ramkiwonders

There is an air of uncertainty looming large in the air, as you walk around; the faces that you get to see are pale, twitched with immeasurable fear burdening their hearts and minds constantly. They reach for their wipers now and then that are already drenched with not just sweat but also threat. Their thoughts with passing moments become increasingly tense to say the least. This is what today’s education means to a majority of the lot who look up to it as a way to come up in life but nevertheless get submerged in the intriguing complexities, constrains and compulsions that time poses to them coupled with the rhetoric beamed upon them now and then that lack common sense to put it mildly.

Education is synonymous with the examination system that has over years if not become an unconquerable monster has assumed proportions deadly enough at times. It has turned out to be a double-edged sword where tightrope walking is the order of the day. In some cases it assumes the role of arsenic quelling the special attributes imbibed in every person that gets washed away under the guise of importance surmounted upon academic brilliance. This overbearing weightage bottled
upon studies is heading for an immortal status that can be toppled only by a miracle nothing more than common sense coupled with logic and preparedness to view the road ahead with some forethought.

It is rather a comical paradox that all the hype and hoopla infested upon unmatchable grades that one is expected to pick for himself even if it be from institutes of
excellence only results in him being called a coolie ,a “cyber coolie” to be precise. It is an imperative truth floundering in the open for everyone to see that the glint in the white man’s skin has not whittled away and all talks of equality are only tantrums etched on flowing water.

Coming back to our agenda, it is of utmost importance that we realize that trekking on a path of discomfort is not as wrong and unfulfilling as doing it when it is amply clear that it is not going to lead us in the right way. It would be better to study the missing link and fix it.

One of the basic truths of nature is ‘change’ and it is queer enough to note that the educative process has been immune to it in the sense that it has been evaluative, informative and all but educative. If one really wonders the validity of this point a survey would suffice to ratify the number of successes in educative terms i.e. gaining a degree but are ‘living failures’ considering the practical aspects of life.

To dig deeper into the filth would only one learn the eternal imprints of truth as once Andrew Carnegie remarked

“When you go digging for gold, you have to move tons of
dirt to get an ounce of gold. But when you go digging, you
don’t go looking for the dirt you go looking for the gold”

The three angles from which any student is analyzed are potential, expectations and performance. Of these potential is a common factor that is not out in the fore and only performance circumvents into all three categories explaining what one’s capability is and how the expectations from various quarters get addressed. Often these expectations become the bane. Sometimes they are not in line with the interest or potential and this gets reflected in performance as pressure inundates into the performing minds .It is when the equilibrium between these three qualitative factors that the quantitative nature of them prevails. After all quality too does have a parameter unlike in case of soft drinks sold in the country.

Having analyzed the scenario, the obvious question follows. What needs to be done? The answer lies in a ‘holistic’ approach. Realization needs to dawn upon all those related to education that ‘academics’ is only the face of education. If this
truth becomes a part of our lives then sudden bursts of illogical ,unwarranted unifocal importance for academics will wean away and so with it will the “ghosts” procreated by us.

Education must help one find his feet and at the same time inculcate values in him to have his feet firmly on the ground.