We asked parents on what they feel about – Cost Of Education will be a major concern in the near future. Here is what they had to say:

DrChiranjib Deb
I see cost of education is a major concern even in present days…yes it will be of more concern in the near future…but who are responsible for this…we blame politician,we blame private sectors,we blame standard of education in govt school,a…nd we blame everyone….but excluding us….have we ever thought that we are also responsible for this?????yes…we are equally responsible for this….I have seen people,rather its amongst that ,they think there will be some special development among students if they are admitted in private schools….I agree that these days govt schools are not not up to the mark,not able to give quality education…but its because of their limitation…or in some case because of some negligence….it might be that they are not getting the remuneration that probably they are expecting, then many other factors do work,…govt schools are not getting enough infrastructure……but if we look at the background ,then probably we will find out that some of the very top professionals come from poor family,and they get education in govt schools and at reasonable cost….so I believe its in our mindset that we developed already that without money ,probably education is difficult….but I believe if we work upon our mindset,our plan..then education is still affordable at reasonable cost….lets organize our mindset,that it’s our mind that guide our plan…but being said so I do agree also that private institutions give quality education with quality infrastructure….but if we can get quality infrastructure from authority in govt schools and if we can organize our mindset,and if we convince ourselves that we can have quality education at reasonable cost….then probably it will be a much more optimistic approach

Kailash Sharma
Cost of Education is a major concern. If the govt. provides scholarship to all students without considering any ground of reservation like cast, religion, economy & other. Govt. is providing mid day meal in all govt. schools. All govt. schools may converted into day boarding schools. Teachers should stay 24 hours, 6 days in school for consult the subject for students. Books, stationary & other accessories are not the major part. Fee should be reduced up-to affordable limit.

Sia Sharma
After reading everybody’s views, i come to a conclusion that everybody is describing d problem in 1 way or d other. Ever person is concerned but no1 including me want to take a step. Y we always lend d blame on others, specially polititions…, when deep in our hearts v all know that polititions cant be true even to their families. I beg ur pardon 4 getting away from the topic. Yes i also agree to d fact that rising educational costs can make any parent go boo hoo. When a child is born, parents start planning his future. Earlier parents used to save 4 their child’s marriage, now they save 4 their studies. Even to take admission in nursery u hav to pay 20,000 donation, n fees extra. D worst part is that u hav to give entrance exam to get ur child admitted to a gud n reputed school. I agree that competition has increased n education scope has also increased but we must think about those hu hardly live their livelihoods. A person who earn 50 rupee per day, how can he pay his kids fees. V must nt forget dt 70% india is below poverty line. No matter how much educated v becom if poor do nt get d benefits, india can never grow.

Rashida Jasdanwala
“The sky’s the limit” was a term coined by Cervantes in Don Quixote which means there is no apparent limit. That is exactly what is happening in today’s scenario. There is no limit to price rise in any arena. The rate of inflation is so hig…h that all levels of society are getting affected not just the middle class. Coming to education, IT IS going to get dearer. On one hand we speak of educating all children and on the other hand the basic as well as specialized education is getting pricey. What does one do? Where do we go? Whom do we blame? How do we deal with this topic? Can we all take a stance, can we create mass awareness, can we stir up a movement to deal with this issue? Somewhere we have to take ownership to curb the over pricing of at least basic education so there is 100% literacy in our country. Simultaneously we need to rework the rising prices of specialized education in India first and thus set an example for the rest of the world. Sounds very idealistic but if we don’t start now we can only then continue cribbing forever. Let’s join hands for a better future in education for not just your or mine but ALL THE CHILDREN.

Parveen Bobby
Instead of distributing free color tV’s, Gas stoves……the government can supply free text books for all classes from kg to X!!for both Pvt and government schools ie as soon as samacheer kalvi is formed . cos eventhough the government has fixed the fee structure from 2010,many pvt schools have collected full fees.

