Primary Education in India

The education system in India has been in the news ever since Mr. Kapil Sibal announced his plans to de-stress the system by doing away with the school terminal examinations. While the objective of the minister is laudable and desirable there is a need to understand that the malaise runs much deeper. While all attention has been on the boards for X and XII, urgent attention needs to be paid to the primary and pre-primary education in India. The pre-primary education especially has become so short sighted that young children who should be exploring the world around them and discovering the world as it is are being straitjacket to read and write complex words and sentences which they do not understand. The education system is catering to the aspiration of the parents rather than focusing on the development of the students. Consequently we have children as young as 5 years suffering from anxiety and related complications. These children have forgotten the joys of playing as their time is spend in cramming cursive letters, figures etc.
The teachers have become so insensitive and goal driven that if a parent prefers to let her child learn at her own pace the teacher accuses the parents of non-cooperation and threatens to fail the child. Thus otherwise active children are becoming withdrawn. The parents too are equally to blame. We should realize that by forcing the child they are creating children who will have grades but no life skills.
The need of the hour is to teach the teachers to handle young children without trying to force feed knowledge to them. There are examples where the NCERT has designed excellent textbooks which are learner friendly and tries to teach with activities. But most teachers have short circuited the process by making the students study by rote even the activities. Teachers are too lazy and lacks motivation in developing the children under their care. If we are to produce balanced individuals and worthy citizens we need to change this set up.