Pathetic scenario in our schools/colleges - A Discussion
MeraCareerGuide.Com takes a sneek peek into a hearty discussion by eductaion industry pioneers debating and answering on a pressing issue on Linkedin.
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Discussion Started by Mr. Sudhir Sharan, currently executive director at ITM, and was a Professor at IIHMR after a stint as senior consultat in corporate world with a degree from IIM-A |
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Who's most guilty for the pathetic scenario in our schools/colleges :Local or Delhi govt/ Teachers/ Students/ Parents/ Owners/ or Godess Saraswti Herself ? Or is it the infamous Indian mindset?? In 2010 being uneducated is the biggest / crippling disadvantage. Worse still, having degree without MARKET-VALUE is sad irony. But such things are common-place all over India today. To break this vicious happening, we must get to the core of the problem---and soon, before it reaches the point of total collapse!
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By: Vinod Rathi,
CEO Statart Technologies and a degree holder from IIT, Madras.. |
I feel some where our education system has lost connect with the requirements of the society. Inspite of having a large pool of people ( next to China) ,we haven't been sucessful in unlocking the hidden value in them. It has become a routine excercise to do graduation and then further studies without any direction. That's why we see lot of youngsters rebooting their careers and gettinging into totaly different things, in the process wasting precious time & resources. As far as who is responsible, i feel all moments of truth have to be managed and hence we can't put the blame on any one in particular. Everyone in the system should do his bit to the best of his/her abilities.
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By Manju Rai: Director at FACET (Foundation for Application of Creativity in Education and Thinking) |
Let us answer-
Why have we forgotten what real education should be?
One reason is that a college degree seems to give the things which is thought to be most important at that point of time in the life of an individual- ie security and a good source of income.
When you seem to be getting these two then why bother about not so concrete things like thinking abilities, 'vivek', values, sense of justice, ability to withstand challenges, break new ground etc.
Secondly,view these priorities of an individual/society from Maslowe's theory of needs too, you will get many answers.
Thinking of short term gains is partially a choice people make and is partially dictated by their needs- fulfilling which becomes imperative for them.
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By Rajeev Pathak, General Manager - ISV Industry at Wipo Technologies and a degree holder from BITS-Pilani and IIM-B
Last month I was at Redmond ( Microsoft Headquarters). I found that 25% of MS employees as developers/architects/ thinkers/senior managers/executives are Indians at that campus. Approx 25000 Indian technocrats are contributing to Microsoft products inclusive of operating system that I and you are using every day. All these emloyees are products of Indian education system.
Like this if you look at all global companies, you will find thousands of Indians in leadership positions.
There must be something good in our education system that has produced 25000 bright people for just one company and has produced millions of others who are in similar global/indian corporations.
- Our education system has high focus on academic excellance.
- It builds comptitiveness in a child at formative stage.
- In most of the cases, focus has been on discipline.
- Value of education in society is very high unlike in many other countries.
- Our education system allows flexibility at state, board level.
While there are many challenges in our system,. so is the case with many other systems. American system of education is being considered flawed within that country itself, as it is unable to retain & attract students for higher education. People drop out at high school level in large numbers. |
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By Jyoti Kumta, A Freelance Trainer
There is no doubt that each one of us is responsible for it but the fact that our educational system itself is so lopsided doesn't help in any way. Instead of a system where knowledge building is the only objective we should have one where value building or character building is given more importance.Theodore Roosevelt said “to educate a mind without morals is to create a menace to society.” In the same vein Samuel Johnson said “integrity without knowledge is weak and useless and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful” and our very own Gandhiji said “formation of character should have priority over knowledge of the alphabet.” Yet, we have forgotten what was taught and emphasized even during Vedic times, mainly moral values.? All great philosophers, religious leaders and thinkers, over the ages, agree that moral education/character education/value education should be an integral part of education yet we modern educationists waste our time arguing over whether morals and values can be taught or not, or whether it is the responsibility of educational institutes at all, instead of using modern resources and modern teaching methodology to come up with a program which will benefit our future generations and society at large. The US has realized that moral education/character education is an essential part of education and have started character education/moral education in a organized and structured manner. Why are we lagging behind??
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Surabhi Dewra : Founder, MeraCareerGuide.Com
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We are a young country ...some 62 odd years of Independence and with independence came numerous problems, a crippled economy, Broken religious sentiments, troubling Neighbors, Internal feuds, Poverty, corruption and list goes on. Education Policy took backseat among all.
In the early years of nation building the focus of education policy was on educating the masses and raising the standard of literacy. Effort was on emphasizing technical education to support economic growth as the urgent task was to create jobs to support the economy and train workers to fill these posts.
But as we are moving towards knowledge Economy, Education Sector is getting all the limelight. In coming few years almost 50% of country's population is going to be in the age group of 20.
Good teachers are the key to a improved educational standards. Today teaching is the least sought after career ..Why ? Why there are very few who wants to make a career in teaching ?? Why an IITian /BITSian grad or IIM grad looks for a consulting firm or a IT industry ??
Simple reason: Money, Incentives, Bonus, growth !! Can we provide the same career opportunities for people in teaching career ?? Can we ensure that teaching as a career is not meant for woman or as a post retirement opportunities ?
I am sure the day teaching becomes a lucrative career opportunity, we will have high quality standards. Then a question like this would not be raised as a discussion on a forum, but these questions would be brain stormed by the much capable teachers/Lecturers and professors inside their institution like in any board meetings a CEO of a company brainstorms with his team " How to remain in business !! |