9 sombre drawbacks in the Indian Education System

9 sombre drawbacks in the Indian Education System

 There are several facets to see what education can offer to individuals. Of course, the offerings should be lucrative to encourage learners. But there are several cracks in the structure and understanding of the broader equation of education, particularly from the educators’ side. These cracks are primarily about the wide of the mark metrics chosen to describe and decide what matters in the long run. Let us say the end goal of a 5 year old child is to become a singer. There are several obvious questions that should come to the mind of the educator.

·         How many singers are required in the country and internationally and what number of singers are applicants?

·         What are the growth opportunities of singers?

·         What are the required skill sets of a singer?

·         Which genres of songs are more commercially viable?

·        What are the gaps in skill sets of the industry requirements and the actual skill sets available?

·         Is there a different path to be followed to being a singer from the beginning?

·         What are the category-wise success paths of a singer?

·    What are the current available opportunities to build a career in singing and what are the drawbacks there?

I hope there is a lot of indistinctness among the readers right now. The relevance of these questions with the drawbacks of the Indian Education System seems to be dubious.

Simply put, the justification to the above question comes with the purpose of education. In due course, the primary goal of education is to decide, what a pupil accomplishes in life. Having set the primary objective of education, the very obviously following arguments that arise are based on preferences, capabilities, interests and orientation towards a job.

Tracing back to the questions, we see that the flow is very logical. Now let us try to figure out the cracks we were talking about, with more clarity towards the same. Unquestionably, the following 9 drawbacks need serious considerations:

1.      No focus on creativity, passion and innovation: What was the entire movie of 3 Idiots about? To follow your passion. Our education system by no means encourages that. We see more and more of Silencers produced and promoted. Nearly all Engineers in this country manage to cram through “previous years’ questions” and pass their entire 8 semesters. A painful truth about our educators is that they recompense memorizing on top of creativity. And hence, there are no Zuckerbergs or Sergey Brins creating fabulous breakthrough inventions like facebook or google.

2.      “Regulatory Policies”: It is ridiculous to note that the only “body” that controls the system of Business Schools is AICTE! There are two immediate concerns. Why should there be any governing body for education? A free market system works better, that decides the best automatically for all. The more serious concern is about the credibility of AICTE. While it no longer controls Business Schools, it does control 90% of the private Engineering colleges that bother about “affiliations” and there is no doubt about the fact that these engineering colleges produce more and more of “silencers of 3 Idiots” only. There are nascent engineering colleges who bribe the AICTE to get affiliation but neither have laboratories, nor even proper classrooms! This vicious cycle of colleges starting and shutting down overnight will keep on happening, unless the AICTE is completely shut down and the sole discretion of letting an institution run or not is purely on the consumers.

3.      Quality of the educators. Another problem is the discriminating dearth of competent people in the educational field. Brain drain, better opportunities in other sectors keep the best away from the most dignified profession of teaching. Some of the quandaries in education are: remoteness, lack of infrastructure, fervent but “scholastically scrawny” learners.

4.      Harmonized education: We are still stuck with the concept of 2 billion hands to work and not 1 billion brains to transfigure. Harmonized education is based on “equal treatment to students”. This is a grave concern. The requirements of students vary from individual to individual. These prerequisites are inevitable. But cheers to our “one size fits all” system of education.

Photo courtesy: chopcow.com

It should not be surprising to recall that no high schools, universities, Engineering colleges, Business Schools from India rank in the top 100 of the world. It feels really silly to talk about Takshashila or Nalanda Universities. Flaunting about history only creates complacency.

5.      Drivel Teaching Methodologies: This Dragon has a lot to enlighten to the Elephant. Give a man a fish and you feed him one day, teach him how to catch fishes and you feed him for a lifetime. This simple Chinese proverb sufficiently explains the position of our education system. In fact, we are taught the entire classification of Agnatha, Chondrichthyes, Placodermi and other fishes, but the tools of catching fish or at least the basics of fishing are never taught.

6.      Lack of basic infrastructure: While this point has more to do with Government Schools and Colleges and their constraints with the money allocated, it is important to note that efficiency in such organizations are also appallingly low. I wonder why productivity is so horrible for majority of educational institutions. There are no schemes for incentives to the teachers. Instead of cribbing about how to implement such a system, simply offer a 30% Salary hike to the responsible teacher for a threshold percentage of students performing well(obviously not on grades, but let’s say research papers, vocational activity certificates). Sounds simple right? Believe me; it is really as simple as it sounds.

7.      Incorrect Benchmarking: The Indian education system somehow manages to encourage run-of-the-mill or second-class students. Is it a challenge to the entire grading system in India? Yes, of course it is. The grading system of India is not only decrepit, but also discouraging. So much of emphasis is given to passing marks. A CBSE student needs to score simply 33-40% to pass his entire 12 years of education. Shockingly, most schools never fail students in the primary years (up to the 5^th standard). What is the learning from those entire 12-15 years? Is the student equipped to face the world? A simple solution to this benchmarking system would be relative grading. Students who perform better in terms of merit (merit involves practical understanding, implementation capabilities, sharpness and innovation). Corporate Models in the IT can work better in education. The frame of mind of incompetency has so deeply penetrated in each one of us that we are only subject to be called by adjectives like “Indian crab”. We need to encourage more entrepreneurship and free market.

