Changing education system

Early education system in India was mainly based on religious texts there were famous universities like Taxila, Nalanda which provided courses on a number of subjects like Science, Literature, Religious studies,Logic,Astronomy etc. There were schools where the children would get education under a guru and he/she would have to stay in in the Gurukul(school) throughout his learning years. Among the tribes of the country there were dormitories ,some of them were separate for boys and girls and others included coed studies. Sanskrit was a common subject everywhere. Many women scholars were also present during this stage of the education system, Gargi, Maitreyi, Ghosha, to name a few.

With the advent of Muslim invaders the country saw its proportion to new schools called Madrassa where Islamic religious scripts were taught along with subjects like Arabic, Persian logic which were influenced by Middle East countries. Students from Afghanistan and various other neighbouring countries came to pursue their education here in India. This was the time when women were slowly deprived of their right to education. And then during 1600s the Europeans invaded our country , people got access to new Christian missionary schools and colleges.

This system prevails till date. In some of the states there are more English schools than vernacular medium schools. I think the reason behind this is our Government, it never takes the proper initiative to run Government schools properly. There are very few teachers in those schools. The case turns even more interesting when you come to know that the kids who study here don’t even appear exams to pass out from one standard to the other. Now if you ask why is it so? The only reason that I can provide you with is the Government wants a 100% literate society and to do that children must attend school.This can only happen when they find it easy. The scheme designers don’t concentrate on making the syllabus interesting rather they make it easy. This is the condition in Government schools.
Whereas in Private schools the children are given such huge syllabus that most of the time they are seen running with their bags on, even on holidays some of the private tutors take classes so as to complete their course. Here completion of course is important whether the student gets his head in it or not is not minded.
Same is the case with colleges where in some of the universities the admission process takes place much before the result of the previous standard has been declared. So sometimes you come to you failed in the previous class just after the admission process for the next class or standard is over. All the money spent goes to a waste, that too for nothing. Even after lots of complaints have been filed against this system none takes heed in the affairs. When such a system has been prevailing for long how can you expect the country to develop.  Development is possible if the system is modified, but that would be done in a decade or not can’t be assumed.

Something different

This post is little different from the others that I’ve written. Here in this post I’ll mainly focus on a poem by one of India’s as well as Asia’s greatest poet Rabindranath Tagore.

” Where the mind is without fear
And the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;”

This poem was written in around 1900. The original poem was written in Bengali and the poem was named “Parthona”. Below I have mentioned few lines of the Bengali version.

  ” চিত্ত যেথা ভয়শূন্য, উচ্চ যেথা শির,
   জ্ঞান যেথা মুক্ত, যেথা গৃহের প্রাচীর
   আপন প্রাঙ্গণতলে দিবসশর্বরী”

The poem appeared first in the volume Naivedya and later translated to English in 1911 along with his other poems. It was also mentioned in Gitanjali, for which he received the Nobel and became the first Asian ever to receive it.
The poem has its own importance it had been written to encourage the freedom for their struggle against the British .Our country has developed a great fold from what we were those days, but this development has to led to some misunderstandings we seem to have forgotten our culture these days. Well I don’t say that western influence is bad, since world is global so we need to follow the trend but in the long run among its our own culture that’ll help us. Suppose we move to foreign country there if we face some problem we would instantly turn to a fellow Indian for our help instead of asking a foreigner, its a human instinct ; then why don’t we follow the same rule for our culture. Our own culture is our base where our body stands and losing it will be like losing our the ground beneath us, without a stable ground we cannot float for a long time. You call it gravitational theory in science , buy logical all of us need a solid ground based on which we can make our decisions.
If you follow the poem the first line “where the mind is without fear” says when our mind is fearless and when do you think will it be fearless ? The day we know ourselves, the day we understand ourselves and can make all the right decisions and that can happen only of we have an idea of where we come from and if our decisions are right our head will always be held high, in every problem we’ll be able to find out the solutions.
This is one of my favorite poems and I recited it for the first time when In was in grade 7, though I didn’t understand its meaning just recited it, now I really know what it means and how it was inspiration for the ones who fought for the sake of the country .
The poet told the patriots to never be afraid to speak out their voice , never to bow before enemies, he wanted a world where there would be no boundaries probably because our country was filled with superstitions which made it even more difficult for everyone to be united.He wanted a place where there would be no corruption but this problem has yet to be solved , our country still lingers on the grounds of corruption.
Perhaps we can never make a perfect country but we can at least try to make a difference, even a single individual’s action may to lead to a great change.A change for human welfare, for nation’s development.
With this I wish all my fellow Indians a HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY