Democracy Is The Best Form Of Government [For] - Debate Topic for Students

 

Why Democracy Is The Best Form Of Government

"Democracy is the destiny of humanity; freedom its indestructible arm."

-Benito Juarez

I am of the firm belief that democracy is the best form of government available to us right now. Why? Let's start with the basics.

Firstly, democracy allows us to exercise various freedoms, such as freedom of speech and expression, and the freedom to criticise one's own government. Democracy is the government of the people, this is perhaps its biggest and most widely known virtue. Allowing everyone to participate in the decision-making process, at least in theory.

Democracies tend to produce stronger systems of checks and balances, independent media, and rule of law than other governance systems. And these institutions yield the consistently positive results seen in democracies.

Mulligan, Gil, and Sala-i-Martin (2004) find that countries that are more democratic are less likely to execute, regulate religion, or censor the press.

Gallego (2010) presents evidence that democracy has indeed had a causal effect on primary-school enrollment.

 Baum and Lake (2001) find that democratization increased secondary-school enrollment. Also, Acemoglu, Naidu, Restrepo, and Robinson (2015) find that democracy is associated with an increase in secondary schooling.

Few autocratic countries enjoy child mortality rates under 10 per 1,000. In contrast, democracies often enjoy child mortality rates below 10 or even 5 per 1,000.

Here we have considered only child mortality, but a broader analysis of countries’ health outcomes would also show that more generally, good health is linked with political freedom. My source is the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

A review of the economic growth performances of all developing countries since 1960 finds democracies have, on average, attained rates of per capita GDP growth equivalent to their autocratic counterparts. This holds for each decade as well as in aggregate. There is no empirical evidence of an authoritarian growth advantage.

On nearly every social welfare measure available, democracies exhibit development outcomes that are 15-40% superior to that of autocracies, controlling for income.

Democratic countries tend to be wealthier and have a better distribution of wealth throughout the population.

Everything considered what truly helps democracy be the best form of government is the satisfaction of the people with it.

Over the twenty-eight countries examined happiness levels in democracies stayed robust, even when variables like religion, language, and of course, income, were controlled (Dorn, Fischer, et. al 2007). Incidentally, these particular findings are also supported by (Frey and Stutzer 2000), that household income to have a minimal effect on happiness, in contrast to the effect of direct democracy. 

Winston Churchill once said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." And I have to agree, democracy has many flaws and problems but it is still the best form of government compared to all others that have been tried over and over again.

Is The New Education Policy A Game Changer : A Student's Perspective

 NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2020

A Student's Perspective

On July 29 2020, the government announced a new National Education Policy (NEP) proposing drastic changes in school and higher education. 

The policy is worded quite complicatedly for the average student to fully understand. So , I would like to talk about the New Education Policy (2020) from a student’s perspective.

Let's start with the definition of NEP.     

An NEP is a comprehensive framework to guide the development of education in the country. NEP is not a compulsory law which all states have to follow , it is more  of a guideline . New education policies are implemented every few decades. So far India has seen a total of three NEPs, that is not counting the revisions made to the pre existing policies. 

The first one being in 1968 , under then PM Indira Gandhi. The 1968 policy called for fulfilling compulsory education for all children up to the age of fourteen and focus on learning of regional languages, outlining the three language formula to be implemented in secondary education - the instruction of the English language, the official language of the state where the school was based, and Hindi.

The second NEP was implemented in 1986 , under then PM Rajiv Gandhi. This national policy for education focused on the removal of disparities and to equalise educational opportunity, especially for women, Schedule Tribe (ST) and the Schedule Caste (SC) communities. The policy expanded the open university (university with an open door academic policy, with minimal or no entry requirements) system with the Indira Gandhi National Open University. The 1986 policy was revised in 1992 by then PM P.V. Narsimha Rao.

Now coming back to the latest national education policy of 2020, announced by PM Narendra Modi. This policy brought forward some sweeping changes ,  one being the change in structure of school education , which until now was 10+2 (ages 6-16 and ages 16-18, with pre-school not being recognised as “formal education”) , has been changed to a 5+3+3+4 design . In this ages 3-8 is foundational stage , 8-11 is preparatory , 11-14 is middle and 14-18 is secondary. Now pre school too will be recognised as formal education .

The NEP also puts emphasis on importance of regional languages, it says students until class 5 should be taught in their mother tongue or regional language.

In school education, the policy talks about mending the curriculum, easier Board exams, a decrease in the syllabus to retain “core essentials” and focus on experiential learning, critical thinking and overall holistic development of the student as a person.

 The New Education Policy includes extension of Right to Education Act 2009 to cover children of ages 3 to 18.

