Education's cardinal sin

With the joint family system disintegrating by late 70’s, the era of the nucleus family began.

Families became smaller and smaller. By 90’s,couples were forced to have only one child, especially in India. There were compulsions from the society to reduce the population growth. With the joint family system breaking up, young couple found it economically non viable to support more than two children. The 80’s and 90’s also saw more and more women taking up jobs in order to make both ends meet as also to improve the standard of living in a world, which has become more and more materialistic.

The parents were unable to spend enough time with their toddlers as they struggled to cope up with the twin demands of work and the family.This necessitated in the child having to start the schooling at the tender age of 2 ½ as against 5, which is preferable.

The period 2 ½ - 5 is crucial as this is the time when the Child's basic value system is crystallized. Parents constraints on time forced them to leave the child either at day care centres, play schools or with maids who were illiterate. This has turned out to be a major catastrophe.

Sensing an opportunity the educational system in the private sector swung into action. Countless schools sprang up in every nook and corner of the country. The respective governments turned a blind eye to this, as education was no longer a priority for the powers that be. Shifting the responsibility to private sector, in fact, suited them, as primary education was never a vote-catching issue in India. The fly by night operators started schools and colleges with hardly any facility, without any prescribed syllabus and qualified teachers. The Teachers Training Programs conducted by the Government, which is a pre -requisite for getting a Teachers Job, were so outdated that it has no relevance in today’s world. Quality of education suffered in the bargain.

Education became a Business. And the bottom line became Profitability.

There is nothing wrong in this. As a Management Professional, I whole-heartily support the view that any business has to run at a profit, or at least it should not run at a loss.But where the current education system has failed is in developing the right product. And it has failed miserably.

And this business has done the cardinal sin of not identifying the Customer.

The customer has to be the Child, not the parents.

(to be continued)