Evidence that the school system in India just crams an unnecessary amount of junk into children's heads. Further exacerbating the centuries old divides between upper and lower caste/class. Any child interested in taking up a skill based vocation just isn't going to have the patience to deal with that much bullshit - which explains our high rate of dropouts after grades 5 and 8. For those who stick on, cramming all this crap requires a fantastic support system at home and in school. All this leads to admissions to coveted publicly funded universities being heavily skewed in favour of the urban middle and upper classes.
30% of the syllabus is just easily dispensable! Take history. Romila Thapar has single handedly murdered a love for history amongst generations of Indians. The level of unnecessary detail in NCERT history books from grades 6 to 10, with a complete lack of big picture analysis of "what the heck is going on here". History without storytelling; just an endless stream of events and facts.
My children have the privilege and good fortune of studying under an international board. The focus is on skills and learning; outcomes, if you will. Nilay recently interacted with a friend studying in a regular Indian school, under an Indian board, similar grade level. He was taken aback. Its just more and more syllabus. Mountains of it. But what is the child learning and retaining? Where are the skills? Where is the time to chew on what you've learnt, apply it to life.
All of May, Kavin and I were hounded by Nilay. Same question every day, "When am I ever going to come across a trapezoid in real life? Why do I need to know how to calculate it's area." He now realises that in the CBSE ocean, the trapezoid is but one meaningless drop.
इस देश में कृष्णमूर्ति और विवेकानंद बोल बोल के थक मर गए। Efforts have been made, from नई तालीम to NIOS, but nothing makes the all powerful CBSE, ICSE and state boards budge. After all, a simplification of education would open the floodgates to college education for everybody. The boards are the gatekeepers. The UP board used to pride itself in being idiotically hard to pass; I don't know what the situation is these days.
30% of the syllabus is just easily dispensable! Take history. Romila Thapar has single handedly murdered a love for history amongst generations of Indians. The level of unnecessary detail in NCERT history books from grades 6 to 10, with a complete lack of big picture analysis of "what the heck is going on here". History without storytelling; just an endless stream of events and facts.
My children have the privilege and good fortune of studying under an international board. The focus is on skills and learning; outcomes, if you will. Nilay recently interacted with a friend studying in a regular Indian school, under an Indian board, similar grade level. He was taken aback. Its just more and more syllabus. Mountains of it. But what is the child learning and retaining? Where are the skills? Where is the time to chew on what you've learnt, apply it to life.
All of May, Kavin and I were hounded by Nilay. Same question every day, "When am I ever going to come across a trapezoid in real life? Why do I need to know how to calculate it's area." He now realises that in the CBSE ocean, the trapezoid is but one meaningless drop.
इस देश में कृष्णमूर्ति और विवेकानंद बोल बोल के थक मर गए। Efforts have been made, from नई तालीम to NIOS, but nothing makes the all powerful CBSE, ICSE and state boards budge. After all, a simplification of education would open the floodgates to college education for everybody. The boards are the gatekeepers. The UP board used to pride itself in being idiotically hard to pass; I don't know what the situation is these days.