School: A Temple of Learning or Business Houses!

Exams are over, results are out, new sessions are beginning this upcoming week. Everybody is busy with school purchasing and preparations for the new grade! There is an obvious enthusiasm in the kids. 

We all know the basic necessity for schools/colleges or any sort of studies are the books! The books that prepare us, the books that help us learn, the books that teaches us lessons, help clear exams and score well. I tagged the books as the basic necessity because no student is a student without books in hand. The question arises, why the basic necessity that serves so many purposes are sold in the market with prices that costs us an arm and leg! We say ' education for all' but how will everybody afford education if the basic need 'books' too will be sold at unbelievable prices! Parents are already burdened with the high fee structures of the schools and now the books too have added to it. On one hand we talk of providing access to free education for kids up-to 14 years of age and on the other hand we let the private institutions take all that they can out of the parents.  Parents too have no option other than to adhere to the demands of the school in this super competitive world, in search of quality of education!

According to an article in Indian express on July 31st 2015, CBSE has made a very clear statement saying the schools affiliated to it have to follow the syllabus prescribed by NCERT up-to class 8!

The circular was issued by the board following a series of complaints stating that many schools have been forcing students and parents to buy textbooks other than those prescribed by the NCERT.

It states: “The board has received reports and complaints regarding the pressure exercised in many schools on children and their parents to purchase excessive number of textbooks. It was brought to our notice that parents are being forced to buy textbooks by private publishers, other than NCERT which are not not only costly but voluminous, and unscientifically designed.”

Today, when we're aiming at not over burdening the kids with more books in bag than required, the burden of books to the kids and their ever rising prices to the parents is seen only increasing all these years! Last week, while accompanying my neighbor to buy books for her kid who just got promoted in class IV, the shopkeeper billed her for Rs. 2500, out of which Rs. 1950 were for books he would 'probably' be finishing it all this year in school. After coming home I just thought of checking the prices of books available with NCERT as per their prescribed curriculum, and this was totally shocking because all the books prescribed by them, in their publication, in total, cost less than Rs. 500 for whole class IV syllabus. The books we just bought not only are expensive but some of them are unnecessary too.

We live in a country where rich are less in percentage, middle class are the next share holders and majority are the lower middle class or poor, as we name it. Everybody wants their kids to have quality education no matter what social background the people come from. But our structures are designed keeping in mind the rich, the higher middle class. Rs. 2500 is not big deal for them, but what about the majority of our people, who earns around Rs. 10000 a month, actually less than that, will he have no difficulties spending Rs. 2500 for his kids books? Of-course, he will invest, he won't deny, because he knows what education today means and how education would help his kids in future,but the burden it bears upon him, his mental burden, nobody  knows that!

I don’t think the English book offered by NCERT is any way less than the private publication English books.

I don’t think the Hindi and Hindi grammar books offered by NCERT at half a price teach our kids something less than what we pay for the private publication books.

I don't think the Math NCERT book teaches less maths or some lower standard of 'addition', 'subtraction', 'division', or 'multiplication', than those expensive private publication books!

I don’t think the complementary handwriting book have really helped the majority perfect their handwriting either!

I don’t think questioning a 9 year old on what is Windows XP and New Logo Primitives will help him anyway in future until and unless he knows how to operate a computer!

I don’t really think the books on "lets speak English" have really helped much of the kids in speaking English, but practicing basic English in class with the teachers in day to day lives was a better option to rely upon!

Well, "Ache Din" are definitely here for the schools, the book sellers, but not for the buyers, the parents!