If I were the education minister

December 2015 at 16:14 ·

I wish I was education minister for a day. I would quickly add so much as compulsory reading into middle school and high school curricula.
I would certainly include Dhararampal. And Hind Swaraj. And Small is Beautiful.
13 Comments

Narayana Sarma :) Kottapalli stories, ofcourse :) And they would be optional. No one will ask children any questions. However TEACHERS will have to take exams every year and prove their worth (Get 75% atleast- else- off your job!!) They will have compulsory reading exercises in whatever language they choose- that will include selections from Gandhi's autobiography, Marx's Comunist Manifesto, JK's talks on education, One straw revolution and many other boring and complicated stuff I will think of by then. :)

Aparna Krishnan Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula, your demand that Mukundan's book on Ery's be part of complusory reading in schools, triggered this new wish of sitting in Smriti irani's chair for a day !

Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula We should start a movement to include such books in schools.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 28 December 2015 at 16:47

Narayana Sarma Seriously.. I would add nothing to the compulsory reading lists of children. I would lobby with the unions to make exams for "teachers" compulsory- and add all these gyan giving stuff to their reading list. We surely need good teachers. And we don't want to harass children for no fault of theirs!

Rama Subramanian if you become the education minister for a day, you should shut down all schools across the country for a year, ask the children to gather anywhere in their neighbourhood, walk around and talk to anyone and decide at the end of the year whether schools are necessary; you should also shut down colleges for couple of years and send all youth who want to learn anything to industries and / or companies to learn whatever they like and whatever is useful to the companies, if someone wants to start their own venture, they got to be sent to business houses in the informal or formal sector so that they can learn how to do business by doing it rather than 'reading' about it; university research units have to be shut for longer duration, maybe for 5 years and all researchers to be sent to whomsoever they think will be the ultimate beneficiary of their research and work with them to re-think / align their research priorities and eventually if they come back at the end of 5 years with worthy proposals, the research wings may be reestablished...all youth will have to be introduced to philosophy and literature at a much younger age as much as arts, but not in a school or a classroom but by engaging and working with farmers many of whom are philosophers, writers of serious nature and artists who can share their works...radical questions need to be encouraged and space given as much as anyone else...books if necessary, will then be decided by each constituency for themselves...i am sure many will choose hind swaraj!!

Shyamala Sanyal Before putting more knowledge down children's throats , how about making it compulsory for all babus and politicians.
With practical exams .