Many visionaries and politicians have promised about India becoming a developed nation by the year 2020, and just like any other election promise it will be a dream for many Indians who believed. The definition of being a developed nation varies from person to person and there is no universal understanding as to what it means. In a dynamic world, the already developed nations are progressing and the developing nations have to move faster to come closer the levels of developed nations. If a nation can protect its citizens from external and internal disturbances and including during/after natural calamities it can be called a developed nation. The disturbances can be financial, food, employment, security lapses, health etc which are required for the peaceful existence of the citizens of a community.By this definition there is no one nation that can be called developed, but the achievement levels are different and thus a scale be obtained.
Many children face hardtimes to adjust to the first few days at the schooling. Some make life difficult for the parents for going to school, but with time after adjustments the school will be most sought after activity. The new book, new uniform, new classes, new friends, etc, all keep the children to go school year after. This type of fancy exists for those whose children whose parents can afford, and have a decent amount. The school fees have increased exponentially and the english medium, convent schools are draining the money from a poor middle class people. But the parents still believe that high fees means better facilities and better education. The aim of education has become is to get a good job with high salaries.
Many children dropout out of the schools midway either the parents cannot afford to send the children for lack of money, or the children are make to work to support the family. Even there are enough incentives for the children to be at the schools, the parents cannot support the family so drag their children out of school and make them to work. The enrolling has improved in the past few years, thanks to the mid-day meals scheme, RTE, stricter child labor laws being implemented in small and big companies. Where is the money of the poor is going is the big question that needs to be answered, before why a man is not able to support his family?
In Coimbatore, a industrial hub, many people who work as daily wage laborers. These people work all day long and in the evening go to a liquor shop and to get rid of their body pains and have a good night sleep and be ready for the next day. The government has setup shops to supply quality alcohol and to avoid problems of illicit liquor consumption, Thus around 30% of the days wage is spent on liquor and this business alone is flourishing. This may be the trend in every place and consumption of alcohol has become a norm and many people are accepting this as not a social evil, but as a sign of modernization and development.
The problem with alcholol consumption to ease pains is that, over time the amount of alcohol required to create the same effect will increase. The cost of liquor is increased by the governments in the hope that consumption will reduce(fooling the people), and the salaries of the ordinary citizens will not increase at the same speed. Many jokes are made between alcoholics and non alcoholics regarding their financial situations. But the thing with alcohol is that consumption is good if in limited quantities but addiction is definitely a evil. The revenue generated by the alcohol business is so huge, in many states politicians have heavy links, stakes in this business and has gone beyond the control of the governments to control the industry.
These drunk parents definitely will be short of cash to send thier children to the school, even to a government school becasue the food cost, alcohol increaeing and more money is required to maintain the family. The importance of education is now known universally because of the wealth seen in the hands of the educated people and their lifestyle, that everyone wants to earn big no matter what. Many want to study the courses that have the prospects of giving the best salaries. Education has become a path to better lifestyle and richness and nothing else. The values, ethics are lost in the race to better lifestyles since the competition is very high. The bosses have understood and use the stick and carrot methods, differential treatments all to get more work out of their subordiates. Everyone is in a race which is dictated by the ultra rich. Few sane people have side stepped from the race, and are enjoying as a audience or are trying to share the knowledge about the race. But people do-not want to listen.
The race mentality has become more cut-throat because we do not respect all the jobs. In villages a person who can work in the fields can earn anywhere between Rs.300-450/8hr-day with usually lunch and tea provided and 1hr break. People do not want to go and work there and prefer to go and work in shops where they get Rs.250/10hr-day. A person with little education feels it is below his standards to work in the fields and this is kind of education that we have been imparting. It is generally that with more education the understanding capacity of the person increases. A worker with higher education can bring some new thoughts to the prevailing practices. In any industry, the headman will give a ear to his workers ideas and even though they may not immediately acknowledge, it will kept in mind for future favours. No good deed will be missed out, if not by the current boss, but by some new one.
Since the labour are treated with some humane curtosy, everyone wants to be a manager and thus we have a huge shortage of people who can work at the lower ends. The employment opportunities available are not utilized and everyone wants to work in the factory even with high pollution levels as it brings with them respect. Just like people flaunt their brand of wear, people have begun to flaunt their company names. Bigger company means more respect, a sign of British slavery still existing even after independence. The reason the education system and its rat race for employment. In many recent investigation it is found the quality of education in the government schools is very bad low quality. Even though the diversity in everything is appreciated, since the final goal of education is imparting knowledge and skills, there should some unification of the material that is being taught at the schools.
A person studying in some remote corner of Coimbatore should learn what the person in the school run central government. There should be around 70% common portion and only addition can be done by respective schools. Since majority of the jobs have a requirement for English it should be made a compulsory subject, Hindi being the national Language too should be taught in every school and there should uniformity in syllabus. All subjects should have a uniformity of syllabus, where history, geography and third language can be state specifics. The children of a particular part from knowing more about the region they reside, should also know about the nation and the world. Thus some choice should be given to individual states to added to syllabus, apart from this all the subjects should have the common syllabus.
The first major test of the students of whose marks determine they way forward is 10th, and this test should be a nationally graded examination. Thus the correction of one state should not affect the students of another state. A 75%marks in state may be a top, while in another 90% will the maximum. Thus a uniform grading is required so that no child suffers because of the state in which he studies, because these marks become crucial as he starts to hunt for a job, because marks become the first elimination criteria. This grading should be present at all levels of major steps of examination. After 12th, degree, post graduation, etc. The uniformity of grading will give equal opportunities for students.
The current system of education doesnot give much chance for those who want to break away from the routine. There should be optional subjects from a very young age and sports, music, painting, acting, and others should be made a part of curriculum. If a certain students wants to skip the science and want to take up another the student should be given the choice and if required be sent to a central school. Every child who wants to pursue the subject of his choice should be incorporated into the mainstream only then there can be people with varied skills available. In cinemas we can see a monopoly of the old family who have been in the field putting their kids and making pathetically acted movies year after. New entrants with good skills are not given equal opportunities because of the lack of understanding and favoritism. This kind of scenario can happen to each and every industry where merit is not recognized but who knows who. An industry working with people with poor skills is bound to fail in the long term. Skill development has to be from a young age and if child thinks he can do it in dance, he should be given the opportunity.
The reservation is to be removed if the RTE is implemented, because the government should provide the skills and opportunities, it is the responsibility of the citizen to work and feed himself. The government should ensure the citizen is not exploited in the form wages, working conditions etc. With skills imparted, the field open to everyone, only merit should be the criteria, not the economic background, not caste, not the references. A merit based society can only move forward and can take along all others with itself. If mediocracy is allowed it will pull down the whole system and the state will have to feed many of the citizens. To achieve Bharat 2020 a quick reform is required.
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