COMPULSORY FORMAL EDUCATION
A travesty!
VED from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS
It is foretold! The torrential flow of inexorable destiny!
KNOWLEDGE IS NOT POWER; HIGHER FEUDAL INDICANT WORDS IS
The FRAILITY of ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE
MENIAL CLASS as TEACHERS
I started my studies in a British curriculum school and later was crudely shifted to an English medium but, Malayalam speaking school when I was in my fifth class. The difference that I experienced between these two educational systems can be read from this link. In the former, only the menial workers used lower indicant pejorative words to the students. However, in the latter the teaching class used these words to the students. In many ways, the teachers of the latter schools were of the menial class behavioural mode.
WHAT ENGLISH DID LEND
One of my parents was a senior state government officer. Being good in English and also because of holding a senior official post, the general feeling was that she was quite intelligent and capable. For, English communication codes could help her override the limiting word structures of Malayalam, and allow her to express with more directness and articulation to her seniors than could be possible in Malayalam.
WHAT FEUDAL LANGUAGES UNDID
However, when I was getting into my college, I was bothered about one fact. Even though many other persons, who were involved in many other professions like businesses etc. showed her exquisite levels of homage and respect, as if she was the repository of many knowledge, basically she did not know much about the world. It was true that from a mentality of an official class family, many other professions were viewed with disdain, for those professionals had to invariably show respect to the officialdom. The other professionals also carried this mental inferiority complex about their own professions and businesses, for they also acknowledged their inferiority with regard to the officials of all levels. For the officials could literally make them beg for mercy, by withholding various papers, licenses, certificates etc. if they acted too smart.
I also had this feeling that she was quite well-informed. For, she would speak with a lot of authority on many themes connected to various government functions and also from a frame of knowing about other places, at least from her reading knowledge. Yet, later, much later, I came to understand that her information on a lot many things connected to government procedures were of the minimal, or non-existent. For example, when I was involved in business, there were the various government procedures connected to sales tax, and vehicle permits. {Almost all of them were of the nonsensical levels, and the wording carefully crafted to lend the official concerned the right ability to harass and fleece the common man. And to garner a lot of money for the luxurious pay and perks of the government employees}.
In spite of being uninformed in these matters, the general feeling was that she was quite capable and well-informed. However, when I chanced to come across persons who were quite well-informed in these and many other matters, they were mentally struck by a feeling of inferiority when dealing with the bureaucracy. For, it is in the feudal language codes. The words for the government employee are of the golden levels, while for the common man, it can down from a slight lessening to real abominable levels.
KNOWLEDGE IS NOT POWER; HIGHER FEUDAL INDICANT WORDS IS
Looking back, it is quite easy to see and understand that my mother’s seemingly extraordinary capabilities were more or less connected to her government position, the elevation given to her by the feudal word codes and her own ability to escape from its thraldom through English. The others were burdened by all these. Again here it is seen that it is not knowledge that really gave the seeming intelligence, but rather other extraneous things.
THE VOID IN MY KNOWLEDGE
I was reasonably good in Physics, in that I had a very good awareness of such concepts as Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and many other themes in modern physics as well as in astronomy, at around my Class 9 age. However, there was a lot of other information all around me, which were treated with quite obvious scorn, by the academicians. Lorries were seen bringing in rice, wheat, vegetables, and many other things. Where were they bringing all these things from? Where were all these things being grown? What about the other immensity of things like plastics materials, machines, newspapers, books, textiles, leather goods and such things being brought from? How were they being manufactured? I could quite easily understand that after even spending some 17 years in formal education, one was not going to get any information or capacity in most of the activities with which the world was really involved with. Everyday we buy fish. That thing really connected my mind to the sea. Could I swim in the sea or go in a boat? Well, no. Did my teacher know anything about fishing or going in the sea? Doubtful!
