Our educational system

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I decided to create this topic to discuss our educational systems. There was a post which Orwell made in another thread which got me to think. I thought I'd create a separate thread as this post is not relevant to that thread (which is likely to be deleted anyway).

Our education system and intelligence are not compatible with each other. The format we use is a centralised version of Plato's Akademia. As for me, I support the educational system of FLAME - Foundation for Liberal and Management Education. Their method - The lecturer frames his/her own syllabus, teaches in his/her own way, and decides how to grade by his/her own method. The student can take any subject he/she wishes. One subject can be taken, or even 10, provided the timings don't clash with each other. Also, the teaching in FLAME is cooperative, the students give their opinions on what topics are relevant and what are not, so that the syllabus can be changed on the spot. FLAME is actually a return to Plato's Akademia. A brilliant concept.

Let's take my college, for example. My college lecturers have to teach the same syllabus which the university provides. They haven't upgraded the syllabus in over a decade. If I write about the results in the previous elections, my marks will be deducted because it's not in the syllabus! I must write exactly what exists in the text books which are de facto approved by the university. This format seems to exist mainly in third world countries like India...

Also, the method the lecturers use to correct final exam papers is appalling. They're given an "answer key", which contains all the points of an answer to a paper. If my answer does not contain the same points of the key, the marks are deducted.

How can such a system be relevant to anyone who wishes to progress?

As for the schooling system, it's just a system of tyrant versus the slave. Children are given virtually no encouragement. At least, I wasn't, and I studied at Bishop Cotton's Boys School (Bangalore), the "Eton of the East".

Well, that's my two cents. What are your views?

Peace.

I'm not familiar with FLAME, but it doesn't sound like a particularly good idea to me. Your school sounds like it's terribly run. There's a thread over in School and College life about improving our educational system. I don't understand how that quote of mine is relevant to this.

There are 16 personality types, according to the Meyers-Briggs system, and each of these may require a slightly different method of effective learning. Teaching styles might address only a couple of these, and tend to focus on only the archtypes in each. Our educational system needs to address each learning style and focus on the "Four Rs" of reading, writing, arithmetic, and reason. Public monies must be spent on quality teachers and teaching materials instead of sports, bloated bureaucracy, and un-necessary "experimental" teaching practices.

That's a good point. ^^

It's a new institution in Pune, India, which universities all over India are up in arms against.

Well, I do think you're intelligent, judging by your posts. I just meant to point out that our educational system is irrelevant. Grading has nothing to do with one's intelligence. I could have discussed in that thread, but this is more of a philosophical discussion than anything else.

Peace.

I'm too lazy to research it. From what you've described, it sounds really stupid. Just another fancy "new" educational technique that sounds like it was probably thought up while someone was really, really high.


Grades have something to do with how well you perform in the class, which is in most cases pretty well related to some combination of intelligence and effort put forth, or at least aptitude for the specific subject.

As far as schooling, it definitely needs to be done better, such as allowing more advanced students to study higher level material rather than leaving them to rot for nearly a decade before challenging them, providing earlier access to a wider variety of subjects, etc.

It's actually been considered a threat by most universities. There were many petitions to the central government to shut it down. It's a very expensive institution, and the sons & daughters of many politicians are studying there.



When I was in school, most of the top rankers were quite dumb. Their method of studying was mugging up the answers given in their notes. There was no real attempt to understand.

Peace.

Eventually, such methods fail. You can't memorize all of calculus, or chemistry. Nor can apply such methods to any type of composition or writing course, or even to a respectable literature course. At my high school, it was easy enough for the top students to get all A's (due to grade inflation) that the rank was just decided by how many AP classes you took, which was determined largely by outside classes taken over the internet.

War.

Now that's...umm...startling. o___o

Personally, my main criticism against the educational system is that, in schools, children are not encouraged to practice their abilities. In fact, the communist states had a much better policy when it came to education, regarding this. Yet, the tyrant vs slave phenomenon is still present.

I'll take a recent event into consideration. A reknown political science lecturer appeared as a guest in my college. His speech was remarkably pro-congress. Also, he only talked about independence, the role of the congress party, India's development, blah blah. It was the most biased lecture I had in my entire life. On top of that, he made several mistakes. Several. I got up, and voiced my opinions against him in a polite manner. The principal came up to me, and threatened to suspend me in front of everyone, if I didn't shut up. At this point, I got fed up with the system.

Peaceful Jihad.