The poem, “where the mind is without fear and the head is held high” represented Rabindranath Tagore’s dream of how the new and awakened India should be, most importantly, the youth who would be advantaged to see the free, sovereign and independent India. After 73 years of his passing away, today, we all have a question of our own, has India lived up to his dream? As a country, India has come a long way; we are a so-called free country in terms of the political rights we enjoy as citizens. However, in today’s India, there is a persisting fear among the youth–the fear of their existence in competition. Even a six-year-old child who is supposed to be at the peak of fearlessness and cheerfulness worries about exams and cut-offs. Come exams and hundreds of students surrender their youthful exuberance to the fear of examinations, the insecurity of falling below the cut-off and, at times, sink into depression leading to a fatal mental disorder.
In such situation most of the student did not find any suitable way to overcome from those mental depressions hence the choice to quit by committing suicide. According to a study by Lancet, as many as 1, 87,000 people committed suicide in India in 2010 (Volume 379, 23 June 2012). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that India records nearly 1, 70,000 suicidal deaths each year. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), nearly 1, 35,445 people took their lives in the past year. This figure of NCRB is based on police records. Since attempt to suicide is an offence in the country and stigma is attached to it, therefore many people prefer not to report such cases. Of the total cases of suicide, nearly 35 per cent were recorded in age group of 15-29 years. Meanwhile, the Lancet study pegs suicidal deaths in the same age group at 46 percent of the total. A comparison of the number of suicides in states with high literacy rates with those with low literacy rates reveals that the states with high literacy (top ten states) contribute 33 per cent to suicidal deaths. However, these states make up for not more than 21 per cent of India’s population. While the states with poor literacy rates (below ten states) contribute roughly the same to the deaths, that is, 33.2 per cent, they account for a whopping 53 percent of the country’s population. Does this discrepancy make a case in point that the rise in literacy and the reach of modern education lead to increased levels of anxiety, depression and suicide among the youth?
We cannot turn our face from reality, we have to face it, and we have to accept it that, the stress inflicting the education system in India is a replica of 21st century Western education system model of Europe. It was a product of economic circumstances that prevailed in Europe at that time and modeled to further the process of industrialization by providing skilled workers. The modern education system was oriented to gaining skills such as reading, writing, convergent thinking, numerical aptitude. It was aimed at increasing productivity rather than encouraging wisdom, confidence, warm-heartedness and life-dealing skills. The industrial revolution and the resultant material prosperity after centuries of poverty and frequent famine made people in the West feel that material prosperity is the sole cause of happiness. Subsequently, western governments started focusing on development in terms of material gain, which was measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as opposed to spiritual and psychological well-being. To this day, neither the western nations nor those where their education system was imported thought of an overhaul to provide value education.
Modern education has been over-emphasized in its role to remove the disadvantages that exist at individual, familial and society levels. Parents in India generally believe that their responsibility starts and ends with providing a good modern education. They perceive that imparting such education fulfills all the psychological, emotional, security, health needs of their children. Psychologists opine that a child’s strongest emotional bond is with his/her parents. Parents rationalize this emotional bond by making children perform under immense pressure. They either coerce or cajole their children to become part of the rat race. Jigmet Angmo, a Class XII student, aptly sums up this dilemma: “My school tells me to excel in studies. My father, who wants me to become a doctor, makes me interact with those who are doing MBBS and my brother teaches me to score well. But nobody in this world teaches me how to face life or failure and how to live a happy life.” And this is not a single story of Jigmet Angmo, I am confident, you find such story everywhere in our country.
If we think that, after attaining this type of education, good scores, degrees and grades , our youths future are become bright, then I have to say that we are going through a wrong road, because after obtaining such education there is an increased in expectations, aspirations and unrealistic ambitions. At the same time, an Indian state has not been able to provide commensurate employment opportunities. There is a lack of value system or norms that can guide the actions of the youth trapped in a situation of unlimited aspirations, which exceed the opportunities and means available to fulfill them. Consequently, unfulfilled aspirations and expectations lead many youth either to adopt unethical means to achieve the aspiration or to frustration and depression. While chasing our modern elusive dreams we have forgotten parenting as a calling and the skill to provide a value system to our children.
Thus, the first casualty of this social transformation in India is the youth. Today, it is felt that the problems that call for societal or familial or systemic intervention can be resolved on an individual level. Social thinker Ulrich Beck calls this phenomenon as disjunction between objective and subjective dimensions of life. People are increasingly seeking solutions an individual basis. Systemic failures are regarded as individual crisis and shortcomings.
However, what the youth fails to realize is the general failure in the modern education system. According to a report by Aspiring Minds, an employability solutions company, a significant number of graduates in India, nearly 47 percent, was found unemployable in every sector. This brings us to the point that, in the near future, your percentage may not be relevant to get a job—in fact; you may be gauged on the basis of your divergent thinking skills, emotional intelligence and team spirit. It is high time, we Indians realize this shift.
The present education system must be over-hauled. Presently, the exams, marks and percentage do not test a student’s abilities, skills, emotional intelligence and aptitude. Therefore it is high time we develop a scientific standard of gauging the students. The syllabus and texts taught in our schools and colleges must be drastically altered so that it helps improve our life skills or aid adjustment in society. Right now, in the name of education, a vicious cycle is creating and maintaining inequality, defeating the very purpose of education.
Reference:http://www.reachladakh.com
GK Dutta 