Education is a privilege and we simply cannot take it for granted! However, he who educates rules over those that he educates. Indeed, education has been used to control people's thoughts, indoctrinate them, and draw allegiance toward one's ideas, philosophy, and school of thought since time immemorial. The ideal goal of education is to empower one, increase awareness, and perhaps create 'good human beings' who exemplify the values of honesty, respect, kindness, inclusion, and of course, patience, values that I hardly see being nurtured by educational institutions today.
Each government that comes to power imposes its ideology on the system of education in the country, whether it is the syllabus or the interpretation of the country's history. The addition and deletion of important units in the syllabus, or for that matter, the modification of teaching practices, assessment strategies...etc might all be dictated by the party/government in power. Take for example the introduction of CCE or Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation, a system that was meant to assess the continuous development of the student throughout the academic year. It was a radical change in the way we assessed student achievement, but then it was perhaps introduced too abruptly, without proper research and training of both the students and their teachers. It was introduced in the middle of the academic session leaving both, students and teachers confused. The CCE was abruptly done away with when a new political party came into power in India.
I happened to spend many of my formative years in Ethiopia and there I witnessed a country going through turmoil and chaos when the Emperor of the country was deposed in a coup d'etat which resulted in the coming to power of a Socialist form of government. Education had to be a victim of the revolution, and surely, the Socialist or Communist ideology found its way into the curriculum. The school curriculum soon extolled the virtues of the socialist ideology, promoting cooperative farming, nationalization of important assets, limiting the number of houses you owned, thoroughness in the communist ideology, subservience to the party in power, condemnation of the Imperialistic forces for all setbacks that the country had faced. Blaming Capitalism for exploiting Third World countries and last but not least, doing away with healthy competition in the economy. All of this resulted in a closed market system where the consumer had to do with substandard, obsolete products for which the waiting period was unimaginable!
But then, the West cannot be condoned for promoting a system of Education that was really meant to empower the masses because even in the West, Education was a tool for suppressing the weaker sections of society. In the United States of America, Education was used as a tool to suppress the Native Indian Community. Education ironically enough became a tool of Racial and Social Chauvinism, a tool meant to subvert ethnic cultures such as those of the ethnic Indian communities. The story of Zit-Kala-Sa, the pen name for Gertrude Simmons Bonnin is a description of how she was relocated and admitted in the Carlisle School for Indians so that she could be given a decent form of education and thus 'advance' herself in the society. Zit-kala-Sa would undergo numerous indignities in the Carlisle school. Her hair would be cut, she would be stared at, tossed into the air like a wooden doll, forced to wear Western attire, 'eat by formula', and accept the superiority of the Western culture over her Indian culture. In many ways, the kind of education that Gertrude Simmons Bonnin underwent in the Carlisle Indian school was no different from the indoctrination, and brainwashing sessions that passed off as Political awareness classes in the schools of Socialist and Communist countries! The education provided in the Carlisle Indian school was nothing but a scam. It is a different matter that speaks volumes about the inherent wisdom, motivation, and intelligence of Zit-kala-So as opposed to the stupidity of the Carlisle Indian School curriculum that she would go on to use that very system of Western education to expose the true intentions of the settlers who had literally usurped the land from the Native Indians!
Education, I repeat, is in more ways than not, a tool in the hands of those in power. It is a tool of privilege, it is a tool of exploitation, it is a tool that divides people, it is a tool that has led to an increase in the class divisions that exist in the society. The CBSE grade 12 English lesson, titled: 'The Last Lesson' by Alhonse Daudette highlights how the teaching of German was imposed by the Prussians on the French residents of Alsace and Lorraine after the provinces were annexed after the Franco-Prussian war. The lesson describes the last lesson in French and how the native speakers felt about it. The imposition of the German language was tantamount to what might be labeled as linguistic chauvinism. Education is a privilege that can be taken away at any time! This was exactly what happened when Prussia annexed the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine during the 1870-1871 war.
How much more ironic can it be that the best courses and the best colleges can be afforded by a very few percentage of the students who are graduating from school. Why are we not spending more money on the education sector? Why do we have Public Schools, Govt. Schools, Private Schools, Corporate Schools, and so on? What are the differences between the students studying in Govt. Schools and those studying in Corporate or Public Schools? Why do we have different kinds of schools? Do we really need all those privileges, infrastructure, and facilities provided by so-called niche schools of the country, or are they just a means, a scam to commercialize Education? Education is a great scam, and most niche schools that provide all the facilities, air-conditioning, limited seats in classes, swanky buses, lockers, and canteens, cannot in fact cover up for the poverty of values they uphold, the abject quality of pedagogy and the pathetic quality of personnel they employ. I had the opportunity to teach in a government-aided school in North Delhi that catered to first-generation learners. Strangely enough, most of the students I had come across are today great Scientists, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants and so on. In their case, a basic system of education along with basic amenities could not stop them from achieving success in life. It was perhaps the hunger to learn that drove them towards success.
Glitz and glamour, ratings and awards, unfortunately, do not translate into true education. The meaning of Education has been lost since time immemorial. We have forgotten that Education is a noble pursuit and it is all about giving back to the society what the society has given to you. Education should lead to empowerment, it should not add to the divisions that exist in the society. Education, I repeat the previous sentiment, should not be divisive, it should be inclusive, Education should be value-based, it should be accessible to all sections of the society, and it should be socially, morally, and emotionally meaningful. True Education should develop 21st-century skills in students, make them future-ready, and inculcate the true meaning of humanity in them. Unless these things form the fundamental core of Education, it is nothing but a scam, a bauble, a trinket for the rich and the privileged to play with!
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