The Great Indian Educational System !

The original and ideal purpose of education was to gain knowledge through study (or study to gain knowledge) and make us better individuals – leaders of tomorrow with a vision, instead it is creating a society of followers rather than change-embracing leaders and the purpose now is to somehow (or rather anyhow) score a +90% and get a job with a six figure salary. Schools and colleges have become more of industries producing manufactured workers rather than dignified institutes of learning. Our system is more of a marks-obsessed and cutthroat competition based system rather than a holistic, skill and talent oriented (noted columnist and satirist Jug Suraiya has termed it as a ‘Marks-ist’ system). Perhaps owing to this, a large no. of parents and most students too care more about getting into IIT’s and IIM’s and building a career abroad rather than being good and responsible human beings and applying their knowledge for the benefit of the society and country, (so much that some parents start sending kids to IIT coaching centres at the age of 9 or 10!!)

      Talent and passion are conveniently ignored by our system, perhaps that’s why unlike in countries like the US , we don’t have teenage bands and college dropouts who open dotcoms as national icons and perhaps that is also why thousands of innocent students  are being trapped in the maddening rat race for IIT’s and IIM’s and what not’s. Neglecting these has led to narrow-mindedness in choosing careers and fields. We are being bred in an environment where only studying engineering, medicine or management can guarantee us successful careers, people who don’t conform to this are scorned and looked down upon by the society. It has always been troubling to see how unjustly the society has discriminated between subjects instead of realizing the importance of each and every subject. For example, arts and humanities which are ideally essential for the development of the society are thrown aside like trash.

  We need to start questioning ourselves and the things going on around us instead of blindly accepting them (Isn’t that the whole essence of science, well sadly the essence of subjects has been lost in the race of scoring marks and proving our worth): What is the purpose of education?  Is it to get a job and make money or to learn from our experience and be better human beings?  Is education about memorizing the right answers or is it about enhancing our physical and mental abilities like creativity and nurturing our talents? Is education about teaching us leading a financially successful life or leading a happy life? Or have we started confusing financial success for happiness? Why is it important to score a 90+ in all subjects rather than fulfilling the basic human ideals of loving one another and taking care of our own planet? 

        When we start answering these questions, only then will we be able to call ourselves educated in the truest sense.                         ---MEHUL SHARMA