Ramnik Sandhu
yes of course cost of education…..as we all knw education is bcming costly wid evry cming day…..4 a common man it hs bcme difficult to afford higer education..esp when u talk bout professional courses…..so it wont b wrong to sat dat education will b major concern…and we r all well aware dat widout education a nation cnnot evn dream of developing..isnt dat true??? so wt r ur views…..do we need to tk steps dat education reaches evry hand…..

Man Yusuf
Cost of education will be a major concern in the near future particularly in the developing countries where prudent utilization of resources are a big problem. This attitude hinders the provision of better formal education to all children; since education is agreed to as insurance for better tom…orrow, then any hindrance will breed a “tsunami” for the universe by extension. Every child should be entitled to opportunity for education that is available and affordable in order to have a decent and meaningful contribution to life.

Parents play an imp role in child’s education,……parent should encourage their child, help them with their studies n should spent an imp amount of time in discussing various subjects, GK, sports, ETC n one imp thing is parent should make… their child’s pillar hard n tough by teaching them proper basics of studies which will help child in his every level……1st teacher of child is mum, then pa n then finally the educational teachers….a baby already starts learning from his moms womb n than from others after coming in this beautiful world.

Saving for college has a lot of variables attached to it that are almost as tough to forecast. A lot can happen between now and then to our personal finances, the tax code and the formula for granting aid. And we really have no way of knowing how much scholarship or grant money will be available until our child applies. But don’t let that discourage us from getting started. Start early and save regularly can be the only mantra.

As their children grow up, every set of parents has a different idea as to what should be the main focus of their upbringing and how they should spend their free time, especially when it comes to extra-curricular activities.  Some parents place a huge emphasis on academics and want their children doing extra reading or working with a tutor.  Other parents are heavily into sports and want their children to focus on sports.  Some parents simply want their children to be children and don’t push them in any particular direction at all.

In most cases, schools give children at least some opportunity to participate in a team sport.  Along with the team sports that are taught during physical education classes, there are usually a few varsity sports teams that will represent the school while competing against other schools in the area.  In addition to this, most communities have a few organized sports leagues that children can be active in.

We discussed about the importance of Team Sports in Education on our Facebook Page & here are the top opinions that we picked out from the discussion:

1. I myself being a student feels dat team sports are very essential . They create mutual undrstandng and make them realise the importance of helping others without any selfishness . - Babbu Sandhu
2. It’ll teach d kids that team spirit and d spirit of game is more important than winning and losing, It’ll develop d child’s ability to differentiate between right & wrong, & help in makin a choice between d two & also help develop d winnin streak & perform better – Pavitrata Patil
3. It is the platform which makes da child ready 4 his future life…he learns frm this experiences to tackle da circumstances in his life n go through them winningly n courageously….he can prove himself confidently – Alpa Hodar
4. Once a child learns team work, he has learnt to survive…Then wthr it’s sports, hostel, sports, study, camps or whatever, he/she is there to gel with all situations – Sarvesh Gupta
5. The child learns to openup and place his views on the table with a more positive approach. this will help the child to develop his personality in a more responsible way and accept failures and achievement in more appropriate manner. – Aparna Nakhare
6. All academics and no play makes JACK / JILL a dull BOY / GIRL ….. Sports in curriculum adds in children THAT confidence which is required for sportmanspirit, positive teamwork etc …. also good for health ….. academics is important but if it is added alongwith the fun of sports it will definitely give good results …..it also teaches there is nothing like losing or winning …. but participating and trying to reach the goal is very much important – DrReshma Purohit
7. Some of the many benefits of sport participation for children include:  Improved sleep, Mental health benefits, such as greater confidence, Improved social skills, Improved personal skills, including cooperation and leadership, Reduced risk of obesity, Increased cardiovascular fitness, Healthy growth of bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons, Improved coordination and balance, Greater ability to physically relax and, therefore, avoid the complications of chronic muscular tension (such as headache or back ache – Faty Majdi
8. In my local custom, there is an old adage which says that to educate a child is to create a viral society; which is a kin to implying the same as education is insurance for the future generations. When sports or games are introduced, learning becomes enjoyable, easier and motivational. Sports also make children healthy, it improve and build capacities. Healthy children will learn faster & better, translating in spending lesser time in school. So team sport very important!- Man Yusuf

Perhaps most importantly, team sports teach children how to succeed and how to fail since inevitably throughout each season of their sport their team will do both.  With every win and loss, children learn coping skills.  These are important skills to develop in a child and they will last them throughout life.

