Need a Change in Education System and Minds of the Students
Author: Pasapala Syed Mustaq & B. Rafath Jahan
Precis of this article:
Education commences not from the schools but once the baby came out from the mother’s womb. The connotation of the word Education will differ from one situation to another. In this piece of article, the authors would like to state that there will be parental education prior to the education in the schools. Primarily this article elucidates the constitutionality of Education and delved to explain what are the types of schools and atlast how the students who completed the 10th standard in dilemma and suggestions to the legislature to make necessary amendments to the Right to Education Act,2009.
Exordium:
India is said to be a developing country and taking steps to become a developed country. India’s Constitution is very lengthy and more comprehensive. The said document prescribed rights and duties of the citizens vide Part III and Part IV respectively. The Education system in India has to change and the people of India should also change their mindset and try to thrive for their children by giving them the liberty to choose what they were interested in to opt academic side. Educating a child on right track is the hallmark of tutors it might be parents or teachers.
Constitutional Aspect- Right to Education, and D.P.S.P. provisions interpretation:
The word “Education” will not be having the same meaning in all contexts. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, it defined education is a field of study that deals mainly with methods of teaching and learning in schools[1], and also according to Oxford Learners Dictioners defined Education as a process of teaching, learning, and training, especially in schools, colleges, or Universities[2]. It's a myth to believe that individuals will only get educated only in schools and colleges or universities. John Daniel,UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education has stated the importance of education as follows Education for all is important for three reasons, first education is a right, second education will enhance individual freedom, and finally or third education yields important development benefits[3]. The authors would like to interpret the word “Education” as a process that starts once the baby came out of mother’s womb, the way he/she acts, the way he/she behaves, and slowly the way he gets trained through his/her parents all comes within the ambit of the word education. Education is the keystone in human life. For instance, when the kid doing silly things in the home, there comes the duty of the parents to educate the kid on what should be done and what not. By keep getting trained through the parents, the children will be equipped with the knowledge to do things themselves. The next stage will always play a crucial role in the life of the human being i.e.; School life we commonly call it Student life. The teachers used to say, students will spend much more time with teachers than parents or at home once they become to equip knowledge about society and surroundings. Till the stage of the 10th Standard, the children will remain in schools. After the 10th standard, the career to chose the right option will start. The State must provide necessary facilities to get proper education to the children or students. The concept of the Right to education can be traced back to some of the International Conventions. Article 26 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as short called UDHR, says Everyone has a right to education and further it says it shall be free at least elementary and fundamental stages. The purpose of education as defined in said article is for the full development of the human personality and fundamental freedoms[4].
Article 13 and 14 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, 1966 has also stated that the state parties shall provide a right to everyone for education and following this Article 28 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 it laid down the list how to provide the education at a primary and higher level and also the purpose of the education. In Indian Scenario, the Directive Principles of State Policy as shortly known as D.P.S.P.’s states that State is duty-bound to ensure free and compulsory education for all children vide Article 45 of the Constitution of India. Through the evolution of judgments pertaining to the Right to Education, the parliament brought the 86th Constitutional amendment act in the year 2002 to the Constitution and inserted Article 21-A which prescribed that the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years of age and made a substitution to the existing Article 45 states as follows, State is duty bound to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years and finally made an amendment to the Article 51A and added clause(k) to the said article which states that the parent or guardian should provide the opportunities for education to his child between the age of six and fourteen years.
After the seven years of the amendment act, the parliament again came up with an act which is exclusively for the purpose of free education by the name The Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act in the year 2009 and came into force in the year 2010 in the month of April. This act strengthens Article 21-A. This act clearly defines the meaning of Compulsory education and Free. The former(Compulsory Education) means that the government of the state should provide free and also the state should ensure to provide free admission, attendance, and completion of elementary education till the age of fourteen years and the latter (Free) means the state should not charge or collect a fee from the child for education purpose till the age of fourteen years. The act laid down the standards for the working hours for both schools and teachers, building and infrastructure, and Pupil-Teacher Ratio shortly PTR, it also prohibits Physical and mental harassment, screening procedure for the admission of children, capitation fee, and running of schools without required recognition and also provides for the development of curriculum in connection with the values enumerated in the Constitution. The authors pondered their school days, aren’t our schools followed this act, absolutely not! The Act has been made in letter but not in proper enforcement. If the said Act would have implemented properly, they will not be any hesitation for the children for future studies.
Some of the Judgments pertaining to Education: In the case of Mohini Jain(Miss) vs the State of Karnataka[5]the apex court observed that every citizen has a right to education under the Indian Constitution because it is the essence of the right to life which will directly flow and interlinked with it and In the case of Unni Krishnan, J.P. vs the State of A.P.[6]among the Constitutional Bench, Lordships Pandian and Jeevan Reddy quoted the John Adams about Education- is the preservation of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all rich men in the country. The Madras High Court in the case Deva Asir vs Secy. to Govt School Education Dept,[7] the Lordship D. Hariparanthman, went ahead to say the Right to free and compulsory can also extend till +2 Level i.e., 12th Standard to children.
School:
When Child went to school for the first time, will feel like he is thrown out of the house or he is somewhere in a strange place. From the second day till he habitual to go to school, the dramas he will make unbearable. The poor child doesn’t know that School will treat as a Holy place where irrespective of caste, race, or sex will meet in one place. School where children meet or make new friends, the school where children learn to behave in a civilized manner, school is where children will slowly realize how to behave with the teachers, elders, younger and their peers, school is where gives confidence, strength and motivates every child, school is where children learn work as a team for small projects. That’s the beauty of the school. Do we feel it same at present? definitely not! Because of the bifurcation of School into two types one is being public school and second is being Private. Even some of the people take prestigious to send their wards to the public school instead they will send Private School which charges high to the peaks, it's just to show that his/her son or daughter studying in that school with huge money investment. We will now go through the two types of school as mentioned supra.
