CB blog 1- Primary education

The primary needs of food, clothing and shelter have also created the need for education. Anyone who wants to succeed in today's life needs to education as a stepping stone (baring a few exceptions - in which case too these people had more of practical learning than committing themselves to higher studies).
So all this has created demands for schools, colleges and institutes for higher learning. But these are not enough. The demand for good institutes far outstrips the supply and so all this demand has created a further demand for stepping stones into these institutes.

Lets start the discussion with primary education. In most of the schools today the age for admission into nursery is 3 years. But the dearth of good schools and facilities ( including both the teaching skills, the quality of student interaction, the extracurricular activities ) has led to mushrooming of pre-schools. In my younger days all the education that i got was from my family. My grandparents, my uncle and my aunts, besides my parents were the ones who taught me the basics. And that was all the training I required for my interviews for admission to school.
But now with the huge competition ( heck for three year olds) what we have are scores of preschools which act as a precursor to your primary education). The nuclear families cite their lack of time availability as a major reason for admitting their kids to such play-schools. And these play-schools not only provide facilities for grooming your child but also have grooming sessions for the parents too ( to polish of their interview skills. Teach them how to respond to commonly asked questions..
But can these actually teach you parenting???)
Now an arguments arises - Is it fair to push your kid into the rat race so early? Aren't you spoiling his wonderful innocent years by pushing him into the rat race?.... But the counter-argument says that if you don't do so then are you prepared for the consequences? If you want your child to be successful are you ready to leave your child's interviews to chance?
Now both the arguments hold true given the admission structure and the huge demand-supply gap. So the government decided to scrap these interviews and use a point system for admission or even use lotteries. Although this leaves everything to chance and circumstances but is it fair? Given the supply-demand gap this may be the best alternative but tell this to the hundreds of parents for whom the admission time is a harrowing experience. After spending so much on play-schools and still not getting admitted one does feel a let down for the child's future is at stake...

Can't really say which is a better system for we are now so accustomed to the competition around and the huge cries of meritocracy going around there is a huge support for the earlier system too.