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Why is Indian education not delivering?

Indian education is failing miserably at harnessing the power of its intellectual youth and they shall continue to move to better universities in West.

I stumbled upon Alok Kejriwal’s thought provoking article on Indian education –

alokarticle

As it happens, it was in turn spurred by another news article stating how Indian universities are lagging on global stage that I can’t find a link to, so you can visit Alok’s article itself.

He raises some valid concerns and I have myself continuously felt how Indian education is not delivering at all. And that automatically brings up the need to look elsewhere for better education and future. This WSJ article had spun a controversy when it claimed that 85% of Indian graduates are unemployable. But unfortunately, I have to agree. Some immediate issues that come to mind are-

  1. Severe lack of good teachers – While academia remains a very highly respected profession in most of the developed countries, we seem to be treating our teachers like janitors. As a result, no qualified person actually wants to become a teacher. No teacher, no real teaching, no fundamentals.
  2. Lack of infrastructure – This could be attributed to ever growing population but our expenditure on education needs to be drastically improved to cater to the needs of our growing masses. Then there’s of course the problems of corruption – who can forget the mid day meal tragedy?
  3. Fundamental priorities – But more than anything else, I feel our priorities are so messed up. We are more interested in Bollywood gossip than creating things. Our social pressure and mainstream thinking deters many a youth from pursuing their dreams. We will chase our worthless actors and actresses but have no respect for army, entrepreneurs and innovators. Merits don’t count much, its either your ability to bribe or your bank balance that can get the work done. So yes, the basic fabric of our society itself doesn’t encourage good quality learning for our children.

I am sure its easy to crib than do something about it and I am not the one to demean India and say we should just encourage brain drain but our education system is not designed to cater to the needs of our intellectual youth – they deserve better than what we can offer. Until we can create a system that can give them a future they deserve, they will continue to be claimed by countries who can better serve their needs. When it comes to education, India is lagging far far behind – unfortunately.

I am glad I did my MS in USA, so I can actually compare the two education systems. And, there is no doubt that education infrastructure and system in West is more conducive to creating visionaries and innovators. Some folks crib at going abroad for education but frankly, if one needs quality education, there is no other option. At the same time, I am glad to have come back and apply my learnings in India – that is my way of giving back to my motherland. You can do the same. Being patriotic doesn’t mean ignoring the education outside India but it means to serve your country better. And if I can serve it better by first studying abroad, then it is worth it.

So, yes I am all in for recommending Indian students to go to fantastic universities abroad and make themselves more capable of giving back to India when the time comes.

2 Comments

  1. Yes ok but it is getting so expensive to go to States to study. Do you think is worth the money. And specially when one has to come back to India afterwards. Do you get better jobs?

    • Thats a bigger debate again as to what is affordable for someone and what is not. But if one can afford, the quality of education offered is better in US/Europe. Thats what we meant.


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