The Head of Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, C.N Rao had penned down a letter to the P.M, pointing out the faulty educational system of India comprising of multiple entrance examinations, autonomous Universities and their examinations.
His statement, “India does not have an education system, but an examination system” has really struck a chord with todays youth and has become quite “viral” on various social networking websites conducting “polls” and “questions” based on the same harvesting millions of “hits”.
Gautam Nair, a mechanical engineering student from a well known college in the city says, “The feeling is subjective, for high-scoring students will score high in any case, but these multiple entrance exams, give us mediocre students a chance to enter the market”. Whereas, Shantanu Shah, a class XII student, dreams of a world without examinations and with innovative ways of learning.
C.N Rao, in his letter, has put forth an idea based on the American system, ONE common entrance exam for all universities, like the SATs, which would be a major leap forward compared to the present system which is, chaotic, least to say. At the same time, it will also reduce the burden on the students by a great deal and make Education “fun again”, instead of making students fear it, and run away from it, and thats just the education aspect of it, its better not spoken about the quality of the teaching faculty in today's universities.
Statistically, the rate of student suicides is going up exponentially, with every year as children fail to “meet the standards” of their/their parents’ “Dream Institutions/ Universities” and are afraid to face the ones they love, let alone the world. Students give up years of their lives trying to get into these “high-end” institutions. Parental Pressure, makes things worse.
Yes, our Nation’s education system needs a makeover, and it needs one fast.
For which, we need to get back to basics, comprehend the real meaning of the word “education”. In the Oxford Dictionary, Education means “the act or process of acquiring knowledge”. Another states, “acquiring a skill/knowledge for the overall dynamic development of the individual”.
Nowhere, does it state, OUR nation’s interpretation of “education” which goes on the lines of “the act of enforcing 12 sets of examinations on a child, and decide his/her future FOR him/her on basis of ‘marks obtained’, which can be easily done by rote-learning everything in the reference books “. And also, “suppress any form of creativity and understanding” or “the act of creating low-cost, willing-to-work-weekends, drones for foreign companies”.
There are two kinds of people in the world, the street-smart and the book-smart, our youth needs to be the perfect mix of both, and not end up like the above mentioned “drones” who, are neither with no practical subject knowledge and lack of remotely ANY social life.
Hence, the “low-cost” and “willing-to-work-weekends”, our education system, in simpler terms, churns out donkeys for the richer countries, who work weekends, for something they THINK is a lot of money and are taken advantage off.
Seriously, Its time to Turn the Page.
