person
good at something, I’d be a genius of sorts by now). What she needed to do was
to have dropped the subject completely if she didn’t have an aptitude for it
and take another, possibly a vocational one. It’s easy to blame the system. How
many parents/teachers are aware of what vocational subjects are offered? How
many take them? Fact is, the system has catered for all categories of students.
It’s up to us to make use of the facilities. If the facilities aren’t
available, by all means fight for them. It’s we who aren’t using what’s being
offered. We want our children to be good in maths although we know they’ve
inherited our brains and abilities. Blaming the CBSE won’t help. Diluting the
syllabus won’t help either.
The disability sector
has often harped upon integrating children with blindness, deafness,
spasticity, autism, with normal children in normal schools. Certainly, that
must happen. A handicap shouldn’t prevent a person from education, from using
his/her talents and earning a living. But do we provide the schools with the
infrastructure, the specially trained teachers to handle such students? Don’t
blame the government; the law allows for all kinds of students and the training
for the teachers, too. Like all laws, it’s the enforcement that’s the problem,
and that’s where the lay public comes in. We must ask for our rights. When we
do so, we have to be reasonable about it. And firm. Again, don’t lower the
standards of any institution, provide the staff and equipment to allow those
with handicaps to deal with the standard. Demand it.
One thing I can’t
understand is the insistence on clubbing all children together. Earlier on,
children who were smarter, more intelligent, more talented, were put together.
The medium ones were put in a different section so the teachers could
concentrate on pulling them up. Those lagging behind needed more patience,
extra attention, and thus they were put together, too. That way, by not mixing
up all talents, children could be better guided, and they flourished with
whatever capability they had.
I could give a parallel example. Can we club together all sorts of
children in sports? Every sport has a different requirement. Some need
endurance, some bursts of speed. Some need flexibility, others co-ordination.
Can we expect everyone to run together at the same speeds? Play the same games?
Unless one competes, one can’t improve. And the competition must be superior.
This is true of studies, too. Just as if a person isn’t good in sports he
doesn’t moan but carries on with something else, so also, if a person isn’t
good in studies, instead of considering it to be the end of the world, s/he
should try another route to earn a living. Ending a life isn’t the answer and
neither is diluting the levels of education. It’s time we accepted that college
education isn’t for everyone. That carpenters, plumbers, technicians, wardboys
don’t need to be as bright as neurosurgeons or fighter pilots. We have to value
their jobs, they are as professional as the others. Dilution of education is
not the answer. Proper channeling of talents is.
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