Prof Javed Mughal
Sometimes when I look at thousand and one youngsters, most of them going on the wrong side a stipulated age-bar for employment, getting assembled around the civil secretariat, shouting at the top of their voice, indulging into stone-pelting sometimes or resorting to hunger-strikes and so on, I get engrossed into contemplation over the genesis of all these slap-stick scenes and slip-shod responses of the system and ultimately come to realize that the content courses taught or academic stuff supplied to our young generation is, in fact, not life-oriented. About 90% of what is taught at schools, colleges or even universities is of no practical utility to the students of our society. Quality-oriented education has entirely been outstripped by the quantity education where the printed slices of paper are preferred to the acquisition of practical excellence. Look at a young man having passed B.A. LLB or B. Sc Forestry, or BVSC,or say Computer Engineering and serving as a teacher in a Primary School or happens to be Constable in police department or in any other organization not much corresponding to his qualification. The tragedy is that we unnecessarily impose the streams and disciplines on our children and worse than it becomes when our Govt. pitchforks these young literate souls into the areas of activities without taking the relevance of their qualification into consideration. Centuries old hackneyed syllabi in the traditional and impractical fashion are still in vogue in our schools and colleges. Our country has concentrated much on the war-fare and other areas but has always failed on the fronts of educational development. We have never allowed the budding minds of children to co-relate the things or generalize their knowledge in any way. E.g. ‘A’ has been for Apple down the centuries and we never allowed this poor ‘A’ to stand for something else. We have never thought even a bit whether the kindergarten kids get encouraged to think that A can also stand for other things. We, even now, subordinate competence or academic worth only and only to the printed marks-lists and the degree certificates which are now on the sale in many private and even Govt. institutions. Examiners, invigilators and even higher authorities of academic administration are on the sale at the rock bottom prices. Centers of examinations can be seen, in most of the cases, to have been let for hire and purchase. Under such circumstances do we still believe that 80% mean dumber than 95%? Salt water is a good conductor of electricity. Is this knowledge only about a subject known as Physics? Are research papers and doctoral theses the gateway to only the prefix Dr and a job thence? Basic questions to address basic things regarding education, especially the type that passes off as education here in Jammu and Kashmir, are very important to be mused over. Employability is central to education and livelihood. There are no two ways about it, but the question of larger significance is how education can and should mould the character, the efficiency and personality of the people. This is important and there should be no two ways about this too. Educationist I am not. I am not a policy framer either. But I do notice certain things, as part of this society. To come up with acceptable answers to the question-posers, educationists, policy framers and all those having anything to do with education, such as setting syllabi etc and how students are taught etc need to go back to their class rooms. Significant too is the question of how well grounded are the books and the prescribed syllabi with the history, culture, ethos, traditions and the environment of the land. For those who were in their high schools in the 80s in our state, standard education used to be provided at the 10th level. Learning about the history of other people and land is fine and acceptable, but the fact that this came at the cost of the history of our own being and our own cultural heritage and people is a price that is still being paid today. Does it really make much sense to know the map of Australia like one’s back hand while not being able to locate Siachin Glacier or many other historical spots in our own state or country?
No doubt knowledge should not be chained within an outlook or compartmentalised into ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’ but the ‘ours’ part should not be forgotten for the sake of ‘theirs’ part. Students should be taught as much about Dogra rule, Muslim rule, advent of Mughals in Kashmir, and sufi saints of Jammu and Kashmir as of Napoleon, Hitler or Mussolini. This is where the role of researchers comes in. Research must come out with objective analysis of the historical figures and their contributions to the growth or otherwise of the land and people of their own area, district, state and country so that students can study them as the former ought to be studied. Our Universities of Jammu and Kashmir must launch their scholars on the pad of good research but it would be so much nicer if these scholarly works can impact directly on how and what school kids are being taught inside the classrooms as well as outside. Our universities must revise the research patterns and study the ground realities faced by the common masses of our society. How many scholars of our state Universities have undertaken the research projects on the efficiency graph of our political as well as administrative performance.
How many of them have chosen the Plight of Village Education as the Topics for research? Not even an ignorable number. The plight of school education especially in villages is more than pitiable. The teachers despite, lavishing the state exchequer, don’t work honestly, exploit the poor students, add further to their deplorable conditions, compel this mealy-mouthed generation to work at their homes and the condition in private schools is even worse where the entire process of education has been transformed almost in a lucrative business with the minimum investment and optimum profit. Since education happens to be the backbone of any nation, it needs to be taken seriously. We can’t afford to sleep over it. Our researchers must come forward to dedicate their research potential to this side unless this sector gets fully flowered to the point of purpose. Our researches should be based on topical issues so that an inside significant realities can come out in the wash. I have all reasons to say that the dedicated and serious research into the geological areas of J&K State can contribute a lot to the economic arena of the state apart from adding to the historical importance of this area. Time is ripe when we should cease to feel proud to know of foreign nations and divert our attention to what belongs to us.
No doubt Botany has left almost no area of plants diversity but a lot more is yet to be discovered. Children being directed to identify Kabuli Chana and make a collage out of exotic plant species as part of their project works, is fine, but it becomes unacceptable when in the process they cannot identify the indigenous herbs or some of the plant or grain species which may be local to the place. So it stands that salt water is a good conductor of electricity but how do we take this out from the classrooms and make it applicable to the real world is the question. ‘J’ may stand for ‘Jug’, but are we ready to teach our children that ‘J’ can also stand for Jammu? “Is a student scoring 70 pc that much dumber than the one scoring 90%?”, is not a million dollar question. It is just a question of applying our minds to the need of the hour and setting our priorities right. How ridiculous is our system of education where we still cling to the percentages printed on low-quality papers. We never understand the demand of the current time and circumstances which compel us to prove our worth on practical lines. What is the worth of young man putting on a very attractive and handsome semblance but zero in earning? Of what use is a young degree holder fellow who has managed good percentage by keeping his examination-superintendant in good humour or greasing his palm but has no job in hands and is dependent on his parents for his pocket money? Is it the ultimate motive of our education to produce the RETs, ReZs or ReS, and other fruitless workers just against a disgraceful amount of remuneration, not sufficient even to full their own survival? All these questions should be kept in serious consideration and accordingly our policy makers must revise the entire educational system.
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