Learn the hard way

The United Kingdom government is planning to limit the use calculators in primary schools to encourage children develop skills in basic maths. This comes a year after the school league table produced by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranked the United Kingdom 28th for maths skills across the developed world. Too much dependence on the gadget has created a generation of children who are unable to do basic maths using reliable written methods of addition, subtraction, times tables etc. Now the government wants to correct the mistakes of the past by introducing time tested methods of arithmetic.

It is not only in maths that average students in the UK fare poorly, I have hardly seen any person who has been educated in the UK schools with reasonably good and legible handwriting. A recent study has also highlighted the pathetic literacy standard of children leaving primary schools in London. 

I am not an expert, but my apprehension is that there is a serious structural problem in the school education system in this country.

The experience of dealing with my daughter over the past three years has shown that the curriculum relied more on packaging rather than the content and there is always a tendency among the teaching community, with due respect to them and their hard work, to be 'politically correct'. By being 'politically correct', I mean that teachers shy away from candidly highlighting the shortcomings of the students and delve more on some generalised observation. The reasons could be the fear of offending the parents, as is the predominant culture among the wily politicians now not to antagonise anybody, or may be the thought that any such blunt yet honest comment would be construed as a failure of the teachers themselves. After all, many things in Britain are now measured by the fulfilment of certain set targets. 

At the end of every term, the parents get a chance to have a 15-minute audience with the class teacher. In every meeting that we have attended so far, the teachers have tried to impress upon us how good our daughter was (and this is pretty much the experience with most of the parents of school going children we know of). Such has been the experience, that now at the beginning of every meeting we tell the teacher that we want to hear about her drawbacks so that we could work around those issues.

I'm not denying that encouragement and praise are necessary for a child's physical, psychological and intellectual development, but just for the sake of being 'politically correct' the teachers should not refrain from calling a spade a spade.

I still remember how my late grandfather ensured that I wrote a page everyday in English and Bengali to improve my handwriting, which in the first few years was pathetic to say the least. Now I realise what an asset a good handwriting is. I do not support regimentation as a way of life and am all for attitudinal choice and freedom of thoughts, yet the importance of a degree of discipline cannot be denied in the formative years.

Lack of discipline has produced a generation in the UK, who is totally insensitive to the virtues of modern life. Britain's obsession with unqualified freedom, without any compulsion of sharing responsibility has created citizens who are wrapped in cotton wool by the state but have no stake in the well being of the country. Till recently, it was profitable to receive benefits rather than going for jobs.

Those who abuse the system of social security in Britain or circumvent rules to lead a lazy life are probably oblivion of the hardship that ordinary Britons have undergone during the post-war period. 

Aspiration for a better life and commitment for the well being of the society are something which Britain needs today. The primary school teachers have a lot to offer on that front. The success, however, depends on the support the teaching community gets from the government in particular and the society in general in  mentoring young minds, rather than meeting 'faceless numerical targets' to serve certain 'political purposes'.  

All comments are personal and have no bearing on others.