Past GT essay - Nowadays, an increasing number of countries are confronted with the disappearance of cooking skills. What is the situation like in your country? Do you agree that the young children should be taught home cooking in school?

The fast paced life of today and the easy availability of ready to eat foods have made cooking skills take a back seat in many parts of the world. Fortunately, culinary skills are still hale and hearty in India. I disagree that cooking should be taught in schools. A number of arguments surround my opinion.

To begin with, today children are already burdened with many academic subjects. Today’s child does not have to compete with children of his country, but with children of this shrunken planet, this global village. Adding another subject like cooking is not at all wise. What is more, cooking is something which children can learn as and when the need arises. Today, the technology is so advanced that if you need any recipe, just search on the internet and even the detailed videos are available. There is no need to waste precious schooldays on this skill.

Secondly, cooking is not a theoretical subject; it has more of a practical component. It would, therefore, be a big burden on the infrastructure of the schools to provide kitchen laboratories. What is more, children could suffer injuries while working in these school kitchens. Finally cooking is something which one keeps learning while doing throughout life. Therefore, there is no need to incorporate this subject in the school curricula.

Cooking could be added as an optional subject in the senior secondary classes so that those students who are serious about learning cooking or who want to make it their profession could be able to study it. This approach would be more suitable and would not add to the burden of school education.

To conclude, there is no doubt that home cooking is a disappearing skill in many countries, even then it would not be advisable to add it as a subject in schools.