Originally posted by: return_to_hades
Ideally exams should test you on what you have learned and understood, but most of the time they test for how much you can cram. Ideally schools should be imparting knowledge and developing well rounded individuals, but most of the time they make sure students pass exams.
The education system is to blame, but the larger problem is crowded classrooms. The ideal classroom size is no more than twenty students a teacher. Small class sizes allow teachers to adapt to various learning styles and paces. It also allows teachers to test their class in the best possible way rather than rigid exams. Unfortunately, when there are too many students teachers cannot efficiently teach but have to having kids mug up the minimum requirements. Similarly too many students means school boards cant cost effectively organize tests catered to various learning styles, they have to resort to standardized tests.
Even the United States which usually has a pretty individualized/rounded approach to education is slowly shifting more and more importance to standardized tests to keep up with growing class sizes and shrinking education system. SAT, PSAT, ACT, AP exams are growing in importance each day.
The biggest advantage USA has over India is that college education is not saturated so it is not unduly competitive. Some majors and schools are more lucrative, but applicants are pretty spread out rather than being focused on a few key medical or engineering course. The elective system also forces students to receive a well rounded education (you can't graduate from pre-med unless you have a certain social science classes as well) and spend some more time thinking what they really want to learn. The transfer system lets students switch careers and colleges smoothly and accommodates work/study, family/study needs.
@Bold:
Precisely my point, Madame. Everybody just wants to clear examination, without having to serve its purpose. Be it a parent or a teacher, they inflict only the righteousness of passing an exam on the child and not on calculating their learning skills.
Competition's a bitch up here. Students first look for the usual toppers percentage before they check their own, and parents tell their kids that they could have done better without having an ounce knowledge of what more than ninety five on hundred could have the child have to bear, given they study in the basic and regular way it is done in India. The authentic self of the institution itself is immoral and harsh, which is why it reckons the magnitude of a person's knowledge wrongly. I meet learned idiots everyday, some even have a PhD! 🤓
Speaking of the colleges in USA, yes I have a scratchy idea about that and find it so much easier than here. If anybody plans on studying in the US, their last year of school wouldn't certainly be a cakewalk, though. It is oppressive in India, and even though the system out there is changing as well, I am sure it wouldn't be as hard as it is in here.
Lastly, governing a school is a moneymaking scheme in India. The parents are asked various new fund-raising sets of money and fee is increased without prior notice. They charge money for everything from outings to a crayon or a sheet of paper they sell with their school's logo engraved on it. Of course, schools have their statures and some decent ones maintain it, but most dun. Mind you, they serve the children expired juices. It is just filthy.
Anupamaa
Sports
Indian Premier League
