Question

List out four drawback s of modern education
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Answer 1

The common perception of the school system is that it is a factory that takes in meat at one end and churns out sausages at the other. The grade is a function of how much a particular sausage looks and feels and performs its function to be absorbed by society.

As for solutions. Firstly, let children study what they want to outside a core curriculum. One could argue that is an expensive proposition. However today there are more than 30 million students of MOOCs so in terms of content that education could not be that bad. A school only needs to facilitate that opportunity.

Secondly, children need to use their education for practical pursuits so when they graduate they can do something useful that earns them a living. In spite of all the 80 and 90 percent grades that we see, FICCI in its 2013 Vision 2030 report said that only 10% of general graduates and 25% of engineers and MBAs are employable. The point is that our current education system is not fit either for higher academic education or for jobs.

Thirdly, let children do projects and record the work that they do and create a portfolio of that work - some of which should be done individually and some in teams. Let that be the basis for subsequent selection rather than exams for which students start preparing in Grade 8, thereby wasting 4 years of their adolescent life when the learning potential is greatest IF education is properly rendered.

The future bodes change and challenges. Our children need to think out of the box. Even Mathematics is no longer a question of solving a quadratic equation. It is an issue related to taking a practical problem, modeling a solution, testing that solution and understanding the sensitivity of the parameters.

Our education system is NOT providing the environment for thinking out of the box. The fact that the Patidar high caste community is seeking reservations for Govt. jobs and PhDs are applying for jobs as peons tells us that something needs to be urgently done. Technology will rob us of 70% of jobs because they will more reliably done by machines.