The Terrible Ear ache and the Education system!

I have a terrible ear ache now, because of the cold.

 It is quite a childhood thing. Whenever I would have a cold, I would have an ear ache and I remember as a kid, it would be bad. As a kid I would never cry easily, but this ear ache was terrible, making me cry the whole night, in pain. I remember how my mom would get me books (at night) with pictures of exotic animals, to deviate my mind but I would continue crying.

I remember my mom’s sad and helpless face.

I remember what the doctor would say back then, holding my ear, “ It is a child’s membrane. It would stop as soon he is 10!”

I am 24 and it is still there, pretty much like the way it was back then, when my mom would face the ear ache of her only son, while her husband was posted in the field guarding the nation.

Tonight, just to deviate my mind from the terrible ear ache, I decided to write on my blog and you know what, it’s helping! I can have pain-killers and sleep, but I do not taking allopathic medicines or any kind of medicines! I get a feeling that we are naturally quite capable of fighting against most of the problems (like the other animals). And this brings us to the huge debate of the education system in India.

I get a feeling that it is not knowledge based, but very examination-based.

I remember as a kid, I would ask my science teacher what would a particular part mean and she would shut me up saying that this is not a part of the syllabus for the exams.

 But what if we never had exams! It was important to have them in may be the first 2 years of education just to make you disciplined. But exams after that were of no use.

 I would have studied and understood things much better had there been no exams.

A nice way of marking kids would be to ask and discuss with them things during class and not days or months after things were taught.

I would like my next generation to be taught and questioned that way. That is the reason I like the system at NID, where there are no exams but just juries. The NID Juries cannot mark you either, as you are marked/graded right after every course.

I just hope if we have something like this in schools, years before someone gets into NID. We will see so many more artists, thinkers, researchers, dancers, footballers and not just engineers and doctors!

It is very painful to see little kids carry those quintals on their backs. Education can be fun.

I have met many kids who do not follow the usual schooling system and are getting educated. Looking for a kid to be taught, so that I teach him this way…the fun way!

I know there would be people who would say “What is the use now?”

But as I always say that it is not important to get answers, but to raise questions. Raising a question is the way things begin. It is always important to think about changes which you can get.

It is that ear ache, which we need to cure!