While we in India are struggling with the huge problem of universalisation of primary education, there are more and more rumblings from the West, struggling with yet another issue : providing literacy and learning.
Note, not schooling, for that is a given, but education, the expected end-product of those fifteen odd years at school. While in India, the question is about access, there the issue is about results.
In a paper (link through the Adam Smith Institute) called ‘the standards of today’, the former Chief Inspector of Schools, Chris Woodhead laments the decline of standards in school education across the UK. Some of the things the article says upfront:
– Education remains a lottery….
– Teachers are confused about how to raise the standards of literacy…
– Our very brightest pupils too are underachieving….
Woodhead not only questions the existing standards in school education today, but also raises another interesting point : are our expectations high enough ? More and more students in the West are leaving school, even unable to read and add.
This is not just about the UK… although anyone who’s read anything about Tony Blair’s spelling capabilities will laugh at the huge hoardings inviting students to the UK for higher education. That apart, this lamentable lack of learning is also what the American schooling system cultivates.
Johnny Can’t Add But Suresh Venktasubramanian Can, says Fred Reed, in a totally honest ripping apart of the Amercian primary education system. Fred goes one step further and says that American schools are crawling with teachers who cannot spell or do math.
As with Mark Twain, these kids are firm in their policy that they not let their schooling interfere with their education!
Like I said, in our country the issue remains one of providing access…. but it seems to me that we are doing something right as far as teaching methodology goes….
What do you think ?