‘Time to revamp education system’ : Venita Kau

Venita Kau

Emeritus professor calls for universalisation of quality school education

The world forward is not necessarily the three career choices — engineering, accountancy and medicine. It is opening up for new start-up initiatives that are going to be the future of the country, said Venita Kaul, professor emeritus (education), Ambedkar University, Delhi.

“Are we preparing our children for that? Are we giving them those skills,” she asked delivering the ninth memorial oration of the Kuruvila Jacob Initiative For Promoting Excellence In School Education organised by Kuruvila Jacob Memorial Education Trust.

“There is a need to introspect and see where we are today in terms of our education system and the status of learning continuum of education starting from pre-primary to higher education.

“In a recent study done in three States, we found that a large number of pre-school children came out of it without [the necessary] competency. We didn’t find even one classroom that had any play opportunities for children of this age. They were doing only rote memorisation of alphabets and numbers,” she said.

Holistic education

In secondary level, they were alarmed to see children enrolled in schools but attending tuitions too. “What’s the holistic education we talk about? They are only preparing for exams and admissions,” she said.

She noted that the need of the hour was to ensure there was universalisation of school education with quality. “Children need interactive and participative teaching sessions they can engage in, without any threat or fear. Policy level reforms are needed to execute this,” she noted.

As part of the Kuruvila Jacob Initiative for Promoting Excellence in School Education, various teacher training programmes were organised and certificates were given.

N. Murali, chairman, Kasturi and Sons Limited, and S. Viji of Kuruvila Jacob Memorial Education Trust, spoke on the occasion.