EDUCATED ILLITERATE
Oh! What is this"Educated Illiterate" ? Who is this? This is me. This is you and many of us. We have degrees, we have tags but what we don't have is knowledge. I am a "proud" science student. Proud of choosing science stream, proud of being topper. But being topper doesn't guarantees that I am intelligent. But I am intelligent.Yes I am, but my intelligence has been transcended. I am neither an IITian nor a part of any reputed institute. I am a "MIDDLE CLASSian" who goes to a regular college, with middle class faculty. We are taught different things and their proofs and are instructed to do them all to score best, but where is my conceptual knowledge. It is lost somewhere. I am struggling hard to get into depth of all this but I can't.
Let me share with you a story. There is a friend of mine, educated from a government school of a village. She lacks conceptual knowledge but is very hardworking. She has passed her board exams through cheating (in state board exams cheating is a biggest menace), though she had spent many hours a day studying. And in graduation (with science subjects) she failed badly and opted for Humanities. She was not ignorant towards studies, she used to work very hard. But her conceptual base was very weak. They were having monthly family income of not more than 5000 , so she didn't have money to opt for tuitions. And the school where she studied focused more on thinking " How to help students cheat effectively during exams ?" rather than to build their knowledge base.So how could she get crystal clear concepts? Can Education be purchased through money alone? Those who have money can get admission in reputed institutes and get best quality education and those who don't have money have to be contended with the poor quality of it.
Who is responsible for such an educational system?
Teachers? They are just providing us what they have inherited. Even if we will become teachers we'll be providing the same quality of education (or a little better) because this is what we have.
Universities/Boards? They set easy papers and keep on repeating the same questions every year. But what else they can do? Tough papers mean failure of even more students and fall in reputation of Universities/Boards.
Government? Our centuries old habit of blaming government for everything. They are spending thousands of crores on education. They are doing much.
REALLY!! Is government,teachers, boards and universities not at all accountable for all this? I do agree that teachers may have inherited a poor conceptual knowledge but can't they improve it? Can't Universities/Boards leaving their reputation aside , think about betterment of students and increase their standards? Can't government along with grants and funds provide proper education policy, syllabus planning and action plan? Instead of focusing only on enrolment in schools and colleges, Can't quality of education be focused alongwith? Can't government schools be brought at par with elite private schools? The intent of "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan" should be "Sarvotch (सर्वोच्च ) Shiksha Abhiyan", only then there will be true enlightenment.
India's literacy rate has risen up over years but "Educated Illiteracy" has also quadrupled. We struggle hard to get knowledge. We attend 7-8 hours long college lectures to get 75% attendance, then study for rest of hours to get good grades, then rush out for gaining conceptual knowledge through various means and also prepare for competitive exams to make our career.What else we can do? What else can be done? Does anyone have any idea? If yes then please tell me. Am I the only Educated Illiterate or there are many like me?
Let me share with you a story. There is a friend of mine, educated from a government school of a village. She lacks conceptual knowledge but is very hardworking. She has passed her board exams through cheating (in state board exams cheating is a biggest menace), though she had spent many hours a day studying. And in graduation (with science subjects) she failed badly and opted for Humanities. She was not ignorant towards studies, she used to work very hard. But her conceptual base was very weak. They were having monthly family income of not more than 5000 , so she didn't have money to opt for tuitions. And the school where she studied focused more on thinking " How to help students cheat effectively during exams ?" rather than to build their knowledge base.So how could she get crystal clear concepts? Can Education be purchased through money alone? Those who have money can get admission in reputed institutes and get best quality education and those who don't have money have to be contended with the poor quality of it.
Who is responsible for such an educational system?
Teachers? They are just providing us what they have inherited. Even if we will become teachers we'll be providing the same quality of education (or a little better) because this is what we have.
Universities/Boards? They set easy papers and keep on repeating the same questions every year. But what else they can do? Tough papers mean failure of even more students and fall in reputation of Universities/Boards.
Government? Our centuries old habit of blaming government for everything. They are spending thousands of crores on education. They are doing much.
REALLY!! Is government,teachers, boards and universities not at all accountable for all this? I do agree that teachers may have inherited a poor conceptual knowledge but can't they improve it? Can't Universities/Boards leaving their reputation aside , think about betterment of students and increase their standards? Can't government along with grants and funds provide proper education policy, syllabus planning and action plan? Instead of focusing only on enrolment in schools and colleges, Can't quality of education be focused alongwith? Can't government schools be brought at par with elite private schools? The intent of "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan" should be "Sarvotch (सर्वोच्च ) Shiksha Abhiyan", only then there will be true enlightenment.
India's literacy rate has risen up over years but "Educated Illiteracy" has also quadrupled. We struggle hard to get knowledge. We attend 7-8 hours long college lectures to get 75% attendance, then study for rest of hours to get good grades, then rush out for gaining conceptual knowledge through various means and also prepare for competitive exams to make our career.What else we can do? What else can be done? Does anyone have any idea? If yes then please tell me. Am I the only Educated Illiterate or there are many like me?
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ReplyDeletei think i am also a educated illiterate if you ever get any idea to get rid of it then please share it with me.
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear there is someone like me.Yes definitely I will tell you if I would ever get any practical solution for this
DeleteI like your article MJ.Kaur... After reading your this article i can also say that I am also an Educated Illiterate. And i think not only me and you but there are so many students in the country who feel that they have the knowledge but they don't have the conceptual knowledge. I think now a days it become necessary that government should improve quality of education so that our future generation will not say that they are also "Educated Illiterate ". On anyhow if you get any idea to get rid of it then plzz share!!!
ReplyDeleteQuality of education is okay but the way it is provided is not all right. We are being taught the same things that are taught in world's best universities. But the way of teaching is not good and emphasis on conceptual clarity is not there. In our examinations we are asked to just derive theorems not to apply them.
DeleteThe solution is internet and books from where we can gain much. But the thing is for the sake of 75% attendance 80% of our day's productive hours get wasted. And we are left with few hours in which we have to prepare for our exams as well. So we are left with little time to run for conceptual clarity.🙁🙁
That's great. Thank u
DeleteThat's great. Thank u
Delete