General knowledge, again...

Anandabazar Patrika reported a few days ago that in one of the so called upmarket schools in Delhi, a lot of pupils had written, in response to a GK test question, that model/actress Lisa Ray was the daughter of Satyajit Ray, and a lot of them had been marked right by the teacher concerned. When the scandal blew up, not only were the pupils blase about it ('How are we supposed to know?') but so were the authorities, on the pretext that the answer was not immediately available to the teacher in her textbook. We are still not supposed to ask what sort of clowns have become teachers these days; and obviously such cretins not only do not carry anything called knowledge inside their heads, but have either never heard of encyclopedias and/or google, or couldn't be bothered to check.

In my childhood, we heard of such things as caricatures - the Bengali comedian Robi Ghosh, playing the part of a 'smart' young man (as 'smart' was understood in the 1970s) glibly telling his father, as proof of being educated, that Indira Gandhi was Mahatma Gandhi's daughter. In three decades, India has progressed so much that now it's not a caricature any more, but everyday reality. 'Clever' young quizzards have said on TV that Pather Panchali was written by Satyajit Ray, and sung songs of Nazrul when asked to sing Tagore. And such things, please note, happen in highly expensive fancy schools which tomtom in the advertisements how they are giving 'world-class education' (makes you wonder what 'world-class' means these days, doesn't it?). The likes of Prof. Amartya Sen, living in faraway ivory towers, have long been lamenting the poor quality of education being given in scantily-endowed government schools all across India. When will they turn to look at the Augean stables that our best private schools have become?

In 1991 I heard this joke: What do you call a New York politician who can spell 'cat'?... You call him talented. These days millions of such talented creatures are having no trouble becoming teachers (and also doctors, engineers, scientists, lawyers, mind you). Close to home, I personally know 'bright' students who wrote or said 'I drawed a picture' and 'He teached me' and couldn't score more than 20% in an impromptu quiz and couldn't write a sensible essay when they were 16 going on to become scholars and teachers, and I keep warning every batch, 'remember, a fool, when he grows old, only becomes an old fool'! I know lots of teachers with first-class degrees who would be lost in class without the notebooks they dictate (borrowed) notes from. If this country is not in a pretty mess, what is it in?