O Stree, Raksha Karna - The Reality of Rape in India

The right to education is a right for a reason; it gives the poor wealth, the wealthy a mind, and the mindful a place to fully utilize their potential. To quote our favorite scientist, Albert Einstein averred, "Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think." Nevertheless, like many other good things, education is shackled in the compulsion to change as the world around us changes. When our world mutated because of a virus, as our economy faltered and conventional schooling turned into a precarious choice, the question to ask became this - does virtual learning do justice to the training of the mind? 


As schools began preparations for their next academic year in March last year, CoViD ended the traditional classroom that we students have grown to miss. Its unexpected arrival saw school administrators stepping up with resourceful solutions to make the best of the situation. In their dissertation on post-CoViD education, the UN mentioned that "this crisis has stimulated innovation within the education sector."
For the most part, changes that schools implemented were intended for the short run. With over a year passed, we can already feel the deleterious effects of a compromised education. Some matters seem trivial, such as students faking issues to avoid replying or having network issues, but these have a massive impact on a student's learning. We learn to transition from active participants to passive listeners. While seeing that student engagement is the heart of healthy learning, it is clear that passive listeners are more likely to be distracted or bored. Neither of those qualities makes an interested student. 
What we missed from the beginning - and what might genuinely be the bright side of the pandemic - was that we had just stumbled upon a brilliant opportunity. We have the chance to involve both parties when reevaluating the system, updating it, and making it more flexible for situations we cannot anticipate, not unlike this pandemic. However, more importantly, we have the chance to make it a system that works for everyone involved in the process to guarantee healthier learning with visibly better results.
Imagine a class where the teacher has the complete attention of her learners, one where pupils are disappointed to hear the bell ring on high, where students are more likely to answer than to ignore and feel compelled to ask more questions and find out more answers. As students, we know that this is what we want. As people who are in contact with many teachers, we know this is what they want. It should not be a side effect but a goal. Since there is a need for a thorough review of the education system, it is the perfect time to drop some things into that extensive list of revisions.
We need to end our obsession with marks. In today's world, marks hold a higher place than knowledge. The papers we write focus more on our language, structure, and words than on our understanding. Ending this practice paves the way for a more open system of evaluation. In addition, AI development causes skills like pattern detection and information retention to take a back burner. Instead, we need to focus on talents such as critical thinking, curiosity, communication, and leadership, skills that cannot be measured by the standard of tests today. 
The government needs to focus. In 2020, the Indian government took action with its new education policy. As students, we appreciate the government for taking that step, the first amendment to the policy in thirty-four years. On the other hand, we ache to know why it takes thirty-four years to make those modifications. In a modern world with advanced technology, we trust them to understand that education is a constant variable and must keep changing while retaining its original goals. Investing money in pedagogy is equivalent to investing in the future, if not more.
Textbooks cannot teach us about the real world. Why is the sky blue? Why does light split into a rainbow after a shower of rain? Is clay solid, liquid, or both? Life's big questions do have answers in our textbooks, but we need to find them. We need to emphasize the practical application of the concepts we learn as another aspect of critical thinking. Otherwise, we leave them as theoretical concepts, and another of life's big mysteries comes to life in a student's mind - why do we need to study this? 
Teachers focus on the syllabus, not the students. As necessary as it is to complete portions on time, it puts extra pressure on both professors and students to finish the curriculum however possible, decreasing the value of the time spent on it. A common complaint among parents as well, making some improvements to this teaching method will increase trust from all sides - parents, students, and teachers.
We are in this together. Students and teachers both want ad hoc shifts in the direction of education. Working together ensures that we get what we need and smoothens the educational journey for future generations. When both parties learn to trust each other, we can collaborate on the decisions and changes we want unitedly. It will make a difference.
Some beneficial adjustments might be supplementing standardized tests with personalized tests conducted verbally to assess skills like thinking on their feet. Educational boards should be encouraged to apply more stress on student understanding than on syllabus fulfillment. Additionally, tests should focus more on real-world applications than on textbook definitions. In short, balancing the priorities of our tests is imperative to building the dexterity that students will require in their journey forth.
We want to learn too. We are just as invested in understanding the world, but we find ourselves like Buridan's hypothetical donkey between hay and water, both equidistant but in opposing directions. When we cannot decide whether to focus more on marks or knowledge, we stand there staring at them both. Our curiosity dies standing there too. 
Being a society that should be more involved, we have dropped the ball in the past. The circumstances are right; we can urge, demand, and push the government to listen to us while discussing how to enhance the system. Our responsibility is not to let the government get away with not revising a thirty-four-year-old policy. It is to pressure the government by being more involved in such crucial issues to not repeat such mistakes in the future.
CoViD is running circles around us, and there is no shortcut out of the pandemic. The dawn of the need to redo our education system is a golden opportunity to push for a difference. We deserve a revolution in how we look at education, treat it, and evaluate it. The list of recommendations above is not exhaustive and probably never will be. However, we need to start somewhere. Education is for the students, not the other way around. Let us make that statement accurate. While we press for a difference, the first question of this essay has found its answer. Does virtual learning do justice to this training of the mind? No, it does not. Hopefully, not yet.