To begin with this article, one aphorism that I must mention….i.e. “Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man”—by Swami Vivekananda…

Education is one of the important phases of life…the phase which is never ending. People learn throughout life, there is no limit to education….as in the word of mathematics it can be defined as “limit tends to infinity”.

Though in today’s world many people are unemployed despite standard level of education…this thought of unemployment trigger their followers to say ‘bye bye’ to education. But in my opinion if a graduate do not find any job, then if he joins a shop, or if he starts driving or any things which is not his job according to his qualification, then in the long run he will be benefited and respected in a far better way than the one who is not educated and doing the same sort of job. If someone is unable to continue education because of economic reasons, family burden etc, my note is not to discourage them, rather some sections of the society should come forward to help them in continuing their education.

Now talking of the education we should always think about quality education….and in my opinion quality education means inner depth of education and if a person acquires this then respect comes from within…and that education should not be only bookish, implementation of the thoughts which people learn are essential. Its not that every guy will become engineer, doctor, but every guy should be educated from within….I believe every guy is topper in his owned field…we should listen to everyone…we should not disrespect any people…each and every person is vital to this world…everyone’s thought, work are important everyone in this world is interrelated…this statement can not be skipped.

THOUGHT OF SOME SECTIONS OF PEOPLE AT OUR PLACE ABOUT EDUCATION AND THE REMEDY

1) Here the parents think their children should be either a doctor or an engineer…with this thought they pursue their children to science stream against the wish of their children….but at the end of the day either that student fail to go forward with this thought or some might continue this way with full pressure resulting in frustration and finally in a job which is not satisfying. So living life in a tense situation.

So, people should not force their children into something which he/she can not manage rather think in a practical way every field has its own importance every field has good career opportunity provided students follow the field in a meaningful way which is enjoyable too.

2) Another section of people, they are so  rich that their children think that they will go outside or abroad even if their results do not suit their course, and this leads to mere enjoyment of those students only, final outcome educated students without education the meaning is “no inner education” and they enjoy this and they think that this is the life. Now I am emphasizing here the meaning of the word “outside” according to them, telling someone that “I m going outside” is a big thing, more importantly this satisfies them. If you ask those students after their matriculation or 10+2 examination, that what course they want after their result, or what will be next??…they will strictly and proudly answer that “going outside” ….that means results do not matter much to them, as they are very much sure of the trends that their parents will support their these illogical thought….this does not mean that I am not in support of “outside” study…rather for getting higher education this is an important step….but their should be some specific goal. Students from Delhi, Chennai also come to Assam for their study, getting into MBBS, MD.B.TECH, etc…so this is also “outside” for them….but with some specific goal….from this I think those sections of people should take a lesson that goal should be specific then choose location of course location is important, but primary thing should be goal then goal will ultimately guide into suitable place.

This blog is to highlight these small things which I have seen around my network but these small things may not be small unless we all focus and try to find out the solution.

- DR.CHIRANJIB DEB.

As parents we always ask ourselves the question, as to whether I am doing the right thing for my child. Whether I am doing enough to provide them with good education and is it really worth it?

Education has been perceived as an Investment and not an expense and what better way to ask parents about their opinion on the same.

Below are the top entries we got from parents on our page. We salute them for having such an open mind and sharing valuable insights with us.

