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New
jobs don't require cramming
by Steven Rudolph
October 20, 2007
I just returned from Kolkata, where more than 150
educators from West Bengal and other states of India
gathered to discuss issues related to primary education.
Teachers, principals and parents spent three days at the
event organised by New Waves, discussing topics such as a
philosophy of education for our times, teacher training and
school-home partnerships.
One of the key issues that emerged was the unanimous desire
to reduce the emphasis on exams and student ranking. While
as a society we tend to lay collective blame on 'the system'
or 'schools' for this educational dilemma, it is ironic that
those who were most vociferous about the need for change
were the teachers and principals. And further, they
contended that this trend is perpetuated by parents, who are
obsessed with their children's marks, fuel the problem by
sending their children to tuitions and put undue pressure on
them to perform.
Let's face it: all parents want their children to succeed in
life. And their vision of success is often focused on the
other side of the rainbow, where they imagine their children
in good jobs and with good marriage prospects. While there
is nothing inherently wrong with these aspirations, the
problem that exists is with the definition of what a good
job is and with the educational path that leads to those
jobs. Unfortunately, most parents today have a limited scope
of what they believe to be worthy careers. These include
standard professional occupations such as doctors,
engineers, business people, accountants and programmers. And
the traditional educational path to these occupations
consists of scoring well on exams in school and getting into
a good college.
What parents need to do is to expand their vision--to see
how India's booming economy is giving rise to a multitude of
professions--designers, animators, media professionals,
hotel and hospitality professionals, etc.--hundreds of new
job types that their children will be able to choose from
when the time comes. Further, the educational paths to many
of these jobs don't require students to be straightjacketed
into narrow, rigid courses of study, nor for them to get
high marks in physics, biology, maths or history. There are
so many institutes opening up that provide education for all
types of professions, and which are more focused on skills
rather than marks. By encouraging children to follow their
passions, parents will be doing a dual justice-enabling
their kids to enjoy the educational process without having
to cram, as well as ultimately guiding them to a successful
career that genuinely suits their natures.
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