The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : “Radical reform of education system needed”

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“Radical reform of education system needed”

Special Correspondent

Education reforms are likely to be a whole lot slower than the economic reforms: NCERT Director

“Profession of teachers in a state of unpopularity”
“Different teaching methodologies needed for different subjects”

— Photo: R. Ragu

IN DISCUSSION: Krishna Kumar, Director, NCERT, with M.S. Ananth, Director, IIT-Madras, at the annual function of the Kuruvila Jacob Memorial Education Trust in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI: The education system has to be radically reformed so that it does not produce generations of “compliant citizens” who do not critique the most outrageous actions of a State, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Director Krishna Kumar said on Sunday.

In his keynote address at the 5th annual function of the Kuruvila Jacob Memorial Education Trust, Mr. Krishna Kumar expressed the hope that the reforms initiated by the NCERT based on a national consensus on the curriculum framework in 2005 would percolate throughout the educational system in due course. “Education reforms are likely to be a whole lot slower than the economic reforms,” he said.

“Crushing defeat”

He said the present education system perpetuated the dissemination of knowledge rather than inspire a child about the desirability of gaining knowledge. When the context of a classroom is defined by a person thinking to be in possession of knowledge addresses a young and ignorant audience, the system is doomed to fail. “In fact, it is a war in which the crushing defeat of the child is a foregone conclusion.”

He noted that teaching was in a crisis these days and the profession of teachers in a state of unpopularity. The talented do not prefer to be a teacher of the young, and even many among those who teach do not adopt the profession as a first choice.

Mr. Krishna Kumar called for different teaching methodologies and strategies for different subjects. For instance, literature could not be taught the same way as mathematics.

Web-based learning

M. S. Ananth, Director, IIT-Madras, launched the first modules for a web-based elementary science learning programme, handing over the first CDs to N. Murali, Managing Director, The Hindu.

Prof. Ananth noted that the education system was often not as bad as it was made out to be, as most students seemed to “survive the bad education.”

He retraced the origins of the web-based initiative at the IIT on the mandate of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Since 1999, content developed at the web studios at the institution was being beamed on the “Ekalavya” channel for the benefit of schoolers.

Earlier, Mr. Murali, who is also a co-convenor of the core committee of the Kuruvila Jacob Initiative, summed up the Total Quality Management campaign launched in 20 Corporation schools.

Mr. Murali also spelt out this year’s plan to involve a cluster of 10 more Corporation schools, establish three model schools on the QCI framework of quality school governance standards in the Corporation and private sectors and set up a quality assurance cell at the Chennai Corporation.

Somi Hazari, managing director, Shosova Properties, recalled how being a student at the Mumbai school when Kuruvila Jacob was the principal helped mould his character. Kuruvila Jacob showed it was possible for a disciplinarian to be humane while following the value system.

G. Shanker, V. K. Chandra Kumar and K. M. Mammen of the Kuruvila Jacob Initiative participated.

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