Rakesh Muniraju is expostulating. The young educationist, who is the Secretary of Bangalore International Public School and Director of the recently launched Kids High, a pre-school initiative, is unhappy with the way education institutions and coaching centres are unabashedly advertising the achievements of the students in print media and hoardings.
He speaks to City Express and vents his anger and questions the authorities for letting institutions continue with the practice.
What is the reason for your anger towards the existing practice of advertising an institution’s or coaching center’s achievements?
The rank system was abolished in the country but still several institutions proudly advertise their student’s achievements, which is definitely not in good taste. It is the responsibility of an education institution to ensure that its students achieve top grades.
While we are following the grading system now, institutions still are advertising the ranking system. It is being used as a marketing strategy which is just not ethical. Look at the results of IB (International Baccalaureate). Nobody even knows about their results because they do not believe in such gimmicks.
We really do not know why the ranking system has announced a come back. And if an institution announces that their student has come first or second, and benefit from it with admissions, do you think they will ensure that the same student does not face any problems in his future education pursuits?
Then, there is another issue. Even for a basic college admission, they have a bracket which means to state that a student who has scored less than 80 per cent cannot be admitted. Which again comes to mean that he is worthless! I strongly condemn such practices. He or she may have much higher IQ and might be better than the student who scored 95 per cent or more, but just because of our system, he is rejected and a potential talented professional is left demotivated. I think there should not be any cut-off when announcing results.
You have also voiced your concern about the pre-school framework. Could you elucidate?
Nobody seems to focus on the importance of nursery education. We should understand that the pre-school stage is one of the most important because it creates the foundation of a person. There is no curriculum in place and any backyard or garage of a house is treated as a pre-school. I believe that nurseries should also have proper campus so that children are exposed to primary and high school life.
Parents are a confused lot. While there is demand, it should be met in a proper manner. There should be proper norms and regulations which should be evolved by the government. Also, if the government is helpless, the franchisees, which are huge in number, should take an initiative and come up with a strong framework for pre-schools.
An SMD initiative