From Grassroots....

One of Sneha's comments gave a little pinch to another worm in my head that was lying idle. Basic education. This is one of the earliest promises of our government,and the one,being unbelievably feasible,hasn't yet been realised. Well,it was better during the Nehruvian semi socialist era,when at least,such things were given some importance.
We talk of India supplying one of the world's best brain powers and our premier institutes churning out mumbo jumbos ready to take over the world..Fine. Go ahead. No problem. Who cares about the unseen and unsaid once you are flying high. But the problem goes on building up within until your supernova is ready to blast off. Millions of children don't get a chance to look around themselves with open eyes. Millions of men and women lose the chance of living a better life. Millions of us don't know in our lifetime,things that make us a true democratic nation.
As I said earlier,huge funds are set apart for the welfare of the people and get buried nowhere. Can anyone give me a chance to kick out those f...king,paan chewing,pot bellied Babus out of their rusty offices? This whole system is so much rotten,so much intertwisted in its own never ending spirals. Why does the money not reach where it is needed? I just don't understand this red giantish attitude of our government.(ok,for those who didn't get it,a Red Giant is a very huge star,often over thousand times bigger than our Sun. When they run out of fuel,their outer envelope expands rapidly and cools off while the core shrinks under its own gravity,until they get detached. When this happens,the outer skin blasts off with a tremendous explosion,so brilliant,the star is visible even during day time..the Supernova explosion.....our government,like a red giant,is busy tending the outer skin,the brilliant cream of the post senior secondary students,who,after graduation,still prefer settling in the US,while the core is shrinking,undernourished...it's not something good)
Once the basic education is rock solid,not just rote learning,something that gives the kids a chance to really develop themselves into the ways they like,and enough emphasis has been given on making the growing ups self sufficient,the burden after the plus two stage is greatly reduced. It should be understood by everyone,a white collar job is no more one has only to look for. The world has changed now,and there can be many more ways of living the rest of the lives. Our education system has to change,it must stop producing Babus. The US,our greatest guru of recent times,has a better edge over us,the engineer over there not only knows how to manage the desk,but also to fix the gearbox jam in the car.
I think its time we stop flying and get down to the earth. In this respect,I must appreciate the NCERT-CBSE model which existed atleast in my time. Another thing is,we often confuse education with literacy,one of the biggest mistakes of our educational and evaluation system. My memories of good girls,boys,and their good teachers mugging up textboks are still fresh. You can memorise things to get good marks without learning a single thing. And do our textbooks make us street smart? Don't think so. I was a good student and I still have to face problems communicating with people,because I spent much of my time inside the books. I never went out in the market and learnt how to bargain for half a kilo of potato! I guess more than half of the Indian women graduating as engineers finally end up being a wife and a mother. One of my classmates got married few days back,at the age of 18!!
Pooh..enough whining..now let's search for answers..