THE ENGINEERING OF EDUCATION

In a way, the only two "real" subjects we learn at school would be Language and Mathematics; that is—alphabets and numbers. And possibly, the only skills needed to walk (and talk) through our regular existence.

In most professions, new entrants learn on the job: often even graduates of professional schools. Professions like medicine, engineering, accounting and others require their graduates to learn while working. The course is a theoretical framework to follow. But there is no teacher like experience—rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands on the work table.

So the Big Question is—why do we go through a system sponging up on chemical equations, mind-spinning theorems, and the digestive system of a larva? How necessary is it to memorise the names and dates of battles?  Or the height of imposing mountain peaks?

Most of us will not be doing much with our formal learning for the rest our lives. Then why do we waste our prized childhood and youth under threatening text books and tyrannical test schedules? We do that to get into a Good College. Why a good college? Because then you can get into a good professional course, which eventually helps you nail a Good Job. So basically, the education system is churning out economic entities to feed into the market.  

American educator and cultural critic Niel Postman says that the education system views children as "economic units" who are being prepared for a "competent entry into the economic life of a community." Ideally, says Postman, economic utility should be a by-product of a good education, and not the aim.

Are the by-products of education (a love for learning, responsible socialisation, personality grounding, and language skills) being acquired by our graduates? Since schools are busy feeding formulas and theorems to their students, how much time is being allotted to activities that can lead to a more rounded student self? Is our education system doing enough, as Postman says, "to provide an inspired reason for learning."

The world of education should prepare its denizens not for a career alone, but for a richer life, which only respect and love for learning can provide. A system like that will produce just not workers but collaborators.

Schools should be sacrosanct places where young minds and personalities are farmed to flourish without scanning the job bazaars. As Postman says: "Without meaning, learning has no purpose. Without a purpose, schools are houses of detention, not attention."