Memorization has become solely and mainly the best way to pass examinations for many students in our country now -a-days. They think that achieving academic transcripts and certificates is their main motto, forgetting the true essence of education. This is our scenario in present moment. That education awakens the latent talent of mind and removes the stark darkness from the core of mind is not comprehensible to many students. Curious and desperate, they crave for having the outward taste by learning by heart while reading any topic, which is not the main motive of education. Education is and should be relevant, logical, delightful, pragmatic, pleasant, etc.
Many students do not find any delight while reading; they think it as a disgusting task, ruminating that they have been compelled to read and write, and also mulling over it as unfavourable for their desire. To remove the reluctance and apathy from their study, our education system should be more effective in order to take necessary measures. However, many students always does not command over the ABC of their topic, which dispels their indomitable appeal for learning. As a result, they turn to be segregated from the path of creativity and innovation that signifies a nation which is based on backbone – free and it can never be our expectation.
Practicality is not understandable to them; it is not maintained by them. In this regard, the visit of Leo Tolstoy, perhaps the most highly knowledgeable literary figure in the history of Russian literature, to some European countries gives us the practical aspects of education. He visited England first in order to observe the elementary education system that did not satisfy him at all. Later on, he paid a visit to France; this visit showed him how the elementary school students were rapt in memorization, bringing no mental growth and effective outcome in order to flourish their talent. In one of the French schools, he asked, “By whom Henry the fourth was killed?” The answer was raised by the students that Julius Caesar assassinated Henry the fourth of France. Tolstoy expressed that theirs were mechanical memories. There he did not find anything effectual; he was astonished as the abortiveness of the elementary education system in France. After that, he went to Germany and found his expected outcome. Arriving Russia after his long tours from several European countries, he set up primary school at his estate, spending the last part of his life there by tutoring. Tolstoyan trilogy Childhood, Boyhood and Youth, also autobiographical novels, give us the insights of the contemporary primary education system.
Another important aspect is logicality. The students do not question whether a fact was right or wrong; they try to ignore it because they do not want to concentrate on their studies any longer, finding the fixed topic unpleasant. It is said that they have no will to ask any question scientifically. As to this point, it is mentionable that Francis Bacon in his famous Advancement on Learning shows the scientific approach to knowledge based on reason, this sort of aphorism is not followed by many students.
In our education system, we see that it lacks relevant measures. The teaching system is not highly beneficial for the students; sometimes it is seen that many teachers take classes without any premeditated preparation; only taking classes on sudden wish does not make the students eager on their studies. Immature teaching style is extremely deleterious for the burgeoning of meritocracy, which is not right for building an intellectual nation. Rabindranath in one of his famous short stories, “A Parrot’s Tale”(Tota Kahini), shows that unsuitable and wrong mechanism is harmful for the protrusion of human minds. The death of the bird in the story allegorizes the faultiness of our education system. Similarly, another dramatic work by Rabindranath, Achalayatan, depicts the stark glitch of our education system; the speech of Dada Thakur of the play is highly aphoristic.
Memorization contaminates the latent talent of knowledge; it does not rouse a student’s ardour for his / her study. The students become so unmindful that they do not ask internally and spontaneously whether a piece of information is right or wrong. Memorization does not force him to pose a rational question. Here it needs to tell the Socratic teaching: Socrates always would tell his disciples that whenever they would come to him, they would greet him with a good question, and, at the time of departure, they would again pose him a question.
Memorization is not, I think from my viewpoint, effective for the mental growth of children, in particular, belonging to class one and two. It makes ghastly effect upon their minds. As to this gruesomeness, Albert Einstein in his famous essay “The Nightmare” shows that examinations always bring about harmfulness to their thinking and, at the same time, their health. So, I think exams should be cancelled from class one and two.
In our country universities, many students are fond of learning the summary of specific topics, which is not our aspiration as universities are the highest seats of learning. Universities are places of making research – oriented and creative people which standardizes the image of a country. Many students exclusively of English Department, I have seen directly, are accustomed to reading the epitomized part of a text: it has been, frankly saying, delved into their ingrained habit. Shoomp, eNotes, Sparknotes, Gradesaver, etc., are their constant companions; these sorts of books are prepared for the school level students. How the students from the tertiary level of education demote themselves make me despondent. Newman writes in his famous essay “The Idea of a University” that education is a force:
“It is education which helps to us to refine our sensibility.”
Today, the ideas and thoughts of Newman are not being incarnated by many students. How education has been ineffective to them!
To sum up, it is strongly uttered that memorizing can never be effective for ensuring g quality education. Our Govt. should take necessary stridges in order to update our education system. That education is not a commodity should be maintained. We should fend off the trend of memorizing.