BENGALURU: Last week, I came across a serious post written by a friend of mine. Father of two girls, Santhosh lives in Bengaluru and is known for his sense of humour, witty posts and social commentaries. He had written on how he was taken for a ride by an online tutoring company that made tall claims.
After paying a hefty sum as fee, he realised that most of the promises made were far from truth. Many parents responded to his post and shared their own bitter experiences over the same issue. The number of comments led me to think that if one post could elicit such a massive response just from a very small chunk of social media users, there must be so many others around.
Living in a metro, while we get to savour the benefits of better transport, entertainment options, healthcare, networking, eateries, job opportunities, we also have to face civic issues, high crime rate, pollution, high cost of living, lack of space, materialist outlook etc.
Especially when it comes to the middle class, every rupee spent comes under scrutiny and in urban Indian households, education is an important investment. Santhosh said he sought the tutoring service after much deliberation over the quality of online classes during the pandemic. I relate to him, as I have had first-hand experience regarding this problem.
While many parents were dissatisfied about the quality of teaching itself, there were several other issues such as controlling a bunch of children with a very short attention span, while attempting to push the lesson into their minds. There was also the matter of teachers unable to pay individual attention to students, as well as lack of creative learning activities.
All these facts were utilised by many companies offering online tutoring. I myself paid for educational material from one such company a few years ago, only to realise that it only prompted students to spend more time online, which has proven detrimental to their health. More children are reportedly visiting ophthalmologists complaining of eye-related issues, which experts attribute to high usage of mobile phones. What our children need from schools today are more hands-on learning, outdoor activities and applied disciplines.
While school-hunting recently, a former colleague of mine told me how disappointed she was to see that many did not even have a proper playground. At one such school, she was openly told that they did not need one, as they stressed only on studies. “I just got up and ran away!” she told me. Another parent had written about his toddler in kindergarten being burdened with exams, report cards etc.
Speaking about modern education system, Dalai Lama once said: “We pay attention to brain development, but the development of warm-heartedness we take for granted.” My mother, an educator herself with four decades of experience, used to tell me she always wondered who would actually succeed if the grading system in our schools was to be completely eliminated. Today, I wonder the same.