Pitfalls in the Indian Education system

We often hear that India offers one of the best academic systems. I have heard this time and again and often drawn to conclusion based on the high number of graduates from the country. But , I personally feel there is a "Huge" problem with some of the basics in the system.

Yes, you may see the brilliant engineers, the well adapted call-center communicators, the cross cultural gurus, the successful entrepreneurs - but what we are failing to understand is that this is just a very small percentage of kids that go through the system. I think the education system fails in many areas other than possible the academic area (which is only one portion of education) The Indian schools systems and methods are so focused on academics and so off-track from other fundamental s.

My thoughts and views on the problems in the system. All these are based on my experience with my child going to a school in Bangalore. From what I see, the system is predominantly the same across schools in India. Here are my thoughts on whats wrong in my opinion.

UNDERESTIMATING A CHILD'S CAPABILITY
One of the biggest problems in the Indian school system - the child's potential is never noticed. Almost always the case - the teacher or any superior assumes the child is incapable of doing or comprehending many things. They focus so much on what the child "cannot" do rather than focus on what the child "can" accomplish. The kids are never given the sense of "ownership" for their actions. The trust factor or building trustworthiness in a child is very poor.

DISCIPLINING TECHNIQUES
This is a Huge problem. I have not come across any school that has a pre-defined method of disciplining. Although, I agree to the fact it is the teacher's discretion on picking a technique that works with their classroom. Classroom management is a big problem for a teacher with 35+ kids in class, but the schools are not defining or training teachers in good methods. I have not seen any school use any proven methods like color cards, ticket system or other methods. A lot of schools still use empty threats, screaming, age-old punishments like standing, group punishments - one kids mis-behaves the whole class pays for it (which in my opinion is completely wrong - it doesn't build any virtue in a child and does not make a child feel responsible personally for his/her actions) . Overall, the systems and teachers have a very steep learning curve to climb.

NO GROUP ACTIVITIES
There is a huge lack of team and group activities in the classroom. At least, in the primary level - I do not see any or team activities as part of the curriculum. There is no concept of forming teams within a classroom and coming up with their own act or project. This is a huge problem - lack of such activities is not helping a child learn to interact and co-exist with peers. This also affects social development. The system highly encourages competitiveness - and all in the wrong sense. Very little is done to encourage working in teams. Again, this goes along with point 1. The system thinks young children- 5 to 8yr old kids are not capable of working in groups or thinking on their own and come up with creative stuff.

TOO MUCH FOCUS ON PERFECTION
The system focuses a lot on perfection. It is all about the quantity/perfection and not the quality. For example - a child that can spell the right answer is credited more than the child that has a more creative answer. Simple example - If child is asked to write the name of a fruit - he gets a full score if he spells "apple" right. However, if a child chooses a difficult or unusual fruit - say Raspberry and get the spelling all wrong - he gets a zero score. They never see the fact that the child actually came up with something outside the lesson information. All they care about is the spelling. I think the system should accommodate a good balance between the two.

MISSING FOCUS ON READING SKILLS
Reading is not prioritized in the schools. Most schools do not have a good library, nor do they arrange reading activities. The country as such does not have good libraries. Schools should do something more to encourage reading and develop the love for the language. They do not have quality story time, reading for the mere passion of reading, inculcating the love to read etc. Reading is considered more of a "required skill" and "Memory based". You learn the spellings and read - phonetics is barely used. You will be amazed at how many kids can blurt out a whole science or English lesson from memory, but no comprehension of what they blurted out.

NO QUALITY HOMEWORK
Another big problem - Schools have had this long history of overworking the children and giving "too much homework". After years of protest from the parents the schools have practically removed homework. This has become a very bad move. Parents to blame as well - most parents think its good that the kids do not get homework. The parent community blindly fought the homework issue and got it down to almost nothing. But, lack of "quality homework" is a big problem . Children are not given an opportunity to apply what they. I do not see schools giving practical, interesting creative homework to kids. There is SO much a kid can learn with proper homework when designed to reinstate their lessons at school and apply them practically. There is SO many resources available through online education networks - but its under-utilized in Indian schools. Kids are also losing out on opportunities to understand "ownership" and "responsibility" through doing homework.

GENERIC ISSUES
There are of course a lot of general problems across the board in all schools
1. Very large classroom size (35 kids +)
2. Teacher turn over rates are high
3. Teacher training quality -
4. Schools are too busy and in a time crunch all the time and lose focus on the methodologies, training, vision of the school etc.
5. Parents are too annoying and interfere in silly things like price of the uniforms or size of the books, but do not seem to work with the school constructively.
6. Huge communication gap between schools and parents - especially when it comes to school's policies, vision, conveying school's intentions etc. There are very little orientation and education of the parents - except for an outdated school book/diary.


All of you thinking about Schools India, please do your research and at the same time, keep your minds open and try to contribute to improve the system.