Public School:
The public school can be defined as a school that is accessible to all irrespective of caste, creed, sex, and most importantly rich or poor. The public school will be run by the government of the state. The government will run the public school through funds that will be generated from taxes which are paid by the people of that state. So, we call public school a Government School. In the olden days, the public school will access by the all children in the village. The strength of the public school will be competitive village by village and city by city, slowly it has drastically reduced. It's a myth to say if you pursue in public school will not getting good skills, etc. Some schools in India will name their school's name as a public school, they can take defense it’s a western-style of naming but in India, it is not so. In Public schools, the teachers will be recruited by the government by way of conducting tests. The said test for qualification will differ state by state. After the test, the teachers will be having the training to train them how to tutor students. Extra curriculum activities will be seen more in public schools than private schools. The public school's motive was to make a student train and tutor him/her for the future. But it is not so at this juncture, even the public schools are forcing students to get grades by sidelining their talent. Every human being will have different talents, some will excel in studies, some will excel in extra curriculum activities, some will excel in daily works, etc. No one has the right to force students to get good grades so that their school will get goodwill and get more funds. It's directly infringing the fundamental right of the student of choosing his fields which he /she feels excel. It is saddened to say that there are more Private schools than public schools in India.
Private School:
By pronouncing the word Private, we can define it as owned by an Individual or run by an organization or under a trust. Private schools are infringing the fundamental rights of the students. Students are also citizens of this state. The said schools will harass to the core to get good grades with no productive means. The students who studied in private schools are worse at analyzing things, understanding things, and also thinking than the students who pursued in public schools. Private Schools will just showcase external infrastructure to make parents fools. But after students joined, there will get to know that Private schools will teach in the foremost class how to mugup things rather than teaching or analytically training the students and will never encourage students for extra circular activities like Sports, Dancing, Singing,etc. The student who landed in Private School will feel, he is in jail. There are uncountable private schools in India with or without recognition from the appropriate government.
Thus, this so-called private system should be abolished, public schools should implement to the extent possible in every state. So that, many children will get benefitted in many ways.
Student dilemma after 10th Standard:
When a student reaches the Tenth Standard, he/ she will not be having fear in their minds. The fear will start when they completed their socalled “Half Yearly Examinations” and Private College lectures of the surrounded colleges will enlighten them with Groups in Intermediate or +1 and +2. In fact, the parents also will not ponder about their ward for the future, it will raise only after the Private lectures tutor them with sweet words I say. In this piece of article, our main motto is to how to overcome this and how recourse this issue which is majorly in the State of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The fact is that first, the schools should stop inviting private college lectures to tutor students about further studies. The said intellect will only suggest pursuing M.P.C.(Maths, Physics, and Chemistry) and Bi.P.C. (Biology,Physics, and Chemistry) but not the Commerce side. Because they will not generate revenue if everyone took the Commerce Side. The main reason why students of the State of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are not equipped with the societal issues is that the education system of both the states will not provide optional courses like Law, Computers, Humanities like other states does. The authors would like to suggest is that Setup a Body by the name “Board of Educators for Success” which consists of the Headmaster of the School along with three to four faculty of that school to tutor the students about their future careers. This include to conduct seminars or discussion session with the students of the school, the speaker should be from different fields. The institution should give space to the students to rule out their options which they do not feel to pursue. Because post 10th standard will determine the student where he/she land at last. Pursuing the thing which he/she feelsis not suitable and regreeting after pursuing will not come under the ambit of providing proper education. The schools should free and compulsory education but that education should provide fair and proper is the author’s concern.
Epilogue:
The authors wholeheartedly welcome the Right to Education Act, 2009, would like to suggest amending the Act so to establish a Board by the name “Board of Educators for Succes” as mentioned supra to tutor the students for their path to decide after 10th standard so that it will be more beneficial for the students irrespective of their stature and like to suggest to implement the Act effectively.
References:
[1]https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/education#:~:text=1a%20%3A%20the%20action%20or,teaching%20and%20learning%20in%20schools [2]https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/education#:~:text=%2F%CB%8Ced%CA%92u%CB%88ke%C9%AA%CA%83n%2F,improve%20knowledge%20and%20develop%20skills [3] Right to Education and International Law- Defining the Right by Sheeba Pillai, Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, (2012) 3.1 GNLU L. Rev.53 [4]https://www.humanrights.com/course/lesson/articles-26-30/read-article-26.html [5] Mohini Jain(Miss) vs the State of Karnataka, AIR 1992 SC 1858 [6] Unni Krishnan, J.P. vs the State of A.P.,AIR 1993 SC 2178 [7] Deva Asir vs Secy. to Govt School Education Dept, 2016 SCC Online Mad 9695
Edited by Rangarajan R, Editor-in-chief, Lawgic Stratum.
About the Authors:
1. Pasapala Syed Mustaq is a law graduate, who is passion to learn things pertinent to legal aspects, and interested in reading legal books, Articles, Newspapers. He is interested in Politics and would love to lead the team!!!.
He is a former Editor-in-chief of Lawgic Stratum
2. B.Rafath Jahan, B.Tech in Electronics and Commuications. She is intersted in reading Newspapers, books and writing articles. She is a UPSC Aspirant and ready to serve the society to the extent possible.