assume you are the education minister and write a diary entry about the present days education
Answers
Shuffle my cabinet before proposing any projects. The young and talented people would be priorities in my list.
The first law that I will make will be no homework at all. All kinds of revisions must be completed in the school itself and a compulsory one-hour sports time will be allocated in schools. It will increase the school time but surely will keep the burden away from children. Also, whichever school does not follow these rules, may have their recognition cancelled.
Keep some time aside to go to some villages and talk to all the parents about the importance of educating girls. I’d also tell these girls the benefits of being educated. I’ll happily allocate a budget to make schools in these places as often the existing schools are too far and parents don’t want their children to travel so much every day.
I’d insist on fewer kids in every class / school and better quality of education. Will ask teachers to adopt fun teaching techniques that involve games like Hangman to teach spellings. I’d tell the teachers that they don’t need to be strict to get results. I’ll make everyone understand the fact that beating punishment will not solve anything and love works better.
I’ll try to increase the salaries of teachers in municipal schools so that they are motivated enough to be better teachers. I’ll also set up plans to open free tuition classes for the underprivileged students and utilise the government’s funds constructively.
Revise examination format. Instead of just the usual type of tests with obvious answers at times, questionnaires would require students to critically think about the solutions. Emphasis would be put on gaining a practical learning experience and not just mugging up. There would also be a reduction in the number of term exams to two a year for all classes in schools instead of the current system of three. It could reduce the load on the students and give them some breathing room to explore other talents.
Teachers would be sent for workshops and renewal classes to keep them updated and to learn new methods of teaching, thus avoiding the monotony.
The number of books carried by students will be made less. There would be one big textbook for all the subjects.
Admissions to schools would be through merit or entrance. There would be no compulsory interview or tests for kids in the preschool levels. Giving and taking of donations would be considered a crime and the ones involved in it would be strictly punished