“In today’s times, the only sure thing that we can give our kids to shape them as better people and help the get a better perspective of things around them, is education. However expensive, since we are sure that it is in one way or the other going to help them be better individuals, it is definitely an investment, there is no denying that at all. For having been responsible to bring them to this world and give them a life, it is our ra responsibility to see that they shape it up in the right way, with the help of education.”
- Rekha Ram

“My high school teacher once told her story of how his father considers his children as saving banks….without practically keeping any cash with himself he invested all his money to educate his children and after a few years he proudly raised his head to be the richest man among his circle by making his daughters become the most educated and resourceful citizens in the society when there were very few who could give in to this idea of investment! Education is 100% investment with huge returns and a massive growth in human resources!”
- Lunna Sangma

“Education is all pure investment as the return and that too the compounded return you get in the form of developed personalities, thoughts, behaviour and again in the form of guiding your children for shaping their life is all possible only through education.”
- Seha Gupta

“Any investment is done with a dream of growth, but now-a-days the theory of economics is related to the market demand, whether it is any real estate, industry or employment. Sometime it goes too high, some times it is unexpectedly low. But education yields knowledge, job, money, happiness and the most wanted PEACE. it is a permanent property which can’t be stolen and is always productive. Education can be passed over to the next generation, making them knowledgeable, disciplined and a perfect human being.”
- Annie Sircar

You too have similar thoughts? Do share with us on writeforus@educationisinsurance.com and get featured

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok

The choices available for students is growing by the day, but with choices comes even the expense and it is seen that many  students end up choosing something else just because they are not able to afford their desired education. The debate on our facebook page gave rise to a very important question – ‘ Where do you want your child to pursue his/her higher education?’

We conducted a poll on facebook page asking parents to share their thoughts as to where would you like your child to pursue their higher education?

Below is the response from the poll.

So it is easily evident that parents would prefer that whatever their kids want to pursue and wouldn’t really be putting restrictions as such. Also it is seen that parents are also of the opinion that education in India is growing and therefore there are good avenues available here too.

What do you think? Do let us know in the comments below

Competition from getting a good job, of maintaining the standard of living, to spending lavishly on holidays: its all around us now… not only in schools but everywhere there is a huge pressure to succeed over others. I guess the world is such today- full of competition rather it is in the strong grip of immense competition! The scenario today is that of a rat race, everybody running mad in order to fetch a position, a rank, a post, a stable platform. And this is taking a heavy toll on all of us, especially on the students of 21st century.

Today, there’s an unprecedented pressure on the student community to score higher and higher. Students are so busy these days (both in and out of the school) competing with each other that they really don’t know what their actual competencies are! There is an immense growth of “unhealthy competition” in the schools over these last few years.

I don’t say that competitions are not good, they are, but till the point they are meant to bring out the child’s best performance, help him to discover his capabilities and guide him to achieve a certain level of required excellence. But what is happening is a reverse of it- a child is, right from the beginning, competing to get a rank in that competition and not using that competition as a platform to know his strengths and weaknesses. Why won’t he as he keeps on listening from all of us all the time that “you have to come first”, “there is a prize for top three rank holders”, etc and etc.

The moment a child relates winning a competition to getting a rank into it, he dive himself into the ocean of unhealthy never ending competition. And if in the end he doesn’t fall into the category of so called “top ranks” his morale, his self confidence all goes down.

Einstein failed miserably in his school but later rose to be one of the most eminent physicists. Sachin Tendulkar couldn’t complete his education but is a successful man in his own right. There are many such instances when an average student is more successful than a brainy one. Then why do we always grade student on the basis of their ranks only?

I have been meeting many parents and students across the country and what surprises me all the time is the perception of intelligence for most of us. The word “intelligence” is just limited to the marks, percentages or rank a child is getting in the school. Parents are all the time worried about the ranks and performance of their child.

I have one interesting case to discuss here.

Once a worried parent asked me “How can I plan studies for my child Aaditya , he was brilliant till class VIII but now he is not performing that well. Can you please help me in charting out a study plan for him?” I asked him about Aditya’s academic performance record and the findings were amazing. Aaditya, a class X student got 98% marks in science, 95% marks in Mathematics, 82% in Social Sciences, 87% in Hindi and 89% in both English and Environmental Education in the final examinations of class IX. Instead of getting an overall of 90% marks in the final examination what was “indigestible” to his parents was his IInd rank in the entire class when he always secured the Ist rank in all his exams till class VIII. His parents can’t bear the agony of him getting a IInd rank in the class?

