What is the purpose of education in today’s society? Is it just to provide a student undergoing marks oriented education system with a qualifying degree to further their careers?
Or just to add another degree in curriculum vitae or show compliance in the professional matter?
Perhaps none of the above in subtle term.
The purpose of education is to provide necessary inputs or tools to one to understand, learn, grow and share with society.
The western-styled educational systems have mistakenly understood knowledge and its application as a fixed table of data to analyse and implement.
As a consequence, they are increasingly focusing more on easily quantifiable qualities like average marks percentage, enrollment rates, dropout rates, addition or reduction of books/subjects and so on.
The brand image and popularity of educational institutions are more or less evaluated on the basis of these factors and once the top ranking is confirmed for any educational institutions learners take no time to apply for admission without knowing the quality of education provided at school or college level.
There is largely imbalance in teachers students ratio in most part of the world especially in under-developed nations or developing nations. And the quality of education is seriously compromised.
This condition inevitably leads to a situation where educational institutions prefer to promote rote learning and a marks oriented form of education, in both schools and universities.
“This goal ensures that all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030. It also aims to provide equal access to affordable vocational training and to eliminate gender and wealth disparities with the aim of achieving universal access to a quality higher education. ” – Sustainable development Goal No 4
What you expect of graduates coming out of the net of rote learning and marks oriented studies and exams. The graduate never meets the expectation of industry and disappointment follows.
How a graduate who mugged up everything in his or her mind but never experienced it. His very own creativity dried up long back and now learners ability to cop up with real-time issues is in question for lack of independent creativity during studies.
So what to do? Should marks oriented education system be replaced
The Education Charter International ( 19999) clearly mentions under the Code of ethics and action plan for Government and government institutions in streamlining education system worldwide.
The main points are
- Transformation of the national Higher Education System should be the political agenda of each Country of the World.
- Public Funding for Higher education must ensure that demands for higher education in the society for the rapid reaction must be met with the capacity of higher education institutions to respond adequately to these demands.
- Clear and uniform policies of Government towards Higher education for continuous development of centres to ensure meeting of demands.
We need to recognize that marks simply represent a measure of memory power and not the knowledge of a student. Schools and universities must put more emphasis on the practical acquisition and assessment of the knowledge, and ensure that the knowledge being provided to students is relevant to current global and industrial trends.
The ancient education of India as “Gurukulam” is a promising example of how the education system should be in every Country.
The Government, educational institutions, Business corporations and society must now recognize that education is not just the successful completion of exams and achievement of degrees for employment but way to understand life where uninfluenced thinking space and independent creativity are important for everyone.