Part 6 of 26 in What I Want to Tell My School Teacher: An Indian Adaptation of Letter to a Teacher← Part 5Part 7 →
This chapter examines how Indian schooling and coaching turn learning into preparation for marks, ranks, and entrance examinations. It helps readers understand how this system affects children, families, teachers, and the purpose of education.
- Examinations can reduce mathematics, history, science, and languages to exercises performed mainly for marks.
- The coaching industry for JEE, NEET, and similar tests rewards money, long hours, and existing support more than curiosity.
- Schools often judge teachers by pass percentages and children by marks, leaving little space for questions or slower learning.
- Barbiana’s alternative was to support children who struggle and connect study with real work and responsibility.
- The motto “I care” placed citizenship and responsible action above personal advancement.
The Barbiana letter observed that school turns mathematics, history, science, and languages—fine things—into pathetic exercises performed only for marks. Learning becomes a private race for individual advantage rather than a collective preparation for citizenship.
In contemporary India this tendency has been industrialised. From an early age many children are told that the board examination, the entrance examination, and the rank are the only things that matter. The coaching industry that prepares students for JEE, NEET, and similar tests is vast. Families spend sums that can equal or exceed a year’s income. Children spend years memorising patterns, shortcuts, and previous papers. Conceptual understanding is often secondary to the ability to recognise a familiar question type under time pressure.
This machinery selects heavily for those who can pay for coaching, who can sustain long hours of drill, and who already possess a foundation of language, confidence, and family support. It does not primarily select for curiosity or for the capacity to tackle genuinely new problems. Meanwhile, in the ordinary school, the same logic operates in miniature. Teachers are often judged by pass percentages. Children are judged by marks. There is little institutional patience for the child who needs to return to an earlier concept. There is little room for questions that lie outside the immediate syllabus, or for the newspaper, or for the child’s own life as legitimate material for study.
Barbiana proposed the opposite orientation. Do not fail the child. Give full-time attention to those who need it. Give a purpose to those who appear lazy by connecting study to real work and to the good of others. Their motto “I care” rejected the idea that school exists mainly for personal advancement. School existed to form people who could understand the world and act in it responsibly.
Frequently asked questions
How does coaching affect students preparing for JEE and NEET?
Students may spend years memorising patterns, shortcuts, and previous papers. Conceptual understanding can become secondary to recognising familiar question types under time pressure.
Why does the coaching industry favour some students?
It strongly favours students who can pay for coaching, sustain long hours of drill, and already have language, confidence, and family support.
What is wrong with judging schools by marks and pass percentages?
This leaves little patience for children who need to revisit earlier concepts and little room for questions outside the syllabus or connected to their lives.
What did Barbiana propose instead of exam-focused schooling?
Barbiana proposed giving full-time attention to children who need it and connecting study to real work and the good of others.