list the different methods of spreading education in india
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as designed.
Hear me out before you rush in to crucify me.
In the last few days, I’ve stumbled upon multiple answers and real conversations that blame the Indian parents and the education system for student suicides. Today’s youth seems to spare no thought before assigning blame to the parents and the system for these cases. There are so many incidents where the student took his/her own life because they couldn’t clear JEE or score good grades in an engineering college or make the merit list. Every single time, the parents are blamed for “pressurizing” the child and setting “unrealistic expectations”.
There was also an interesting comment thread on an answer that Sean Kernan wrote yesterday that read:
“Yup. Asian Americans are not magically more smart than others. They just tend to have more serious parents.” - Sankar Srinivasan
This really got me thinking and there’s so much truth to this statement. When I look around me at the thousands of Indian engineers who work in the Seattle tech industry and in Silicon Valley, I see that most of them came from very average middle class backgrounds; none of them were born with any financial or intellectual advantage. The one thing they all have in common is parents who pushed them harder than their peers.
As a teenager you rarely know what you want to do in life. Most people want to “live their dreams” and “follow their passions” which more often than not at that age are inspired by some movie or public figure that they have a near zero probability of emulating. Indian parents set seemingly unrealisticexpectations, they will force you to take up engineering when your heart truly wanted to play a guitar. Let’s look at a couple of scenarios:
The Success - When a student succeeds, nobody cares how much he was forced and pressured, everyone wants to celebrate his success, talk about his hard work and his journey; people will happily credit him for succeeding despite the system. For many average middle class Indian students, that success can simply mean a stable job, a steady pay and a comfortable life for their families; all things their previous generation did not have the luxury of experiencing.
The Failure - If a student doesn’t make it, if he gives up or quits or doesn’t meet the bar, the pitchforks come rushing out. The family pressure and the system are called into question. The multiple other talents the student had are brought up and scenarios are presented about how he could have excelled at those if given the chance.
Just a very simple statistical analysis will show you that scenario 1 is so much more prevalent than scenario 2. Mathematicallythat tells me one thing; the system works as designed. It is optimized to fit the need of the many. Is it perfect? Not even close. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. But by and large it does what it’s supposed to.
We cannot expect a system whose primary obligation is to create employable masses to focus on excellence and learning. While these are wishful ideals, a country with the population and scale of India needs to optimize for quantity over quality. If the systems were made highly meritocratic, if the course content was revised and the teaching methodologies were to focus on learning and academic excellence, we would have a few hundred world class engineers every year and a few million unemployed starving families.
What is wrong with the Indian education system?
NOTHING. It actually works as designed. If you are among the people who wish to excel beyond the scope of what the system offers you and have the resources to do so, please go ahead; by all means. There is nothing holding you back. You can study and learn and grow well beyond what the system has to offer. You are free to move out of the country and create a better life for yourself if you choose.
If you are very passionate about changing the educations system, please learn the ropes and give it a shot. My mom tried for 20 years and during that time, through her eyes, I had the opportunity to see the other side of things and learned so much about what happens under the surface. My sister-in-law went to Harvard and studied education and went back to India to work with bringing about reforms in the primary education sector and this helped offer some glimpses into that world as well. The insights were quite similar.
Yes our content needs revision and we need to move away from the outdated syllabus. Yes we need more empathy among the adults who shape and train the young mind. Yes we have room for improvement. But by and large, these are relatively minor albeit necessary fixes. Holistically, the system does what it’s supposed to. It tends to quantity over quality because in a country the size of India, that is the real problem that we are trying to solve
Hear me out before you rush in to crucify me.
In the last few days, I’ve stumbled upon multiple answers and real conversations that blame the Indian parents and the education system for student suicides. Today’s youth seems to spare no thought before assigning blame to the parents and the system for these cases. There are so many incidents where the student took his/her own life because they couldn’t clear JEE or score good grades in an engineering college or make the merit list. Every single time, the parents are blamed for “pressurizing” the child and setting “unrealistic expectations”.
There was also an interesting comment thread on an answer that Sean Kernan wrote yesterday that read:
“Yup. Asian Americans are not magically more smart than others. They just tend to have more serious parents.” - Sankar Srinivasan
This really got me thinking and there’s so much truth to this statement. When I look around me at the thousands of Indian engineers who work in the Seattle tech industry and in Silicon Valley, I see that most of them came from very average middle class backgrounds; none of them were born with any financial or intellectual advantage. The one thing they all have in common is parents who pushed them harder than their peers.
As a teenager you rarely know what you want to do in life. Most people want to “live their dreams” and “follow their passions” which more often than not at that age are inspired by some movie or public figure that they have a near zero probability of emulating. Indian parents set seemingly unrealisticexpectations, they will force you to take up engineering when your heart truly wanted to play a guitar. Let’s look at a couple of scenarios:
The Success - When a student succeeds, nobody cares how much he was forced and pressured, everyone wants to celebrate his success, talk about his hard work and his journey; people will happily credit him for succeeding despite the system. For many average middle class Indian students, that success can simply mean a stable job, a steady pay and a comfortable life for their families; all things their previous generation did not have the luxury of experiencing.
The Failure - If a student doesn’t make it, if he gives up or quits or doesn’t meet the bar, the pitchforks come rushing out. The family pressure and the system are called into question. The multiple other talents the student had are brought up and scenarios are presented about how he could have excelled at those if given the chance.
Just a very simple statistical analysis will show you that scenario 1 is so much more prevalent than scenario 2. Mathematicallythat tells me one thing; the system works as designed. It is optimized to fit the need of the many. Is it perfect? Not even close. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. But by and large it does what it’s supposed to.
We cannot expect a system whose primary obligation is to create employable masses to focus on excellence and learning. While these are wishful ideals, a country with the population and scale of India needs to optimize for quantity over quality. If the systems were made highly meritocratic, if the course content was revised and the teaching methodologies were to focus on learning and academic excellence, we would have a few hundred world class engineers every year and a few million unemployed starving families.
What is wrong with the Indian education system?
NOTHING. It actually works as designed. If you are among the people who wish to excel beyond the scope of what the system offers you and have the resources to do so, please go ahead; by all means. There is nothing holding you back. You can study and learn and grow well beyond what the system has to offer. You are free to move out of the country and create a better life for yourself if you choose.
If you are very passionate about changing the educations system, please learn the ropes and give it a shot. My mom tried for 20 years and during that time, through her eyes, I had the opportunity to see the other side of things and learned so much about what happens under the surface. My sister-in-law went to Harvard and studied education and went back to India to work with bringing about reforms in the primary education sector and this helped offer some glimpses into that world as well. The insights were quite similar.
Yes our content needs revision and we need to move away from the outdated syllabus. Yes we need more empathy among the adults who shape and train the young mind. Yes we have room for improvement. But by and large, these are relatively minor albeit necessary fixes. Holistically, the system does what it’s supposed to. It tends to quantity over quality because in a country the size of India, that is the real problem that we are trying to solve
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