Opinion | Indian Education system

The Sacred Teacher-Student Relationship The first lesson you come across is – obey your teachers as they are always correct. Here lies the worst assumption anyone can ever make, specially w.r.t education. This “I am above thou” attitude creates a divide between the teacher and the pupil. The students are not encouraged/do not feel comfortable to ask the right questions and disagree with the teacher. We dutifully memorize the answers they dictate in the class and reproduce it on the exam. This is what brings us to the second thing one should know about the Indian Education system.

Testing a Student’s Memory is what exams are for
There is just too much emphasis on memorization. The inquisitiveness and wonder is lost early in the childhood. We are essentially trained to copy and paste, I need not explain any further.

But this is not the “Correct Answer”
From the day one we enter kinder garden, we are trained to somehow get the “correct answer” and are often even punished for asking the right questions. Students are trained to get the “correct answer” without encouraging them to ask how and learn why. The entire process of learning becomes mechanical and tedious.

Who cares about learning as long as you “Crack” a competitive exam?
Next to most of the numerical questions presented in the books in India, you will find a secret code reflecting what exam it appeared on and in which year. This sums up our education system i.e. get the “correct answer” i.e. crack the exam (“bell the CAT”, God why!?). In most of the cases, however, students do not know what they are getting themselves into until after cracking the exam, settling down in college and getting a job. To be fair, with such a large population and small number of jobs, students are forced to take up popular subjects which will yield them a job. What about the interests though? This brings us to the next point.

There are only n honorable professional degrees, where n<5
We are forced to get a degree in popular subjects before we start doing what we really want to do, because doing what you want to do in the first place is so uncool! This wastes a lot of our time and resources. Certainly, after an age it is difficult to really pursue what your really wanted to pursue. Enter, depression, anxiety and boredom. This is a major drawback of our education system -trying to fit everyone into one mold.

You are pretty much useless if you are not good at PCMB
Every student is a huge asset to our country. Considering our literacy rates, if you are going through any educational system at all, you are invaluable. Sadly, we lose numerous bright students because of our obsession with PCMB!!

Yet there are people who beat the odds
Yes, there are wildly celebrated people from India in every field, but I would attribute their success to their own hard work. I can only imagine how even more wonderful they could have been if they were subjected to a more sensitive and conducive education system.

Final words
Indian Education system is harsh. If you are extremely lucky, you’ll come across some great teachers who will rescue you from this system. If only, we can see our students as multifaceted individuals with limitless potential and “teaching” as the most important professions of all.

Writer is a student of Amar Singh college Srinagar

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