by Preeti Balakrishnan

Created on: December 05, 2008

India
is on the verge of recession. There are talks of bailout packages and layoffs. Sound familiar? Well, we should not be surprised. After all, India's economy has depended on its monopoly on outsourcing which depends on the economic situation of clients like the United States.

Dependence. It was working so well. Until the benefactor no longer has deep pockets. So what is India

to do? India
needs innovation, needs to build its own economy, create its own identity. How does India get there? Having spent a few years entrenched in the school system in a village in rural India, my perspective may be somewhat limited. Nevertheless, I have strong reason to believe that India's problem can be addressed through some major changes in the way the country approaches education.

In recent years, India's government has made efforts to universalize elementary education through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan. The government has achieved a certain degree of success, as most children are now within a mile of a school. Right now, young students are considered an empty pail, waiting to be filled. Recipients of knowledge. India
will be on the road to sustainable success when students learn how to learn, are empowered to think, become active not passive players in their education.

Despite all the jokes made about teachers, the fact remains that it is a difficult job; one that requires talent and patience. Because of factors including a lack of career guidance and incentives like job security, people enter the teaching field for the wrong reasons. As a result, many teachers scrape by with the bare minimum. It takes a lot more effort to engage students, it does not take that much work to read a book while the students copy what you say into their notebook. Only people who are passionate about teaching should join the profession. This is the country's future we are talking about.

Many studies indicate that the first five years in a child's life are the most important, developmentally. If this is the case, how much impact would universal preschool education have on the population? Currently, there are anganwadis set up throughout India
but what goes on there? At the anganwadis I have visited, there are some toys and children get a nutritious meal and have an opportunity to interact with peers and play games. But where is the stimulation? You don't need fancy lights and bells. You need talking and more cerebral activities. This will set India's children on the road to success.

My last observation is the lack of parental involvement. Achieving this is a matter of changing behavior, which is extremely difficult to achieve. But it needs to happen. In the past, parents stayed away from school for various reasons. Women may have had limited freedom to go beyond the home, parents may have felt intimidated by schools as they had not studied past 3rd standard (if at all), teachers did not make an effort to include parents in the education process. The first two barriers are not as relevant now as before. Many teachers I have spoken with have complained about the lack of good parenting and about how parents do not discipline their children. Teachers need to reach out to parents and include them in the process. Maybe then parents will think twice before they allow their children to take a week off to go to a cousin's cousin's wedding.

When India's schools teach its children to think, to be creative, to understand education not as a finite process but an ongoing one, that is when India
will have the workforce that positions the country to become an economic superpower.

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