The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is considering introducing two tiers of science and social science in classes 9 and 10, allowing students to choose “standard” or “advanced” level learning. A similar model already exists for mathematics (standard and easy, “basic” level) for grade 10 students.
According to the board, this will allow students who wish to study these subjects in class 11 and 12 to get a headstart on their chosen discipline. A “basic” level study of some subjects will take the pressure off.
Details on how the scheme will be implemented are not available. However, this command economy approach to knowledge is not only flawed, but also dangerous. Here are four reasons.
First, it furthers the factory-ification of schools, where the goal of education is to create a product suitable for the job market, and education is not the goal in itself. The idea basically says: if you want to study subject X, focus all your attention on it, and other, less important subjects may fall by the wayside. What knowledge is “less important” for a 13-14 year old? At this stage, young minds need rounded exposure to all kinds of knowledge, influences, ways of thinking. If mathematics teaches you logical thinking, social science teaches you analytical skills, literature teaches you empathy. Science inspires curiosity, and inspires you to ask questions and seek answers.
Beyond all this, and perhaps most important, is the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. The beauty and wonder – and power – of being informed, of learning new ways to use your mind, of realizing you can solve problems, express your ideas. Seeing the world with new eyes, because now you know more about its workings, and it is communicating with you in new ways. Which of these is least important to teenagers?
Let’s look at it this way: if you are a civil engineer and you travel to a new and beautiful country, do you limit yourself to only seeing its bridges and roads, because that is only related to your chosen specialization? For the youth, the whole world is new and exciting. Why should they be limited to learning only about some aspects of it?
The new proposal is, thus, another example of the poverty of pedagogical imagination. You study so you can get good marks, you get good grades so you get into “good” (meaning branded) colleges, you go into good colleges so you get a good job. Just focus on what helps the end goal of the pay package, and forget about everything else. Offering young people such “choices” can stunt their personalities, narrow their minds, and basically keep them from enjoying all that this beautiful world has to offer them.
Second, in India, a hyper-competitive society, such categorization only creates a hierarchy of “advanced” and “basic level” students. It is true that different students have different abilities, learning abilities and learning support at home. But the answer is not to give them an easy way to pass the exam. A “weak” student deserves as much knowledge as the brightest in the class. It is the responsibility of schools to find better, more imaginative ways to teach them instead of condemning them to poor quality curriculum.
It is also true that academics can create a lot of pressure on students. But for that, the solution is to condemn “failure” and not give too much importance to grades, rather than branding some students as “entitled to the easy way out”.
Third, the best higher education institutions are recognizing that knowledge does not exist in water-tight silos of science, arts and commerce. For example, the IITs, the holy grail of engineering education, are offering courses in the humanities. CBSE’s new proposal, meanwhile, is a step in the opposite direction. Putting teenagers in a straitjacket of science or social science streams will rob them of choice. If they want to switch streams later in life, their base in other subjects will be very weak.
Fourth, in a world where misinformation is constantly pouring into your mind via the Internet, the only defense against propaganda is quality education. Students who study “advanced” levels of science and ignore the social sciences, or who focus on history, civics but ignore physics, will be more vulnerable to all kinds of misinformation and misinformation. The purpose of education – to create confident individuals equipped to face the world – will thus be defeated.