Preparing for the Rat-Race Ahead
By Manu Shrivastava
When it comes to pre-primary education, the focus of nurseries and playschools has shifted from engaging children in creative activities for healthy growth and development to preparing them for the rat race that lies ahead – admission to a ‘good’ school, performing ‘well’ in academics and getting a well-paying job in the future.
Modern pre-primary schools have forgotten the importance of non-formal education i.e. the purpose of pre-primary education.
The process of admission to a ‘good’ elementary school itself is extremely stressful for parents and the pressure percolates down to the children also. Pre-primary education centres have made the most use of this race to get into a reputed primary school and many now teach the basics of formal education to children in nurseries, even playschool.
So, this means that at the very beginning of their lives, children are judged for their performance or non-performance in tests and activities devised by other individuals. Also, all children are judged on the same parameters and put into boxes, ranked, rewarded and punished. It is no secret that every child is different. Every child is unique and has a natural talent and aptitude for something specific.
Someone may be good at learning numbers, other might be good at drawing while someone else be good at sports. So, putting all of them through the same standardised test and then marking them for their performance is not only illogical but also inhuman. It is the chronological grading system in formal education that makes matters worse.
Even if children do not take their performance in these tests seriously, their teachers and the parents ensure that the child does not forget how important it is to excel in these tests and exams.
For children going to playschools and nurseries it is not a healthy environment as instead of learning to be kind to each other and share things with everyone around, they learn to be selfish, focus only on themselves and see their friends through the prism of their performance and their ‘ranks’ in the class.
When it comes to pre-primary education, the focus of nurseries and playschools has shifted from engaging children in creative activities for healthy growth and development to preparing them for the rat race that lies ahead – admission to a ‘good’ school, performing ‘well’ in academics and getting a well-paying job in the future.
Modern pre-primary schools have forgotten the importance of non-formal education i.e. the purpose of pre-primary education.
The process of admission to a ‘good’ elementary school itself is extremely stressful for parents and the pressure percolates down to the children also. Pre-primary education centres have made the most use of this race to get into a reputed primary school and many now teach the basics of formal education to children in nurseries, even playschool.
So, this means that at the very beginning of their lives, children are judged for their performance or non-performance in tests and activities devised by other individuals. Also, all children are judged on the same parameters and put into boxes, ranked, rewarded and punished. It is no secret that every child is different. Every child is unique and has a natural talent and aptitude for something specific.
Someone may be good at learning numbers, other might be good at drawing while someone else be good at sports. So, putting all of them through the same standardised test and then marking them for their performance is not only illogical but also inhuman. It is the chronological grading system in formal education that makes matters worse.
Even if children do not take their performance in these tests seriously, their teachers and the parents ensure that the child does not forget how important it is to excel in these tests and exams.
For children going to playschools and nurseries it is not a healthy environment as instead of learning to be kind to each other and share things with everyone around, they learn to be selfish, focus only on themselves and see their friends through the prism of their performance and their ‘ranks’ in the class.
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