Photo courtesy: http://www.jamesaltucher.com/

8.       Educational Myopia: At the cost of real learning. India’s education system looks at commercial gains only and students are trained to look at their monetary future. These lines are stated by the chairman of Aravind Eye Care hospitals P. NALPERUMALSAMY in an interview published in the Outlook. The apprehension is that the purpose of education and if you remember the questions we framed. The broader equation of education seems to be unclear to the educators and the visionaries. Short term gain, especially in the university level education appears to be the only emphasis. This is quite apparent in our culture and society. We are badly driven by the paltry opportunities available in select areas only. While this is partly true, ask yourself this question. Are you not driven by showing off your profession to the society?  

9.   All knowledge and no skill makes Jack a Jackass: There is a very informative article on Economic Times in the form of slides about the precise differences between skills and knowledge. The conservative Indian Education system makes it extra thorny for the students to get trained with the practicality of the boring theories taught. The reason why institutes based on skill development or employability training are earning colossal cash is because of the same reason. Some findings of a report on employability by Aspiring Minds are alarming beyond doubt:

·      47% graduates not employable in any sector of the knowledge economy

·       Education system promoting rote learning in place of actual application of concepts

·      Not more than 25% of the graduating students could apply concepts to solve a real-world problem in the domain of Finance and Accounting. On the other hand, on average, 50% graduates are able to answer definition-based/theoretical questions based on the same concept.

·  English and Computer Skills dampening smaller town employability prospects significantly

Overall, the Indian Education system needs tremendous amount of reforms. We are moving towards jeopardy unless something phenomenally ground-breaking happens. Let’s hope for a better educated India soon.

EDUCATION: CONSTRUED FOR GRANTED

The thought of defining education amuses my mind. Defining it is conceivably beyond the scope of the most astute people. But the purpose of education also varies, not only with different individuals, but also the same individual in different stages of life. After a lot of observations, delving into the matter I see a serious disorder in people who are privileged with this blessing in India. The psychology in Indian parents regarding education is very remarkable, with one common motive- Establishment. They say that they want their brood to reach a certain level of Respect in the society. The idea in itself is not flawed, but the conformist assumptions that are forced on their children are at times gaffe. For instance, they never educate their children to develop a fervent approach towards it. They impose certain fixed surmises like science and math without letting the intellect of the child widen. How many of us even wonder whether cheap Hindi and regional commercial movies like Bodyguard impede our pondering aptitude permanently? Have you observed that most Indian movies today hardly relate to the situations where the songs are compellingly put? Have you observed that the Lord of the rings, Amadeus or Inception are movies of the Hollywood, and that we are almost 50 years behind enjoying Ra one?

Survey says that an average Indian youngster has the most poorly developed common sense and gesticulations. No Indian can even dream of building a facebook or google, or if they do at all, they are exceptional genii. We are not only devoid of infrastructure to bring about revolutionary technological changes, but also we never ponder deeply against conventional approaches. So we perhaps need to be updated with certain central global doctrines that should be developed at a very early age of life, when we are lithe enough to be molded into the required ‘Icon’ of the society. One colossal change that can be observed in contemporary India is that we have become very cognizant about our ‘image’, in a very complex manner. But the worst part is that the muddle of orthodox credence and mimicking the west ensuing slavery to the rulers has given rise to a huddle of Hypocrites. They have conflicting ideals, and often fail to preach what they pretend to teach. The simplicity of thoughts is corrupted with an outlandish apprehension, a fear of confusion. Keeping our houses clean and sullying public places is an archetypal attribute of us Indians. Are we not taught that these are improper signs of actions? Why do senior officials of the govt. provided with free electricity benefits misuse it? Why do elected officials blame modernization as the primary reason for rapes? 

        Education should be able to remove such barriers and augment the intelligence of man. Education should educate people, create awareness in them. It should foster human values, build us to become judgmental not based on following what is being taught, but by challenging the facts, questioning and developing newer insight. Change is inevitable. If innovation were absent (which in our country is a reality), technology would stagnate, and everything would fester. So transformations have to happen.  But to our misfortune, education itself in our country is peripherally besieged by Political hedges. There are these legislators who themselves are chameleons. If norms regulate the market, the fate is similar to the Sovereign debt of the Europe. They want to exploit by not letting people modernize. Modernizing is a major part of learning and contravene with inapt and expired principles. Challenging also means lack of slavery. The lawmakers will lose clout. People will stop forgetting rape cases, start behaving in a mature manner instead of putting up arms against the cops. It is our duty to sermonize basic responsiveness to the lesser privileged. I recall once I had a heated argument with an elderly rural person regarding littering on the railway station platform. Finally, it ended when he spit on the platform again and I put water on it. Culpability impinged on him and he apologized. Not everyone will be the same. Some people have deceased conscience. But as long as there is a will, there is a way. The youth must be interested in politics and current affair. They should be alert and motivated. The languid and carefree generation needs to build a lot of fortitude in and around them. It feels excruciating to let go off the immense efforts of our young revolutionaries, who died for our country. I see CRY coming to our college, but the locality in which I live, I see children working in mills, their parents forcing them to earn something rather than going to schools. If Satyamev Jayate affected the way certain corrupt practices function, what are we doing on our part? Do we ever wonder what conditions actually give birth to criminals? Are we doing anything to improve such condition? If it depends only on the 2% who are literate (I won’t say educated), it is our responsibility to educate others (post educating ourselves). Google taught us to think beyond the conservative belief of keeping certain special skills surreptitiously under cover.

