EDUCATION SYSTEM

One of the most commonly heard changes if required in India is often cited as change in the education system where more stress should be laid on the practical and applied knowledge rather than images of scanned books pasted in the brains which may get washed away at any instant. From the basic elementary education where children are made to learn or the better word would be cram the tables in mathematics since class 1 without actually knowing their meaning and importance.

If a child is born with a gifted intelligence which is diagnosed nearly at the age of 3-4 years then either he is termed to be a psycho or his intelligence is corroded away by over burdened but least fruitful bookish studies. On other side various countries like USA, UK, Korea, China, Japan have just produced an excellent class of engineers, doctors, scientists and other professionals because they never force a child to stick to the books and syllabus.Children in these countries are allowed to explore their thoughts with proper facilities being provided to them.

Apart from practical knowledge a new burden of getting admission into so called prestigious institutes have been also loaded on the heads of children. A mindset has been created that today instead of exploring a child is forcefully made to say that he wants to be an engineer from IIT, doctor from AIIMS or a graduate from SRCC, Presidency college or many other prestigious colleges of Delhi University or University of Calcutta. Even after getting into these colleges the burden is not over. The student has to maintain at least 85 percent attendance and 100 percent flattery of teachers to ensure good marks.

As discussed with one of my teachers what he suggests is that there should be no compulsory attendance. The theory part of the syllabus should carry just 30 percent marks while the remaining 30 percent marks should be based on the research done by student on that particular subject and the project report prepared on it. Professionals should be tested on the basis of their practical knowledge rather than the bookish knowledge. This is the only way by which an excellent quality of professionals can be produced rather than what Indian education system is currently producing which are just equal to living machines.

Is it Reservation?!?!?!

Since 26th January, 1950 when the constitution of India came into existence by the extraordinary efforts of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, a controversy also came into existence simultaneously. Whether the people belonging to scheduled castes, backward classes and many other unprivileged sections of society should be given reservation in various fields. The immediate answer to this question then was YES!!!,for the betterment of the people belonging to these sections of the society. Moreover it was also one of the special objectives of Mahatma Gandhi to which he called 'Harijan Utthaan'.

Coming across the same query after six decades of the constitution it feels as it is no more for the unprivileged sections of the society. Now it seems to be the worst mistake committed by the makers of the constitution. The reason for the above statement is that these days, the actual beneficiaries of this reservation policy are the children of bureaucrats, top class civil services officers, richest businessmen and best technocrats. The policy which then provided benefit to the weaker most sections of the society is now providing the same benefits to the heirs of people who had been provided benefit earlier and now carry a standard of living as well as social standard equivalent to the standard of higher classes of the society. Now they belong to the lower castes only for the sake of name and added advantages.

The children of poor slum dwellers, garbage-men, sweepers are still not able to avail the benefits of the reservation policy just because of the people pf their on caste who are much richer than them, can afford quality education and best facilities and also carry the advantage of reservation policy using which they grab the best opportunities meant for the up-liftment  of the poor weaker sections of the society, nullifying the sole cause of reservation.

Apart from these poor children, many other sections of the society have also been neglected. They do not have family love, they can not avail quality education, they do not have any family background which could have helped in their betterment and that is why these children have to live life equal to hell and on the mercy of others. If the government is an effective one, not the one which just cares for its vote bank, then they should immediately change the reservation policy for SC/ST/BC/OBC stating if a generation of a family has successfully availed the reservation benefits then their further generations will be considered in the general category. A special reservation policy should be started for the orphans also. Else, the day is not far when the general category will be the reserved one. 

Handicapped or Disabled

The words sound much familiar, and in a layman language they are quiet often classified as synonyms but technically speaking from my point of view the two words carry a significance which is poles apart from each other. Disabled as the word says in itself may be termed as inability of an individual due to any physical or mental problems or diseases.

Talking in terms of disability it may be natural or may be caused due to an accident. Disability up to some extent is unavoidable and is not hands of an individual. Them main difference that lies between disability and handicapped is the attitude or approach of the affected person. In disability the case that is generally reffered is one's desire to perform a task but continuous failures in achieving that task due to his physical or mental standards, though the person has given his cent percent physical and mental dedication during his performance.

On the other hand handicapped may just be defined as a state of mind of an individual and his negative approach to perform a task just by giving the excuse of his disability or sometimes without the excuse. Just to  clarify my above mentioned points i would like to illustrate the article with two real life examples that I saw and which may properly describe the both states.

In my history class during school days i witnessed an incident when ink in the white board marker of the teacher finished. The very next thing she spoke to us was to arrange a marker as she was feeling handicapped without the marker and will not be able to explain us further until she has it. It clearly showed her negative approach describing her handicapped behavior as she could have at-least tried to explain the topic verbally without use of marker until it was arranged rather than sitting and killing time.

Talking about disability, in the annual techno-cultural festival of my college held last year, on the closing night a performance was given by a mentally disabled child on sikh martial arts in front of a massive crowd of 20,000. His words post performance were " I have really forgotten today that I am a disabled one. As of I have been told, every child is special and so am I".