Me Criticize on Indian Education System

Rote learning

Yes, we do know that many IB schools across India are trying to bring in interactive education and we laud that immensely. But the evil of rote learning is yet to be wiped out from a majority of Indian schools. Owing to the fixated style of question papers that have been doing the rounds in board exams from time immemorial, rote learning has continued.

We’re very sure that most students won’t be clear about many of the basic foundation concepts taught in school even after they’ve graduated. Ever heard of students mugging up balanced equations? This is one fundamental change that needs to come about in our Indian Education System!

Marking System

All the other evils of the Indian education system ultimately come down to the method in which students are marked.

Is it justified that a student is evaluated only on the basis of his/her performance for the duration of three hours of the exam? If the axis of grading and marking is shifted to classroom participation, project work, communication and leadership skills and extracurricular performance, only then will a genuine student shine out.

This might sound like a utopian proposition but the Indian education system badly needs to bring about this change.

Respect for all streams

“Oh has she done a MA in English? She’ll end up becoming a teacher”

“What good is a diploma in hospitality management? It ultimately means doing a job in a hotel as a cook right?”

If you’ve heard these lines time and again from you elders, don’t you think it’s time you stop them?

How long are we going to look down upon vocational streams and look up to medicine, engineering, the IIT’s and the IIM’s? Students at the school level need to be educated through career counseling regarding the kind of streams that exist and what importance each of them plays to make an economy diverse.

Variety in education streams

Why do we always see students being envious of their counterparts in the USA?

It’s because there are just three options that student have after Class 10 – they’re stuck with Science, Arts or Commerce. If they’re not good enough for either of these, they jet set straight into diplomas and certificate courses. Don’t you think the Indian education system needs to introduce combination courses in which students can opt for a major and a minor subject? If students in America can pursue Physiotherapy with Art History and Biological Science with Photography, why not in India?

The system of tuition classes

Commenting on this subject is like plunging one’s hand into a vicious cycle which seems to have no beginning or end. Reasons for tuition classes mushrooming are because students say that the teaching in schools is lax and not good enough for them to clear exams. Whereas teachers say that students jump ahead many chapters in the tuition classes before they are even taught in school.

This makes them loose all motivation and steam to attend school in the first place. Forget all of this, what about the poor parent who’s hard earned money gets drained in school and tuition fees alone?

Although the picture does seem dismal, there is hope because some of these changes are slowly being made by select education providers. But how quickly will these changes percolate down to common man in India, only time will tell.

Me criticize Modi and BJP

India-Pak relations

Much to the hype of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attending the swearing-in ceremony or the saree diplomacy, both governments couldn’t re-start the dialogue process nor has the firing across the Line of Control came down. Mr. Modi’s surprise stop-over at Lahore too failed to cut the ice.

India-Nepal relations

Anti-India protests flared up in Nepal after trade movements through the border were not allowed for many days. Nepal called it 'India's blockade' as it followed protests by Madhesis. All of these happened within a year of the Himalayan quake, when Nepal thanked India’s help in rescue and rehabilitation. Also, India couldn’t keep away Nepal from moving closer to China.

Smriti Irani and the Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development was in news for all wrong reasons. The suicide of a Dalit Research Scholar at Hyderabad Central University, sedition charges against students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, the FTII students’ strike, decision ofnot to support off-campus centres of Aligarh Muslim University, closing down Ambedkar-Periyar Study circle in IIT-Madras, the list goes on. And some avoidable controversies such ascompetition for schoolchildren on Christmas orscrapping German being taught at CBSE schools.

Blackmoney

Bringing back money stashed in off-shore accounts was one of BJP’s poll promises. The government gave a three-month window for compliance, but only 644 declarations were made. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley once said the bulk of blackmoney is within India, but little has been done to contain the feeders of parallel economy – higher education, real estate and mining.

GST Bill/Land ordinance

The government is unable to pass the GST Bill in Rajya Sabha for the past two years. Touted as the biggest tax reform in Independent India, the government is unable to bring consensus. Same is the fate of land bill. Though the Centre took the ordinance route to clear the bill, it was re-promulgated twice and lapsed on August 31, 2015.

Uttarakhand fiasco

The pre-mature imposition of President’s Rule in Uttarakhand, and victory of Harish Rawat in the Supreme Court-monitored floor test, is not only an embarrassment to the ruling government but also to the BJP, whose attempt to gain from dissidence in Uttarakhand Congress misfired.

Me Criticize Donald Trump

1. Donald Trump Admires Tyrants

In December, Trump openly said Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him a “strong leader.” Putin is, of course, a dictator who shut down independent media, imprisoned political opponents like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, rigged elections, and almost certainly ordered the murders of opposition figures Alexander Litvinenko and Boris Nemtsov. (Trump went out of his way to deny that anyone has proven Putin’s guilt). Russia is “not free,” according to Freedom House, which catalogs a long list of the Putin regime’s oppressions.

2. Donald Trump Encourages Violence

Last week a protester interrupted a Trump rally. As security escorted him out, Trumptold his supporters, “You know what they used to do to guys like that in a place like this? He’d go out in a stretcher.” He added, “I’d like to punch him in the face.”

Again, this is part of a pattern. Late last year a Black Lives Matter activist was shoved and kicked at a Trump rally. Trump told the crowd “maybe he should have been roughed up.”

Public officials and celebrities set examples and help define the culture of what is “acceptable” and what is taboo. When Obama “evolved” his position on gay marriage and came out in support of it, he made it acceptable and easy for millions of Americans to follow suit. When Trump uses his considerable influence as a celebrity and presidential candidate to praise violence, it removes a small chink from the armor of civilization.

3. Donald Trump Does Not Believe in Equality Under Law

After the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino last November, Trump made a series of proposals he claimed would enhance homeland security. He proposed to banall Muslims from entering the United States. He called for increased surveillance of mosques. He called for a database to track all Syrian refugees, and did not rule out tracking all Muslims in America.

4.Trump Is an American Fascist

The case against Trump, then, is that he is an autocrat in democrat’s clothing, a tyrant in the wings, a bully who admires the “strength” of tyrants and butchers, who finds a free press to be an inconvenience that he intends to tame with legal force once elected, a man who demonizes opponents and romanticizes violence, especially against minorities, who pines for the day when government could have its way with people without the trouble of constitutional law getting in the way.