Kritagya Kriti spent four months volunteering in a community school called Shree Jyoti Secondary School(SJSS) in Jalapa, Khotang. She critically studied the situation of the community school from multiple perspectives. Upon analysing the situation and her experiences, she has consolidated the major problems she saw in the community/public school. Several of these problems are same for other public schools and the entire education system of Nepal.
Lack of funds
This was undoubtedly the biggest problem of SJSS. Being a public school in a small rural village, you cannot really charge a lot of fees. This leaves the schools in a huge financial crunch all the time plus tops it off with the fact that parents don’t even pay the due fees on time. This stops the school from organizing a lot of events that they could organize if they had money, programs that could enhance the leadership, and creativity of the kids, and motivate the students and the teachers.
Outdated syllabus
The syllabus in itself is not quite outdated but it’s just a lot and gives teachers very less autonomy on how they teach. It leaves very less time for extra activities and just enjoying the content with the kids. Music, dance, arts, and other creative and entrepreneurial pursuits are actively ignored from the strictly academic syllabus. Important stuff like critical thinking and problem solving are also not taken into account while determining what our students learn from the education system. Little emphasis is given to teamwork or leadership either.
Lack of government-employed teachers
In a school with 270 students and a requirement of about 17-20 teachers, The school had only two government-appointed teachers, one for immediate help (karar),and one for relief (raahat).which was a shame! If there were more teachers, the school would have taken a completely different path. The school could ask for less fees or no fees at all. There was one more problem actually. The government-appointed teachers despite having a good and regular salary, they were not nearly half as motivated as the other personal (niji) teachers. This is the biggest of the problem of this semi-government sort of situation. Infact of all the publicly appointed teachers, forget why they became a teacher if they had a good reason to start with. They also forget that these are little kids they are dealing with and decisions for. They also forget or maybe choose to ignore that the things that they do or say have a lasting impact on the fragility of the little kids. They often forget the fact that their responsibility is to prepare for the outer world and not only finish the syllabus at hand.
Examinations
Being a student also Kritagya had realized that examinations are up to absolutely no good. They give absolutely zero insight into the capability, talent, or potential of the students. This realization was further concreted at SJSS. She made question papers and corrected them, the results were absolute horseshit of depiction of the potential of her students. It furthermore lets the students believe that they are not smart enough or probably good for nothing which is obviously far from the truth. Students like Richim, Diksha, Kopila, and Deva who were one of the smartest and most emotionally intelligent felt that they were a failure in midst of the over achieving students of their class and the world.
Lack of Technical Knowledge among teachers
Kritagya has realized that the use of technology enhances the quality of education impeccably. Regular use of videos, articles, PPTs, documentaries, and the Internet not only makes it easier for the teacher to teach but also makes it easier for the student to learn and remember. It keeps the interest of the students intact but also helps them clear their minds from the tedious tasks they have to do and makes learning fun. Most teachers are ill-equipped to use the internet to teach. SJSS was fortunate to have WiFi, a projector, and laptops at its disposal to teach the kids yet the teachers were somewhat reluctant.
I believe there are schools that might not have the technological infrastructure to include the internet in their teaching-learning process and we might need to find a solution to that. I believe that every school in every part of the country should be well equipped to use the internet in their classrooms by the next three years or else we would have to intervene.
Lack of leadership and creativity opportunities for the kids
This was one of the biggest failures of the education system Kritagya found. Our schools don’t give nearly as many opportunities for our kids to become leaders and thinkers. We sort of spoon-feed the contents written in the books to our kids and expect them to write it in the exams and believe that we are imparting education and wisdom to our children. We need to constantly remind ourselves what education means to us and what we want our children to gain from it. Maybe then we will realize how deeply flawed our education system is.
The lack of leadership opportunities for our kids creates a huge void in their personalities and hinders their personal growth acutely.
Lack of motivation among the teachers to bring a concrete change
Teachers are undoubtedly the biggest changemakers in a school environment. However, not most of the teachers show great enthusiasm to create a positive change in the school. This might be because of the following reasons:
They don’t understand the current problems.
They don’t know how they can solve it.
There is an adverse environment that does not create the situation to implement new ideas or faulty leadership to be precise
They don’t care. The gap of understanding between teachers and the students was so problematic.
Whatever may be the problem, it is very much affecting the growth of our schools and ultimately the future of our kids, and a solution to this problem is required very urgently. The solution might be the solution to not only this but all the problems related to the education system because somewhere Teachers are The Education System!
VIII. Lack of new ideas among the current people in the system
I believe that today we have a system that was built years ago and is now run and administered by a bunch of old people who don’t really understand the consequences of the decisions they make. I am not a very big fan of categorization but I believe it is imperative to make this point that people who have been in the system for too long feel that everything is going well in the way it is. Whenever an outsider sees the system, they can clearly see how faulty and porous it is. They bring a different perspective on how things should be and also bring ideas as to how we can reach there. They can help the veterans learn new things and implement them at the schools and all educational institutions to be fair.
IX. The dreaming quotient of the kids and self-belief
This rather than being a problem in itself was the consequence of all the above problems which is the saddest of all. Imagine an entire generation of kids who don’t feel smart, confident, or intelligent enough to succeed. They feel that they don’t fit into the high standards set by this world but there is nobody to tell them that we are all equally messed up. We need an education system that instead of telling our kids if they will be successful or not based on a series of pointless examinations tells them about passion, happiness, joy, self-love, and their role in developing their country. This is a system that knowingly or unknowingly perpetrates a self-loathing culture and therefore we need to actively work on teaching our kids how to love themselves, believe in themselves, seek out their passion and follow them.