Non-existent sports in schools

Why is India doing really bad in Olympics or at other sports events ? What ails the Indian sports scene. There is something wrong at the grassroots level. How many schools encourage sports ? How many schools have the infrastructure to encourage sports ?

New schools which are being built should be required to have enough acreage to allow for sports grounds . Probably a rating system for schools would help too . This way schools with sports infrastructure will get higher grading . Today's physical education class and sports day events get the least priority in our education system . This needs to change.

People need to realise that sports help to maintain good health, good relationship/friendship among participants and help kids relax in a fast-paced world environment.

Education evaluation system: Ranking vs Grading

Our education system is so competitive that we forget to treat kids as kids . Everyone wants their kid to get the 1st rank in class. There is so much pressure on the kids to beat each other to get that prized rank . How can this madness be solved ?

In lot of countries, they use a grading system . Kids are put into A,B,C,E or F grades . There is no ranking involved . Kids are encouraged to get the A grade and not beat the other guy to the 1st rank .This eases the pressure on the kids .

Our education system should adopt this system and let kids be kids . I wish that it was that way when I was a kid.

Should english be the medium of instruction in our education system?

The world is today becoming smaller. We have Indians working all over the world. There are so many multinational companies setting up firms in India and many of our Indian companies are becoming multinational companies. In short, each person is part of a global workforce. In order for a person to survive and thrive in this environment, he will need to communicate and interact with people from every corner of the world.

Unofficially English has become the international language. Given this scenario, how many of us are well versed in English? What should be done to improve the percentage of English speaking Indians?

My opinion is, make English the medium of instruction in school or make English a mandatory subject in school. I prefer the former. My education was with English as the medium of instruction and it helped me when I moved to the U.S. In the international arena good English speaking Indians are preferred over the Chinese. Why? Chinese have their education with Chinese as their medium of instruction and when they move to the international arena, they are not fluent in English even though they have learnt English are one of their subjects in school.

Let me know what you think?

Is it fair to have a reservation system based on caste?

Our reservation system based on caste might have worked when India got independence but is it still relevant today? Is it an unfair system? I think it is! The reservation system was put in place to help the lesser privileged so that a person guy who has all the privileges gets the same opportunity to succeed .Some of them from the lesser privileged category have moved into the privileged category and vice versa but the system does not account for this change of status. This loop hole makes the reservation system ineffective and unfair.

Let us take an example. A SC guy who is from a rich family and who has all amenities to help him succeed gets reservation in colleges because he is in the SC category. But a Brahmin guy who is very poor and whose family has problems making ends meet doesn’t get any help from the reservation system because he falls in the FC category. How should the reservation system change to be fair to all the people involved? Should there be a reservation system at all? Can you think of a different system? I have been thinking for quite some time and haven’t come up with a system without a loophole.

Should national language be a mandatory subject in our education system?

India is filled with varied cultural history. We have so many languages spoken across the country which are local to that area or to that particular sect/culture. Even though we have all these varied cultures we still are one country and need to work together to move forward in the 21st century .Many developed countries have a national language and have progressed. Looking at them we should understand that we need a common medium of communication.

English is the unofficial language of the world. Should we use this as our common medium of communication? What percentage of our population knows the English language? Hindi is our national language but how many of us know Hindi? Should we include it as part of our curriculum to increase the percentage of population which knows Hindi?

My personal opinion, Hindi should be made a mandatory subject in our school system. I am from Chennai and I was not required to learn Hindi. I had no problem for 23 years but when I started traveling to the north, I had problems communicating with people out there. Later I moved to the U.S and most of the Indians used to speak in Hindi and I couldn't understand a word of what they said. Even the Americans were surprised to hear that I couldn’t understand what the others spoke. Now I have started learning Hindi.

What are your thoughts? Experiences?