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Past tense, present very tense. All we can look forward to is the future which is in the hands of young. The exponential mushrooming of "Educational Institutions" led to institutions turn into factories whose primary, secondary and tertiary objective is production of educated (il)literates. The output is measured in quantity with total disregard to quality. The stakes are high. Nobody seems to be realizing that a silent concept is creeping into our education system, which lays emphasis on students developing or acquiring (dis)ability to have answers for expected questions in school / college examination, but they don't have an iota of clue for unexpected problems in real time situations in life.
Shall we fix the blame or the problem? Prudence yearns for latter. Before proceeding to do that, let us first analyze on whom to fix the blame.

Not only in alphabetical order but also in importance, the first ones to be blamed for this are Parents. The upbringing of children leaves a lot to be desired. A child who falls down while walking is not encouraged to get up on its own, instead the typical Indian mother's reaction would be to rush to the spot where the child has fallen, pick it up and console the weeping child by stamping the floor and/or in some weird cases even pour water on the floor where the child has fallen. Even though done out of utter affection and caring, this very act by mother, conveys an under lying message to the child that it is not responsible for actions committed by it and whatever happens to it is because of some thing else and not because of its inability to walk carefully and properly.

Improper training at that very young age resulted in not owning up the mistakes, which resultantly made an Indian a less confident human being than his western counterpart. The results of which are right in front of our eyes to see. We spend most of our productive time fixing the blame rather than fixing the problem. At least from now onwards, let us start fixing the problems.

Secondly, in order of importance are Teachers. They are acting as facilitators of learning rather than preceptors of knowledge. There is a concerted effort on the part of teachers to pour knowledge into the head of a student only to be poured out when required, as for example in examination hall, rather than absorption of knowledge into nervous system, which controls their behaviour. This brigade has managed to somehow sneak into educational institutions and made themselves, and thereby, the institutions, very busy in successful impartment of "actionless knowledge".

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* Contributed by -
Hanumantha Rao Turlapati,
Manager - Administration,
Delhi Public School, Hyderabad.
Published in Times of India, August 11, 2005.