Part III : A No Win Situation

As per Lord Wiki:

A no-win situation, also called a “lose-lose situation”, is one where a person has choices, but no choice leads to a net gain. For example, if an executioner offers the condemned the choice of dying by being hanged, shot, or poisoned, the condemned is in a no-win situation... In a less morbid example, if one has a choice for lunch between a ham sandwich and a roast beef sandwich, but is a vegetarian, that might be considered a no-win situation.

So, how is it relevant to any discussion on Indian education? Frankly, I don't know. Just a thought came as I began to write this piece. As they say, 'soch kahin bhi aa sakti hai.'

So here it goes... Part III of this series and the second reason why students and parents get disillusioned and disengaged with education.

Who wants education anyway? We have all heard romantic stories about really under-privileged and deprived people cutting all corners (which is ridiculous as many don’t have any corners to cut, to start with!) to pay for the nearby private school fee in the hope of educating their kids. My kaamwali bai spends half her salary on the school and tuition fee for her two children!

Do these people actually care for education? 

Nonsense. All they want for themselves and their kids are three things-

1. Paisa (money)
2. Izzat (respect in peer group/society)
3. Taraqqi ke asaar (hope of future growth)

And before you frown at the over-simplification, hang on a moment. These very things may be true even for you and many of us more elitist ones too.

Coming back to my point, people by-and-large really don’t give a damn about education other than the fact that education seems to be their only hope for above three. So, when a family cuts on its meager rations so that the child can go to school, the father is actually praying that his son/daughter will one day make more money than he ever did, will have greater respect in society and will grow up into someone they can all be proud of some day. These are the three, and maybe only three, wins which matter in the game of education.

Alas! The God of education in India seems to be deaf to most of these prayers. And how…

The right to education (RTE) has two fundamental, and apparently well-intentioned provisions-

1. That no kid can be ‘failed’ up to class 8^th irrespective of the fact whether he has attained the learning proficiency levels for that class or not.
2. That every child has to be taken in his ‘age appropriate class’ whether or not his learning level matches with the requirement of that class. 

Now, the arguments in favor of above (the child does not fail but the system fails him, failing leaves indelible psychological scars on the child, and the like) are obviously noble. The question is how (or who) is this sensitivity and concern helping? The combined effect of above two manifests in many ways, which can hardly be called desirable by any yardstick-

• While we have an acute shortage of good teachers, the fact is that even the best teachers are bound to be challenged in our system. Any teacher, when given a class of 50 students spread across 5 different academic levels, can find himself out of depth.

• The teacher, not able to teach and not allowed to fail, goes through the motion (there goes your teacher motivation). He barely covers the course, gives a few questions and their answers for the students to cram and reproduce in the ‘exams’.

• A kid in class 7^th (say) who is actually at class 5 level and is so completely overwhelmed by the syllabus finds escape in cramming those questions and the sham continues. There is no challenge, no engagement, no success and no failure!

• But only till class 8^th! Come class 9^th, and our kids fail by scores and eventually drop out of the schooling system (middle school drop-out rate in India is more than 80%)

In this scenario, what is the chance that our children will learn any meaningful academic/ vocational/ professional skills? Can they hope for any kind of economic returns out of this kind of ‘schooling’? Can they hope to attain growth and social status through this education? Are they being prepared adequately to make a responsible contribution for themselves, their families and to the country?

Finally, do we actually believe that mid-day meals, school toilets, direct subsidy, and what have you (though all arguably positive, sensitive steps) will compensate for above?

The truth is that people don’t care for this sham. Indians are tough people. They don’t necessarily want it ‘easy’. They will any day take a tough game with an even and fair chance of meaningful rewards. 

However, to the utter misfortune of this great nation and its people, the ringmasters of education in their convoluted wisdom have ensured that there is no way people are getting their three victories (paisa, izzat, taraqqi ke asaar) through education. They have made education a game that nobody can possibly win.

Or maybe someone is already winning, just not the one you expected??!!