Everything wrong with current education system in India and it seems it is too late to correct

What is the purpose of education?

The purpose of education to make kids knowledgeable with facts, equip them to rationally think and apply the facts to solve real world problems. An educated individual should be hard to manipulate by various cunning means like bribe. An educated individual should have basic knowledge of what is good and what is not. An educated individual should be a better human being.

Education - From the eyes of indian parents, teachers and society

Indians nowadys are fed right from their childhood that they need to go to school so that they become “employable”. To become employable one must get good marks in exams (through fair or unfair means). For eg. a 12th standard or PU student will want to take up Computer Science Engineering not to study the subject but to get placed in some “good” company and draw a fat salary. Crores of young men take special coaching classes to clear exams like JEE, NEET, GATE etc. They even waste 3-5 years of their precious lives just to clear these exams. Only because of the attraction towards a “safe” job.

As far as parents are concerned, they want their wards to become famous, atleast in their local circles. Eg. Many parents enroll their children to singing classes so that their wards will come on some reality show and become “successfull”. Parents imbibe this mindset that success = more money, success = becoming famous.

Teachers on the other hand make this mindset even stronger by encouraging students to write answers “as they have taught”. They too inculcate this mindset that “more marks = success”. Most teachers are themselves weak in the subjects they teach. Teachers cant be fully blamed for this though. Most people take up teaching as a profession as a last resort and not out of passion.

The devastating role of government and managements

The government keeps taking reports from various universities about the number of graduates, PHD’s etc. These universities in turn tighten the screws on affiliated colleges to “show” improved results and high pass percentages. The colleges and schools(most of which are run by politicians) are simply interested in money minting by increasing intake of students. With about 60+ students stuffed in a class, and mediocre teachers obviously the quality of education will go down. But, the college/school cannot show bad results. Thus, we have reached a point where teachers themselves are encouraging students to do malpractise. This “Outcome based education” has led to schools and colleges being top-class “on paper”.

The school/college managements are also simply concerned about money. They pay teachers very less, expect them to be more like clerks, maintaining all sorts of useless documents as proof that students are indeed learning. So teachers, to save their jobs, are left with no other option but to become good teachers on paper.

What is the current state of students in India?

Currently, students in India are on paper educated. Many degree students are not even capable of reading books, writing letters even in their own mother tongue. In fact, mastering mother tongue is considered inferior than mastering english. Taking commission/bribe has become a norm and there is no way to stop this. Since most people spend lakhs of money on “getting educated”, they need to earn much more later on by any means, even if means killing someone else. Moral education is simply not present.

What is the solution?

The solution to this is seperating money from education. The traditional education system in India was not at all about job and money. In fact it considered a crime to take money and teach in India. There are still many gurukuls in India following this same pattern. If companies start recruiting people based on skills and not degrees or certificates and government encourages the same, this mafia can be easily brought down. For eg. if a company need a person who can build software why should that person have 70% aggregate? If a person wants to become a driver, why should he have a 10th standard certificate? Parents too need to think if they want their children to be boot licking employees or free individuals who can face any eventuality with courage. We need to act on this fast. It is already very late!!