Pause, think, explore

             The philosopher Martin Heidenberg’s reputation was tarnished for his association with Nazism. However, one of the concepts which he popularised was the concept of being ‘thrown into the world’. Among the many aspects of the world that we are thrown into, one is acquiring an education. Given the vast inequalities in society, education remains a privilege which few enjoy to its fullest. Therein lies a great contradiction in how to approach education. Consider it a fundamental right and distribute it like food grains to the hungry, irrespective of whether the food is palatable or not? Or let young adults choose whether they want to pursue education or take their time to figure out what they want?

            As a teacher in a mid-ranking undergraduate college in Kolkata, I roam past the empty classrooms and corridors. The experience is not unique across the vast education landscape of India. I hear young schoolboys discussing in my swimming pool changing room that ten percent of their class turns up on Saturdays. I hear computer science professors in the top-ranked state university in India discussing the ten percent attendance in the fourth year of undergraduate studies. I read online posts made by students of one of the top-ranked private engineering institutes in India that since students who study there did not make it to the IITs and that they pay hefty course fees, the institute takes a lenient view of student attendance. As an examiner of undergraduate answer scripts, I often serve as the head examiner of exams in which eighty percent of the students fail to pass, which would not have been the case had these students actually turned up and listened to what the teacher was saying. As an invigilator, I am often surprised at the end of my invigilation period when I see that the attendance sheet is only half full.

            What causes this disinterest in studies? When I was an undergraduate student at the top-ranked English department in India, attendance was more than eighty percent in all classes. What ticked for my classmates back then which students fail to find in their classes nowadays?

            Galileo’s idea of inertia may be useful as a metaphor over here. Some of my work colleagues who are new parents talk about the excitement that their children felt on initially going to school but they felt disenchanted soon after. As colleagues who are also parents, they speak about the anguish that they feel over their children’s educational progress, and that the career trajectory that they foresee for themselves in their school years is not how it turns out later in life.

            Being thrown into the world, we are thrown into the educational system and thereafter the inertia of motion continues till we complete our studies and start looking for a job. This inexorable motion of the educational process frowns upon pauses and breaks. University admissions often accept applications from students who have graduated within the two preceding years. Gap years are considered a sign of waywardness. In the employment circuit, we are often asked to explain our career breaks and it is often seen as one more reason to reject an applicant.

            The Finnish public school education system since the 1990s has been well-lauded (and taken out of its context and tried to be copied in India, most egregiously by extremely expensive private schools, thereby rendering it nonsensical). The Irish gap year system since the mid-1990s has been less well-lauded and copied across the world. In Ireland, there is a gap year between what is class ten and class eleven in India. In my opinion, there should at least be two gap years, one between class ten and eleven, and one between class twelve and choosing to apply for higher education.

            If we look at the ‘Education Statistics at a Glance’ report which used to be brought out by the Indian ministry of education (when it was called the HRD ministry), we will realise that the gross enrolment ratio does not decline gradually throughout. There are sharp drop-offs after class ten and after class twelve. The school meal programme ends after class eight. Some students and families decide they have had enough. Given the mismatch in skills required for jobs and the education imparted in schools and universities, unemployment and more importantly under-employment (working in jobs which require a far lower skill-level than the ones which people possess) are rife in India. Official statistics about how happy the population is and how low unemployment is tell a story which the story tellers echo but few read or listen and fewer believe in.

            The new education policy envisages a dropping in and joining in mechanism with an academic bank of credit. Yet, the admission policies of universities often do not even encourage many years of gaps, let alone having got their heads around the new policy.

            What could a student do in a gap year? Is it an incentive to roll back the gross enrolment ratio? Quantity over quality may be the story of modern India’s growth trajectory.  In gap years, the privileged and the self-motivated can learn various skills and explore many aspects without the pressure of being assessed. For the less privileged, it may mean the lack of access to a safe space outside the dangers, if any, of the home. On the other hand, if there is a high rate of absenteeism, despite the school space, it may mean that it is not enough to attract the student. Peer groups often dictate our life choices. Juvenile criminals are often those who spend time outside the school. Hanging out with such groups, instead of being in school, pre-disposes one to pick up their ill habits.

            Despite the 1968 Kothari’s commission’s six percent GDP spending on education never seeing the light of day even after more than half a century passing by, a little more spending would ensure the relevance of the school in the gap year and retaining the school’s association with the students. Teachers usually know a few things beyond their subjects. Learning to ride a bicycle, learning to swim, learning to cook, learning to sew, learning music, theatre, painting, sports, dance, taking one’s own sweet time to actually re-read the textbooks of earlier classes and learn the concepts in greater detail than when one barely managed to pass by finding out the quickest route to ace past the standard questions – all these activities can be performed without hiring extra teachers, if teachers are allowed to come up with their own programmes which they can teach students in the gap year and students have the opportunity to choose to learn all this at either their school or at an accredited non-governmental organisation which may be reimbursed for imparting the skills. It may go a long way in training and providing a sense of direction to young minds. One of the pitfalls of a heavily centralised model is that it leaves little room for individual endeavour. The Irish transition year system is voluntary, though supposedly ninety-nine percent schools offer it and eighty percent students opt for it. With the commodification of education happening worldwide, the Irish system has degenerated and deviated from its original plan. The gap year activities have also been seen by parents and students as activities to bump up the CV rather than learn about oneself and the world.

            In India, a gap year may prove to young minds that the world is not their oyster. Their aspirations and their skills may meet earlier than they do so now. They may also find some breathing space in the world that we are thrown into and get rid of some of the heartbreak they find themselves in later on in life when they rue the educational path that they embarked on many years ago.