A FARCE in the COLLEGE
What was I really learning from 17 to 20 years in the schools and colleges? I knew swimming, but most of my classmates did not know it. I wanted to take part in the sports activities in the college. But then, when I was in my Pre-degree (Class 11 and 12), my college actively lobbied in the university and brought in a sports (athletes) team. These were basically students who had not got minimum pass marks in their tenth class exam, but were given moderation due to their being goods in some sports activities. They were from a sports school, where they were fed and trained into sort of giants. My college was focused on them in their sports activities, and the other real students were literally not cared for. It was impossible for the real students to get any space in the college’s preoccupation with these imported persons, who were there not for any academic reasons.
I mention this to delineate what the local education lends to an ordinary individual. I had interest in football, but in my school days, there was no formal time for such things. However, if one has connections to outside teams, there was chance to play such games. But then, again it is not connected to formal education. It is an outside-the-school experience.
A CAMPAIGN to FOOL the PEOPLE
In the college, I could learn Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, English and Malayalam. Well, I was reasonably good in English, yet there was much space for improving. However most of the classmates were from Malayalam medium schools, and were quite poor in English. So the teachers had to teach at their levels. Like making them write insipid notes, along with spelling out most words. It was an English learning that was quite awful. As to the students from the Malayalam medium, they had been fooled by their low-standard teachers, who not only did not know English, but also actively campaigned against them being taught English. As to the English teachers in the college, most of them were of horrible standards in English. However, some of them were of quite good standards. Yet, their calibre was simply wasted teaching the Malayalam medium students at nonsensical levels.
COMPULSORY MALAYALAM
Now about the subject Malayalam. Actually, it was aimed at increasing the knowledge of Malayalam literature for the students. Whether it is worth the efforts and distraction is questionable. For Malayalam is the local vernacular. Anyone can improve his or her language skills by simply reading the newspapers and other reading materials available in plenty. And watching the visual media. Teaching it as a subject is also okay. But to make it a compulsory subject more or less makes the whole concept of education nonsense. Education is an opportunity for individuals to learn what they want, and not a situation wherein they are forced to learn things fro which they have no aptitude. Even though I did attend some of the Malayalam periods, I did not study much. However, since I had an innate liking for old Malayalam film songs, I am reasonably good in Malayalam. I do English-to-Malayalam and Malayalam-to-English translation works at times as part of my freelance working stance. However, it is doubtful if I could write one paragraph correctly in Malayalam during my college days. Again, it is plain that my knowledge in Malayalam is also not connected to the compulsory Malayalam study that I was subjected to.
The FRAILITY of ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE
Now, to speak about my Physics class. The teachers definitely knew much more textbook Physics than me. There can be no doubt about that. However, I had an inner feeling that if I were to discuss many other outside-the-textbook themes that I was keenly interested in, in Physics, they would draw a blank. During my 9 to 12 class age, I was a keen reader of a Magazine called, SCIENCE TODAY. {Incidentally, it suddenly changed its name to 2001AD and changed into a more chic design, and died, as it lost all visual connection with its earlier form}. This magazine was a very good one, and even by modern standards, it was great reading.
The contents were of very good quality and elevation. And quite readable. Once I did show it to one of my professors, and I was shocked to see that he was not even aware of this magazine. One of the themes in Physics of which I was an avid reader in this magazine was news to him in every sense. Like most other Physics lectures, he had also written an M.Sc exam studying his textbooks and later landed the lecturers post. Everything outside the academic syllabus was quite unknown to him and also quite irrelevant to him. All that was relevant in the academic world was exam marks. {However, I must mention that as a person this lecturer was a nice person, and my relationship with him was cordial}.
CODES of COMMUNICATION
But then, the teacher-student relationship in colleges was just like the menial class versus student communication code in my early British Curriculum school. Some to the teachers used to address the students with crude low indicant level Malayalam words. However, there are two things to be mentioned here. One is that the college was in South Kerala, and so the teacher-student communication was not as crude as in Malabar, where the Malayalam pejorative words for the subordinates and students were of a worse kind. However, in the Southern Malayalam of those times, the teachers had to be addressed with more elevated feudal words, than was required in Malabar of those times. However, now Malabar has both: more derogative words for lower persons (this is natural in Malabar), and more elevated feudal words for the teachers (this is imported from the south).