Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Quick Gun Murugan does.....Dishum Dishum

I saw many movies of Rajnikanth who acts faster than the wind and Indian heroes who beat up many with one hand...b’coz the other is busy wiping the Rayban glasses or twisting the cigarette. Clint Eastwood or Robert Redford only learnt how to shoot quietly..but our Indian heroes are superfast like our Dashing HRD Minister- The Real Quick Gun Murugan ! Hatsoff to Kapilji !

As an educator I feel very happy that he gave me the official go ahead signal to actually ‘educate’ my students-not just prepare them for exams. When he initiated these talks, I was apprehensive-‘will such radical reforms happen’? –Bingo, here they are, officially happened and I must say that we have a forward looking Minister !

No Boards does not mean that we will have no more standards or quality.
It means that we will have educated young people who are gearing up to lead us all into that age of wisdom. We had enough of this IT age that made us into senseless materialistic selfish people.

From the late 1990s, If students were pushed beyond their endurance levels, it was only because they had to compete with each other in a budding world of Information technology. Jobs were few and scope was still not certain. Even the engineering colleges were few. But we now have 1000s of engineering colleges and plenty of IT firms across the world that are wanting ‘skilled’ people in math computations.

The days of ‘competition because of scarcity’ are over ! Now onwards begins the world of ‘competition for excellence’ ! The age of wisdom begins and we need people who can use their minds !

There is a need for skilled people as much as there is a need for wise people. The demographic advantage that we Indians are going to enjoy begins with the batch of students who are going to start a new era of passing out of Grade 10 without a Board exam-The class of 2011. When they pass out of universities in 2020, there is going to be requirement of 47million workforce across the world and luckily India only will have that young set of workers with all the required abilities.

While the rest of the world will have ageing population, we have an advantage of young population. It means that there is no scarcity hence no need for competition for seats or jobs. But yes, there will be a competition for excellence and that is what we in the schools can do if we do not have the parameters of Board Exams.

How deeply satisfying for an educator to empower the students with thinking skills and plenty of knowledge ! As the Principal of a CBSE School I feel that justice has finally arrived in the name of reforms. I do hope that his stance on nationalising the curriculum will also take equal speed and enhance the thinking skills of students in the State Boards too !

Late Shri YS Rajsekhar Reddy had visualised a CBSE curriculum for all the SSC Schools and I sincerely hope that his successors will realize his vision and empower the student population of AP at par with their contemporaries across the country.





Episode Punch

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?



Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess.
Exactly, to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian as well as Sourav who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens.. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe... If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

'Remember that what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right...'

Everybody makes mistakes; that's why they put erasers on pencils.


14 comments:

Himabindu D. said...

i agree with Leo Velski Julian as well as Sourav. A child who does the right thing should not be sacrificed for the majority thatdoes something wrong. But the thing is, none of them should have been playing on the railway tracks in the first place. Then again it depends on the person's perspective, whether to change the track or not.

With the removal of marks and addition of the grade system, I don't understand how students will get destressed but I am not in complete opposition to the new rule. I totally agree that students will forget the tension of failing if the idea of the word 'FAIL' is removed from educational terms.Since boards are made optional those who want exams can write but that again has its own sideeffects like peer pressure.But maybe that's something to worry about later.

Amita Seth said...

The new bollywood hit Kapil Sibal as qucikgun murugan. Hit with studnt masses because of his versatile actions and faster than the wind decisions.well written seetha. keep it up.

shobha said...

I liked the episode punch-EVERYONE DOES MISTAKE THAT'SWHY THEY CARRY THE ERASER WITH THE PENCIL'Here the point we have to remember is that the mistake should not be irrepairable.
shobha

Ramakrishna s said...

your episode punch reminded me of the appeasement of minorities that we keep doing in our country.congress is particularly known fot it. Appeasement politics. care for the useless and dont care for the useful.listen to the unwise and turn a deaf ear to the wise.the day we all stop pleasing others and do what is right-that day we are actually doing what is suppose to be done by us.enjoyd reading ur blog madam as always.

S.Ramya said...

hi mam!!!!!!!!!
i like reading your blogs.they are really nice.i think that mr.kapil sibal has taken a right decision by making board exams optional.it reduces the stress on students. no boards doesnt mean that we will have no more standards or quality of education.it helps the students not merely to learn but to get educated.really superb.
S.Ramya Priya
X-C

Anonymous said...

my dear boring buddy
I like reading your blog but you are always talking education education and education.Use your skills of expression to write some fun and frolic stuff. Dont be a bore buddy for my sake. I am feeling like you are a saint and I a satan with all your high and mighty stuff on teaching studies.

Sumeet said...

good fire "Quick Gun Kapil", thanks to him, we will have students being students rather then machinery’ made to ans the question papers. and after all most of the important exams that life posses to us dose not give 3 hrs, with a question paper to answer it.

i am rather glad that its has happen to the 10 class, and wish it also happens to the further levels of education system. To my mind education is a system to gear your self with the tool kits which helps a person to be a professional in addressing issues. And if the reasons know to me are true, then how dose an exam system come in place?
And in case if the objective is to understand how much one has learn then we are better of measuring the growth of cognitive understanding by measuring how long has the student traveled from day one to day N.

Kanak said...

