Identification

0n the 19th of May a bolt from the blue fell for most of us. For the sake of the uninformed, it was the day when the results of the ISC Examinations were rather brutally declared.For some , it was a moment of great happiness,undiluted ecstasy,a kind of concentrated source of pleasure .For the majority of the people who had undertaken the examination however,it proved to be an instant of displeasure , a rather regrettable chapter and perceived setback in his /her own planned path to become a ‘success’ story in society ( with the range of reactions varying from classical invocations of divine faecal material to more  extreme no nonsense boorish reactions which I  hesitate to mention here).All in all , it was an unceremonious conclusion to an ordeal that had lasted for a time period of four months(for the majority), sometimes the entire previous year even(the ‘ecstatic’minority).

What then understandably followed was the paranoia generated in a scramble to find places in ‘premier’ institutions of higher academia in the country where to quote one such college prospectus ‘ only the best of the best of the best’ go.This is not LPU* though.Everyone is gaily invited to join them.

As mentioned earlier , the period post the declaration of results is a time period of depression,despair and dejection for a vast number of students all over the country.Albeit just another unique set of malicious looking numbers(don’t we slug it out with many in dreaded mathematics classes?), its enough to drive most of us downright senseless. There is a general decline in student morale,a freefall of general self esteem, nervous breakdowns; you name it , the student populations in our country will unquestionably exhibit it.

Also ( and no surprises here) it is the time of the year where student suicides in our country are at an all time high , much more than the average 16 per day figure.In the past three years,India has played host to over 16,000 student suicides(that’s around 5 percent of the total suiciding population of the country.It’s not only the farmers of Vidarbha ).And I don’t mean to sound melancholic but to  put things into a different perspective , that’s the equivalent of highlighting the entire student population of Rishi Valley and pressing the delete button 53 times over.

As is the case with every other quandary our beleaguered country is unnaturally blessed with , everyone loves pointing fingers at everyone else.The psychiatrists blame peaking levels of pressures a student is assailed with between their schools and parents, the parents attribute it to the unreasonable burden thrust upon the students by the school, the schools point fingers at sky high ( and rising) expectations from universities and somewhere in this whole blame game we ‘l have a couple of politicians throwing some colorful insults at each other.

Yet , despite all this distressingly enough, nothing changes, year after year. Everyone points long fingers at the education system as a whole but if one really studies the whole running of the system carefully broadly speaking the transition phase between school and college is where the majority of our problems lie.You see , the fact of the matter is that our entire school life in most cases is largely a preparation for this transitory phase.Our approach and the way we define this phase could not be worse.

Take the very examination as an illustration.When you look back at it retrospectively , it is oddly disturbing that in an examination which is viewed as being instrumental in ‘making or breaking’ your future,one is repeatedly encouraged not to be smart,not to think out of the box or be in the least bit creative .Instead you are advised to stick to a pattern, replicate material in your text books word to word .You are given lectures on time management and the questions in many cases are expected to be ‘cracked’ rather than ‘solved’ (there is a subtle difference between the two).And to sum things up you are reminded to factor in bizarre functions like the mindset of the examiner,the conditions in the correction centre that could adversely affect his mindset,the kind of education he is likely to have had and so on and so forth.Somewhere along the way , the exam loses its purpose , to be a test of intelligence.

Then take the cases on the institutions in our country that we all aim to get in to.They make their admissions based on these examinations,having sky high cut offs that could make even the ‘ecstatic majority’ quiver.They do not end up picking the ‘best of the best’( how do you even define this in the first place?) but simply , the faster crackers, the ones who can retain and replicate  scrutinized material with greater finesse.Needless to say we are not getting anywhere from this approach.

I’ve only briefly mentioned two tribulations we face; a little bit of research and one finds out that the problems are much more complex and far reaching than these.I’m not the first to talk about them(in fact all that I’m providing is sketchy reminders) , but with a little bit of luck and determination, I may be one of the last few who need to.Alternate systems of education( and smarter too!) are developing all over the country.Students , more than adequately frustrated with the brand of tutoring that is being dished out to them (it’s more of business than learning) are increasingly searching and finding rich alternatives.So, we have a frustrated student en masse , innovative and fresh alternatives and perhaps with a little more awareness ,we might have an education revolution round the corner.After all, on the lines of a famous Japanese Kotowaza(folk saying)' He wo hitte shiri tsubome'**, we need it before further damage is done

*LPU stands for Lovely Professional University (Punjab).While I may have poked some unnecessary fun at their expense,no offence was wished for.In a couple of years they could very well become a role model type institution.