I went to further details and found out the actual cause of their worry was another student named Kashish who joined the school in class IX and is giving tough ‘competition’ to Aaditya. She got an overall 91% in the mid terms and a 92% in the final exams whereas Aaditya got 88% in the mid terms and secured a 90% in the finals.

“Amazing”, I said? “Is Aaditya not studying? Is a 2 % improvement over his performance as compared to a 1% improvement of Kashish’s performance (from the mid terms to the finals) is not worth recognizing? Does he really need to change his study plan?”

Aaditya should be given a “winning crown” as his performance to his own comparison over the two examinations has improved but what we are doing in this “rat race” is to compare two children of different abilities in each others’ comparison. Why is it so? We forget all the efforts put in by a student to get a marked jump over his last achievement rather criticize him for not jumping too far. Why?

We all have potential – each different from the other than why this comparison of ranks?

I do not think that the intelligence quotient (IQ) of Aaditya scoring 90 out of 100 is any different from Kashish’s scoring 92.

So the worried parents were so busy finding out the reason of their son getting a IInd rank in the class that they forgot the “stress” and “mental trauma” their son was facing at home and in the school to fight for a top rank. When actually he doesn’t have to … as he has already improved over his last performance he was a ‘topper in his own comparison’ already but what we all want him is to be a ‘topper over others’. Isn’t too demanding? Can’t we have competitions to improve our own performance level rather than focusing on what is others’ performance level is?

There is a need to improve this level of “unhealthy competition” from our educational system which is spreading “de-motivation” and “low morale” in the personality of students like Aaditya.

We as parents, teachers and counselors should strive hard to remove this belief that getting a rank in any competition is not the sole and only reason to take part in that competition. We should promote all competitions (whether academic or co-curricular) not with an end result of what a child will get as a rank in comparison to thousands of other participants but what he will get as an individual over his own actual performance level.

But the fact is that we all are also so much busy fighting for our own competitive requirements that we forget the trouble being faced by the students to score higher. Thousands of students have committed suicides in past three years owning to competition stress. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve this level of “unhealthy competition” from our educational system which is spreading “de-motivation” and “low morale” in the personality of students.

Lets do something in this direction so that a child’s creativity, his individuality and his personality remains unaffected with the pressures and demands of this ‘red-blooded- competitive’ world!

- Kirron Kanjani

My first question itself is
”Is Competition really needed in the schools?”

The second question is
“Is giving Ranks to the children in these competitions necessary?”

Is Competition really needed in the schools : Some times I feel, the competitions held in the schools are not organized properly. In any performance, there are more than 100 kids from each category to show their skills. Do you believe that the judgment is fair?

Now coming to your question:
‘Competition in Schools – Fight for the Ranks’ : at such situations when one can not judge properly, how can you fight for the ranks? But I have seen the parents, struggling to get Number One, Two and Three! And they feel so sad if their child won’t get the prize of rank.

Even in Class unit tests and term exams, the child who gets more marks or who gets first three ranks are treated with more care than others. I do not understand this theory!

The teacher should take more care of a child who is lagging behind! Even the children who have first rank behave very bad with other normal kids!

As per my thinking, the ranking should not be given in the schools. All the children should be treated equally and only the participation award or certificate should be given.

I know by doing this, we are discouraging the talented children. Keeping the rank in mind, many kids study hard and achieve their ranks. But, if the competition is healthy with no partiality (which happens always), then the competition is essential and instead of ranking they can be given just grades (Grade A for certain percentage, Grade B for lesser and so on…)

I can think only this much now! I have written on my self experience and what my kids are going through!

Waiting for more ideas from other members so that I can learn or change my way of thinking.

–
Keep smiling,
Nivedita