Liberal education

It is said and believed that schooling is very important in the life period of a child and this seems to be true also because schools have been the most important place for the children to be sent to learn the lessons of  life.Though the concept and the objectives have undergone changes as per the change of the time but basic objective remains the same.But in the last few years there has been change in the mindset of some parents who feel that their child was not benefitted in anyway in the school. They have got strong reasons behind this thought. If analysed in proper context then schooling is considered to develop the thinking process of the child and make him/her a creative person, full of positive energy. If it is so, then why some people are disillusioned by the present schooling system? There must be some reason  for that too and if seen critically we tend to agree with such parents. The educationists and the psychologists have tried to understand the impact of the school environment on the child`s growth and it has been found that in many cases it impacts the children in negative way. There are many examples cited in this favour where the children have learnt more of negatives than the positives. For example, there was a child who was very good at painting but as the school she was studying in, was focusing on academics hence she was neither appreciated nor encouraged to pursue her interest, rather was forced to pay attention towards scholastic areas.  The parents did try to convince the school administration but as is the system in our country, academics is given the maximum importance so the school explained the same to the parents. The parents tried to encourage the child but this did not have any positive effect and the child started deteriorating in all areas. Then the parents withdrew the child and started Home schooling which has produced good results for her. In other case, the child was a wonderful writer and very creative but this aspect was not given due importance in comparison to the so called most important aspect- academics.Though the government is taking some corrective measures at school level but these are not enough until the system of higher education is also taken care of. The other complain from such parents (who advocate home schooling) is that the children learn indiscipline and the foul language spoken by other children or other people and it becomes an uphill task for these parents to counsel their children.According to their point of view, indiscipline is increasing in the schools day by day and there is no effective measure adopted by the schools , that is why they do not want their children to be exposed to such environment.They may not be absolutely true in what they think; but something should be done for encouraging concept of  liberal education because we otherwise are also lacking in terms of infrastructure and the availability of teachers .
The other issue I would like to discuss is, the qualification of the teachers to be appointed in the schools.Before RTE came into effect NCTE had some basic qualifications prescribed and now these have amended and the teachers have to qualify the teacher eligibility test. Since the time the test was declared there have been one or the case filed in the courts by one or the other person or group of the people because of their grievances. One of them initially was related to commerce graduates who were not allowed to take these eligibility test and subsequently after the intervention of the court commerce graduates have been found eligible for this test.If we try  to understand our system upto class X, all students have to study the same course and the choice comes their way in class XI.So the teachers who are expected to teach up to class V or class VIII should not have any problem as far as the subjects are concerned. The important thing which should be tested is  the aptitude and the attitude of the candidate for the teaching profession. If a teacher who is commerce graduate and has an aptitude for teaching why he/she should not be given the liberty to teach whatever he/she is competent in ? In the past also when B.Ed degree was mandatory to be a teacher, some of the teachers who had not obtained the B.Ed degree proved to be better than the so called trained ones.Then the degree is not necessarily the tag for teachers to be good but the aptitude and the attitude of the teacher is the attribute that should be recognised.What I want to convey to the policy makers is ,why cannot we have the concept of the liberal teacher also.The eligibility test should not focus only on subject knowledge but it should focus to test the competencies and the skills of the teacher candidate.We want teachers who enjoy their work and can motivate and encourage the students to exploit their potential to the fullest because Swami Vivekanandji said that education is the manifestation of the potential an individual has within and the role of the teacher is to help the child in that.