Dr. Ashok Patel How many of the ones you learned in school do you use? A study says that about 70 percent of what is taught in school is not used. So the question is, why waste time and money by teaching this 70 percent? Instead of that 70 percent, the result would have been better if it had been taught to be useful in life. This can also be asked to the educationists, the director of education or the education minister who has formulated the policy of education, how much of what you were taught in school was useful to you in life? Where did you use Pythagoras' rule? Where did you use different atomic formulas? Used organs and extensions in your life? So why make others suffer what you have suffered? If one examines the school curriculum today, one will find many things which are not useful in daily life. Yes, maybe two-five percent students will find it useful. So why is it being taught to the remaining 95-98 percent of students? If we consider the interest of education and children, we should teach them what they want to be, so that they can use it in the future. But our weakness is that we have not been able to create facilities for those who want to study. Our ethos of education is that, even though everyone has different strengths and interests, learning is equal for all. What is the point of teaching algebra and trigonometry to those who are not going to be doctors or engineers in the future? An academically weak child wants to get a job as a driver after studying in class 10. To become a driver, there is a government rule that one must pass class 10. As it happens, Maths, Science and English subjects have been made so difficult in class 9th and 10th that even if the child takes the exam twenty-two times instead of twice, he may not get the desired result. The makers of our textbooks have gone so far that, ten years ago in Gujarati, 'Jumo Bhisti' was taught in class 10 and brought it to class 8. Children's Gujarati vocabulary has not increased in the last ten years, when there is only a certain amount of vocabulary at a certain age, is there a need to make the curriculum difficult by bringing such difficult content to a lower grade? This has happened not only in Gujarati subject but also in mathematics, science, English or social science etc. Subject matter that was considered upper class ten years ago has now been brought down to lower class. So the lower grade curriculum has become more difficult. As a result, the number of failures increases. Thousands of children drop out of school and education due to frequent failure. Not only this, one of the reasons for plagiarism in exams is also the excessively difficult syllabus. Can't we make the school curriculum contain content that is useful in life? When a student moves to the upper class, he should study according to what he wants to pursue in the future. If at school level we remove useless subjects and introduce necessary subjects then all the students will study with interest and at least till class 10th, but our big weakness is that we decide the curriculum and syllabus keeping in mind the gifted students only. Our governments and educators have never felt that any decision has been made for academically weak students. It is not fair to expect the same from students from districts like Dang, Panchmahal, Kutch and students from Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot. It does not mean not to benefit the students from weak backward areas, but to facilitate the students from these areas who want to pursue higher studies. Let the rest of the students also study according to their strengths and interests. Unless the government can simultaneously spend or make policies, the curriculum should be designed in such a way that the weak, moderate and gifted students can all be interested and benefited. Some difficult things can be shortened. Its burden can be reduced. Those who want to study a particular type will study in depth at the college level. Apart from this, there should be ten to twelve subjects at the school level, out of which a student should study five-six subjects. Even if he passes in four subjects out of them, admit him to the next standard. Thus, every student will get the subjects according to their interest, and will not think of leaving school. Mathematics or geometry develops logic, but there is much that is not useful in life. So other options can be brought to develop logic. Ashoka: If a vegetarian is taught non-vegetarian recipes, will they be able to use them for themselves?
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
At the edge of learning: How much of what we learn is useful?