 Vocational education will be integrated into all schools and higher education institutions (HEI) in a phased manner over the next decade. 

Let's talk about the timeline of implementation of National Education Policy 2020 (for classes 9 , 10 ,11 and 12).

The implementation of new assessment pattern for class IX will roll out from 2021-22 session and class XI from the session 2023-24.

 Implementation of new curriculum, assessment pattern and new Board exam patterns for class X rolls out from 2022-23 while for class XII from 2024-25

By 2040 , the policy expected to be fully operational .

Education being on the concurrent list , requires the cooperation of both state and centre , this implies that there a chance that the projected timeline may be delayed.

This new educational policy seems like a game changer. It can bring India’s education to the standard to that of a developed nation and catapult India into the big league. However , the devil lies in the details . We can't make a conclusive analysis until a more details of this bill have been provided. Strict and effective execution too plays a major role in the success of this bill , in the past similar seemingly radical acts have fizzled out due to the lack of proper implementation.

The Future of AI and Humanity

The Future of AI and Humanity

- Ishita Desai

When I talk about AI what comes to your mind? A futuristic society with robot butlers and flying cars or a doomsday scenario where humanity has been over run by AI and robots.

If it is the latter then let me tell you an interesting fact , experts predict robots will take the place of  surgeons as early as 2053, and within 43 years  machines will be competing with mathematicians for space in top academic journals. So your concerns, about AI taking over the human society, are perfectly reasonable .
Almost all of us use a smartphone . We talk to Siri , Google assistant and Alexa ,this means that we are already using AI on a daily basis. But Alexa isn't evil , she just plays music when I ask her to.

And that exactly is my point.


I believe there is no need to be afraid of AI itself , though we should be concerned as to who uses it. Russia , South Korea and USA have already begun the formation of AI controlled weapon systems . The Chinese government rates its citizens as good or bad using an intelligent system that scans through their financial history and credit scores , there have also been attempts to monitor the emotions of school children and reward or punish them on this basis .

The youth in our country is already suffering from unemployment , the interference of AI would only further worsen the situation. Creation of jobs is a slow process , but the advancement of AI is not . Artificial intelligence can and will take over our livelihoods . Private sectors will prefer to employ AI over humans as AI is an one time investment and can do the work of multiple humans at once , people require monthly salaries , breaks and health benefits . AI is a non stop working machine humans are not.

In all of these situations it is not the AI itself which has turned malicious but the people behind it .

So , once an AI which is perfectly capable of deciphering good from bad and having an independent thought process, instead of parroting its creator , is created then only can we judge wether AI itself is evil or not . But until then precautions and limits are necessary , because if and when we reach that point it will be too late . AI can be perfect , but man can never be flawless,

A perfect weapon in the hands of an imperfect man can only lead to doom and destruction.

Humanity has achieved many of its dreams but this is one we should not dare to dream about , for AI is a destructive dream.

That is why I believe that the development of AI will do more harm than good towards humanity.

Quiz competition in My School

Quiz competition 

-Ishita Desai

On 17th July, 2019,  Navy Children School, Kochi had organised an Inter-house Quiz competition , testing the knowledge and awareness of the students . All four house, Bose, Nehru , Tagore and Gandhi , had three contestants each . The Quiz began with the introduction of the participants to the spectators and the explanation of rules , point awarding system and a few words of encouragement . 

The questions asked by the quiz master were intriguing , thought-provoking and enthralling , making the audience go wild when the team answered correctly . When all the teams were unable to answer the question the audience got a chance to participate . All the participants showed off their vigor , capability and acumen , by excitedly answering the questions posed. 

Each round was filled with wide ranging questions , from sports to literature , science to history .The Rapid-fire round gave the teams a chance to catch up with leaders and put-up a tough fight.

The audience was completely absorbed in the thrilling event . A wide range of emotions were seen on the faces of contestants as well as the audience - happiness , sadness , relief , regret and excitement. 

Near the end of the competition , a tie-breaker question was asked , worth 70 points . The participants were shown a series of images , and were asked how all these pictures were linked with each other . It turned the cogs of the brains of all the competitors .

When the moment of truth arrived , the result , the auditorium went pin drop silent , only the thumping of racing hearts could be heard . As soon as the results were announced the crowd broke into applause . Among the thunderous claps , cheers of joy were audible , so were sighs of disappointment . But the spirit of sportsmanship was maintained by everyone when the participants shook hands and congratulated one another .

The final results were :

• 1st Position - Gandhi House (Red)
• 2nd Position - Nehru House (Blue)
• 3rd Position - Bose House (Yellow)