**The folk saying has two interpretations.

A)There is no use in shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted or,

B)There is no point in squeezing your buttocks after you have farted.

An Ode to Sincere Education

                  The function of education is not to help the young conform to this rotten society, but to be free of its influences so that they may create a new society, a different world.                                      

    J.Krishnamurthi (Chennai 1956)

In my first year in Rishi Valley, a visiting couple posed this question to my class ‘ Is there really something unique and special about your school or is it just a cake that looks really attractive on the outside but tastes like any other cake on the inside? ‘

Five years hence and honestly, I never did manage to come up with a satisfying response to that question or to any of similar kind( in my passionate defense , before I’m written off as being incapable of generating a normal rational thought process I spent most of my time in school  like most other kids, doing  things Apart from wondering what made it so special).Retrospectively however , having graduated from school a mere four weeks back and now moving on to higher academia , the question has gained a certain relevance and importance as it essentially helps in establishing benchmarks by which one can view and judge future institutions

Rishi Valley is not a supernatural institution. The misconception must be cleared at the very onset itself. Like any other institution in our country it too faces a common set of inhibitions and challenges at every level. Chronic problems like the strain of having to rush to complete the prescribed syllabus, pre examination tensions (and in some cases, post examinations tensions as well), student behavioral issues, financial issues and so on and so forth are very much part of the school’s daily running. In a sense that is the very beauty of it all. The fact that it is so like and yet in a lot of special ways very unlike.

I am a self confessed connoisseur of schools having studied (to use a mild lie) in a variety of schools to this day. The biggest and glaring difference (some people have suffered from culture shock, I had a version of school shock) was the relationship we developed with our teachers. Being in a boarding school where you essentially live with your teachers all around the clock has its unique set of benefits. Your relationship with your teachers evolves into so much more than just than that of an educator and an educatee (before you Google search, such a word does exist). Educator, enemy, parent, constant mentor, coach, fellow teammate and friend are the dynamic ways

in which liaison with teachers evolve. Sometimes it seems almost incredulous! But the fact of the matter is that it is and this goes a long way to facilitate the learning process in a student. Unlike under normal circumstances where one studied out a sense of compulsion and possibly fear, through our relationships with our teachers an environment of learning was generated through a spirit of respect , friendship , admiration and most importantly curiosity. Out of experience I can assure you I engaged myself more with what I absorbed when I had the latter approach.

Learning in school was never restricted to the classroom. Whether it was through talking to visitors at the school, assemblies, working on the land, to spending quiet time on asthachal or through the various forums for different activities and interests present in school learning never stopped. Instead, it took a variety of forms be intellectual, physical or philosophical (another misconception however is that most students from Rishi Valley turn out to be crack pot philosophers. This is an erroneous belief. Only some do.).To sum it up in today’s world where in every school  right from a Government High School in Bihar to one of the various Blessed Something schools present in Kerala , promises  ‘holistic education and development’, studying in Rishi Valley was the closest I have ever been to this mystical notion.

As a close friend put it there is a certain ‘freshness’ in the environment that inspires creativity and curiosity. From all the beauty of the pristine campus, to the genuinely committed teachers who are willing to clock in an extra mile for the enthusiastic student to a philosophy that gives the institution it’s structure that focuses on growth for a better change rather than a preparation to adapt into an existing system, in my opinion the school has managed to carve itself a separate niche in the field of education

Like any system, some students manage to engage itself completely with everything the school has to offer and thus thrive in such a system. Unfortunately there are some who do not use the opportunities that the school provides its students and thus waste their time at the school. As one of my teachers once put it ‘Some students come and go and look back at this place as a school. Some however transform their time here into so much more’. Perhaps my only regret on completing my schooling is that I wish that I had made better usage of the opportunities granted to me.

Though the school is curtailed by academic restraints of syllabus, curriculum and examinations, wherever possible it does try and allow the student to have his or own space to think, grow and learn. As a Chinese proverb goes’ Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve and I’ll understand ‘ and that was how I was taught.