Towseef Bashir Mir
Talent requires discovering to be worth having. It can’t possibly be bound in paperbacks and hence often goes unnoticed due to our education being very much coursebook oriented. Our pre-existing school system recognizes just the academic excellence and not the co-curricular talents a student may possess. Every idea of education we have is pretty much confined to prescribed course books. A child with good academic grades is the representative of the school’s success in educating and preparing the future generation while as a good singer is just good for occasional entertainment and social media video mongering. The potential of students usually goes unexplored due to the ever-existent ‘syllabus finishing’ culture in our schools. Although the instances of such a situation are abundant almost country wide, schools in Kashmir are hopelessly indulged in the result maintenance business. As a result of this predicament, children with out of the box talents and abilities are often buried under the mental burden of academic procedures while they could be excelling in an entirely different direction. Is the education system too conventional and does a planned change need to be induced to facilitate better education in its truest sense?
‘To lead out internal, hidden talent of a child or person’; the literal meaning of education and that is how it should be. The institutions should be, not just encouraging, but more inviting of children to better express their talents and interests apart from their regular coursework or certificate syllabus. it is a lofty goal, given how academics have been the sole aspect our schools have been about. Although there is no belittling the need for academics as they are an indispensable aspect. We do need more scholars and philosophers and great thinkers, but what of the great dreamers and innovative creators or people with skills other than academic degrees? Does our education system encourage or even allow them the scope for being what they can be good at? Does the school system recognize the possibility of a child being a better artist or an innovative ideologist rather than spoon feeding him/her an ‘only option’ of being the epitome of academic excellence and ending up as a doctor, engineer, or a pilot? From the very beginning the idea of interest is just put out there to have the student pass class after class but the actual interest is never really cared for. The achievements of a physicist like Marie Curie or Albert Einstein are glorified and rightly so, but what of people like Shahrukh Khan, Cristiano Ronaldo, or some other non-academic achiever? Is their role in the society any smaller than an excellent academic achiever? Had they not been dreamers and had their talents not been discovered and had they been restricted to studying Mathematics and Science, one would argue that the society would be feeling at loss. Then again, isn’t this what education should look to prepare a kid for, contributing something to the society? By the looks of it, our idea of education is rudely questioning the contribution of the non-academic achievers towards making this world a better place by strictly determining academic excellence as the bar for being an achiever.
It is a general notion that to achieve your dream, you need to take an exemption from schooling. It sure would be more senseful if schools were the place facilitating fulfillment of dreams and recognition of talents or development of children to excel at what they actually are interested in, instead of shoving some synthetic idea down their throats. Steps need to be taken to change the concept the system follows. However, it is imperative to realize that this requires a collective effort from the society and not just individuals. We can’t blame this one on just the administration as their role would be limited to introducing the change. Everyone has a part to play in actually applying that change of ideology and thought. The administration needs to revise the teacher training and introduce practical development seeking instead of training them to prepare well trained parrots. The NEP should introduce non-theoretical activities and talent hunt programs in the schools’ coursework. The school curriculums need to have more co-curricular activities to allow the scope for student ability recognition and further there needs to be the scope for the schools actually educating the child in the field he shows particular interest and ability in. Staff is needed to be brought in for the fields of art, music, sports, etc. to collaborate with other teachers and parents to develop education plans for the students. The parents need to be more encouraging of their ward’s abilities as well and should invite more open discussion of the kids’ interests. The ridiculing tendencies of parents upon hearing of any interests of pursing a non-academic career often buries the dreams even before they are fully expressed. The society needs to embrace the idea of proper education as a whole and be more faithful of the process leading to a non-academic achiever becoming a personality. The idea of education we hold needs to be, collectively, subbed by the actual meaning of education so it may actually be about leading out the internal or hidden talents and abilities of children.
The author is Towseef Bashir Mir
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