Notes on Education

W ith progress of science and knowledge one would have expected that standard of basic arithmetic of school children too would have improved. However, surprisingly, this is one area where instead of improvement deterioration appears to have taken place in recent decades. Several surveys carried out in different parts of the world indicate that while children are becoming better at electronic things like computers, their most basic arithmetic skills are deteriorating. Even fourth or fifth graders are lagging behind in basic skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of numbers. A review of the scenario by this author seems to indicate that a primary reason for this is the fact that curriculums have been expanded much too rapidly with the consequence that far too much knowledge is being thrust upon youngest of children leaving them disinterested in the subject. Attempts have been made to include algebra at elementary school level as well as concepts from s...

  A trend has been noted in arithmetic education of children across many countries around the world. It has been noted that while several fifth and six graders are unable to carry out simple addition and subtraction exercises, leave alone multiplication and divisions, there is a tendency to rush children even as young as three with too much learning by their respective school boards or private managements The need of the day is to slow down the pace at which education is thrust upon children while ensuring that whatever is taught is done so firmly. It goes without saying that the process of learning must be made enjoyable to engage a child. While many schools begin nursery education at three and include pre-primary grades such as lower KG and upper KG, the view of this author as well as several educators around the world is that preschool education must not begin under the age of four under any circumstances. A child under four is best at home under the care of a lov...

T he first ten years of a human life are the most influential ones in shaping character. Utmost care is therefore required in providing the best possible education to a child at the youngest age. One may wonder what the best age is to begin in an elementary school for an average child. Although, there is no uniform consensus on this, my own experience suggests that an age between five and six is the right age to begin education at grade 1 level. Thereby a child will be about eighteen years old when he has finished twelve years of primary, middle and high school education. He or she would then be an adult and ready to enter university. That appears to be the right practice because then a person is ready to move out of a closely supervised school education as a minor to a university where greater freedom is available and necessary for intellectual development as an adult. It is appropriate that a child be provided at the most one year of preschool education beginning at an age bet...