Really good work, especially the episode punch. But I don't relly like Kapil Sibal's ideas of grading system and making board exams optional as these may make students lack attention and develop a carefree attitude. As it is the same grade for students getting 90 and 99, it may hurt the student getting 99. Also, it would not be fair.
Kanak Kataria

Malyadri said...

At the outset , kudos to the team for committing itself to consistent and never-ending improvement in the field of learning. Considering all the initiatives you are taking to decide, design and execute your way of learning, I feel you are no less than a board of education! (I hope I am not blasphemous)
In the debate competition held recently in the School, an acorn was talking about the sorrow state of Govt Schools and wondered whether Govt teachers would take their profession seriously at all if we scrap the board exams (As it is, the teachers are singing the lessons in three months time now, he says)
Yesterday’s news says many Govt teachers aren’t able to take up the classes as they do not have the text books. (I am not against the Govt Schools at all, I do acknowledge the services of many Govt Teachers) You have faced the similar situation in Shillong but Your Commitment towards Your work helped You rise above it.
With such Commitment in the team out there, I believe the acorns would learn what is to be learnt and move higher.
“ What is this education, if full of care
We have no time to explore and dare.

No time to stand above the confining book
And understand the world with what it took

No time to satiate the curious mind
That asks for the answers these books cannot find

No time to fix the subjects together
and see how each relates to one another

No time to liberate ourselves intellectually
from the index that tests us quantitatively

No time to relish and digest but to hoard
and throw it out only to satisfy the board

No time to wait till my mind can
assimilate the values essential for men

A poor education this, if full of care
We have no time to explore and dare.


Akhila

amrutha said...

quick gun murugan or lets say quick gun kapilji. yes i do agree that no boards doesnot mean no competition. it means that we are heading into the world of excellence .

it is really great that we are the further citizens who are young but not old so that the entire world would prefer us for giving jobs.i want to say that the team at silver oaks will feel very happy to have a role model like u.

kavya said...

whenever i think as to how a school should run and educate the students.....my school-silver oaks comes to my mind. its unique in every way from any other school.it is the team@silveroaks that is making it happen. i feel like starting over again from PP1 so that i have 12 more years to educate and get pleasure in learning.from the way we interpret festivals to the 7 habits, my school is the superlative and i have the best members of this firmament to educate me.thank you mam...

ravali said...

hello ma'am,
i too gree with leo velski julian as well as sourav.in this democratic world the majoritie's decision is accepted and minoritie's is declined.
i really liked the episode punch very much, EVERY ONE DOES MISTAKE THAT IS WHY THEY CARRY AN ERAISER ALONG WITH A PENCIL. that's true no one in this world is perfect.
i did not like the decision of the HRD minister. it is also disrespecting the decision of the minority. a student who studies extra ordinarily well, is getting affected. he or she may have the feeling that 'i get 98% but my peer gets 91% only then how can i and she be put in the same catagory.'
this is just my feeling, i do not know whether its right or wrong.
i do agree that the students will be destressed. but ma'am tell me one thing that is 'a student who is tensed, stressed, suicides, etc., for getting less marks, does that student have the right to enter in the world of wisdom.'
i think no... there may be parental or peer pressures but a student who is mentally strong does not care all this...
any way i am ready to accept the change...

Himabindu D. said...

Ma'am I didn't mean that a grading system with a range of about 10% is demoralising for the ones scoring high. I meant that in a time where excellence is required,students should try to aim for the best and not just try to defeat the topper in the class.When I said that it doesn't actually destress students, like your example, we should not always follow the majority but thing about everyone in particular.But our country is a democratic country which takes the majority's vote.

I do argee that grading system does have some consquences whether it be positive or negative. Students should not feel discouraged because their friend scored a half mark more. Grading system does help the students in the long run but maybe we dont need grading system in particular but rather remove the ranking system. Then again this is just a one man opinion.

Vamshi Krishna - vamshkrishaqua@gmail.com said...

HI MA'M
It was splendid.....exceptional punch... I too agree with Sourav and Velski.... due to the majority of wrong and minority of right, the right things should not be stampened... our right aims, goals, actions and morals must not be suppressed by others wrong obligations. Board exams becoming optional is a huge sigh of relief to student... To be frank, I dont support the idea of grading system... it disheartens a student... the grade categories on which student are divided are not fulfilling and not appropriate... the one who gets the pinnacle and the one who gets the lowest in that category of grades, are all considered as one... this makes a student feel that he is compared with students that are not as good as him.... for e.g.- a student who gets 90.5% and another student who gets 80.5%, both come under the same distinction or category of A2. this may be unfair for students.. in fact, i have experienced it in our term assessments..!!! Mr. kapil is fastly becoming an emerging icon in every student's mind... he is an autonomous personality... Being the first batch to witness these reforms, i.e. the class of 2011, I am myself feeling proud and this year will be great for us... And also by 2020 as India is going to have the highest number of young population, if the children now are groomed in the right way, we can imagine what would be the status and position of our country and it will become a super power in all fields.... i am always by your side to support any change... Although I dont usually comment on blogs, I read your blogs always at regular intervals and am waiting and wanting to see many such articles and power punched punches.....!!!
From yours dear:-
Vamshi Krishna. G (IX - A)