        I leave all the questions unanswered, provoking some thoughts and ideas to develop.

Sankalp Banerjee

THE TYRANNICAL NATURE OF GOVERNMENT

Most of us are “educated” to believe that government is either a good institution or, at worst, a necessary evil. We believe that without a government, the world would be overrun by chaos and lawlessness. That “democracy” is the best form of a Government and the United States of America is the “idol” of the same. A closer look to the fresh catastrophes all over the world regarding the enigmatic surveillance programs being carried out by the “democratic” countries puts up a question mark to the entire arrangement. The National Security Agency’s sweeping surveillance obtained access to the central servers of major U.S. Internet companies as part of a secret program that involves the monitoring of emails, file transfers, photos, videos, chats, and even live surveillance of search terms. According to the Washington Post disclosed, it had obtained classified PowerPoint slides detailing the program, code-named PRISM, from a career intelligence officer who felt “horror” over its privacy-invading capabilities. “They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,” the source told the newspaper. Participating in the PRISM program, according to a selection of the leaked slides, are Internet titans including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. It was established in 2007 and is used by NSA analysts to spy on Internet communications as part of the agency’s foreign intelligence-gathering work. India has acted differently. It is going a step ahead with a ruthless program that will let it monitor any one of its 900 million telecom subscribers and 120 million internet users. The Centralised Monitoring System (CMS), has planned to give 9 Indian government agencies—including the tax department—the power to access, in real-time, phone conversations, video conferences, text messages, emails, and even internet search data and social media activity, and will work without any independent oversight, Reuters reports; the agencies have a green signal to begin observing targets without the authorization of the courts or the parliament. According to the Hindu newspaper, the system will have dedicated servers and extensive data-mining capabilities that can be used for surveillance.

The fates of Edward Snowden(whistleblower of the PRISM slide leaks of NSA), Julian Assange(editor-in-chief and founder of WikiLeaks) and not to forget the arrest of the Gurgaon techie for making “derogatory” comments against Mrs. Gandhi are no different from the Nazi accomplishments and propaganda back in the 1930s. The Reichstag fire decree and enabling act where the decree was used as the legal basis of imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis, and to suppress publications not considered “friendly” to the Nazi cause. If the Nazi propaganda seemed to be “Notorious” and “Totalitarian”, we are in no better state.

If freedom is negotiated or compromised under any circumstances, the system of a “democratic country” is dubious.

It seems to be far healthier without a government to edict. In the entire history of rulers, termed as anarchy, Monarchy or Democracy, there has not been a very successful era of justice. The reason is simple: Any form of “regulated” or “manipulated” economy cannot serve the interests of many but only a few. The solution is not in having an Aam Aadmi Party who is supposed to serve in everybody’s concern which again is not logical with the access to avenues of earning easy money. The solution is to not have any ruling body but to have a Free Market Economy suggested in Laissez Faire Capitalism. Laissez-faire is an economic environment in which transactions between private parties are free from government restrictions, tariffs, and subsidies, with only enough regulations to protect property rights. The phrase laissez-faire is French and literally means “let [them] do”, but it broadly implies “let it be,” “let them do as they will,” or “leave it alone”. Only after the 18^thbusiness cycle of Austrian Economic theory has put light into this system, where the Market (comprising of all people) will automatically adjust the demand and supply and the world will be a much better and peaceful place to live in. Just as an example, consider the value of the British pound with its classical definition and the international market value of the same today. The reason for the drop in value is simply the “manipulations” of different rates of the banks disturbing the market. The infuriated Anonymous group (on the youtube) on ill measures by the government, seems to be absolutely justified.

I end this article with a lot of thoughts to ponder and a beautiful quote by Auberon Herbert:

“How, then, can the rights of three men exceed the rights of two men? In what possible way can the rights of three men absorb the rights of two men, and make them as if they had never existed. Both propositions are absurd from a reasonable point of view. If being a slave and owning a slave are both wrong relations, then what difference does it make whether there is one slave and a million slave owners or one slave owner and a million slaves? Do robbery and murder cease to be what they are if they are followed by 99% of the population?”

Sankalp Banerjee