Shikshantar

I’ve recently come into contact with and become interested in an organisation who are anti-qualfications, Shikshantar. They’ve got a pretty radical philosophy, not dissimilar to the Montessori principle, that degrees and qualifications in general are worthless and should be scrapped.

                Maybe I had a particularly good degree course, or perhaps I’ve been institutionalised, but at first glance I don’t entirely agree with everything they’re suggesting. Contrary to what they say in their booklet ‘Healing Ourselves from the Diploma Disease’, I didn’t spend the last four years of my life pointlessly ‘memoriz[ing] de-contextualized facts’, rather I was developing a critical thought process which I think is vital in becoming an aware and rational citizen in the real world and just generally being interested in things with other people who were interested in similar things. I’m fully aware that a certified first class understanding of medieval poetry does not an engaged community member make, but the skills I built along the way have value far beyond the exam hall. It also opened doors in me own interests that I would otherwise not even have considered, and without which I would not have found myself at their dinner last night. So no, I won’t be starting an auto-da-fé of degree certificates outside the Students’ Union any time soon.

                But they have a lot to say that I am fully in support of. Having a piece of fancy paper with a number on it is not the answer to life, the universe and everything. It is impossible to develop an understanding of other cultures from your favourite desk in the library. A PGCE cannot teach you the enthusiasm that transforms a mediocre teacher into a great mentor. Being a master baker doesn’t come from a scientific understanding of the process of coagulation. In short, life experience cannot be certified. To be clear, they are not against institution-based learning, rather the fact that education has become less about learning and more about getting the right piece of paper with the right logo and the right number on it. It can’t be ignored that 75% of people in my uni classes were just chasing that magic 2:1 so they can get a marginally less mediocre job in an office with bigger windows and more pot plants.

                Learning should be about curiosity; finding the end of an intriguing looking thread and unravelling something purely because it’s interesting and not because it will get you somewhere. Of course it is true that you will get more out of it that way, but it has to be said that that if that passion is the works of a particular medieval romance poet, the university library is not a bad place to start.