group debate stuff

Indian Education System: 60 years of stifling real thought

Standing in the auditorium of the first Indian Institute of Technology, Jawahar Lal Nehru addressed the crowd and said, “Here stands the fine monument of India, representing India's urges, India's future in the making. This picture seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India.”

Today after more than sixty years of their existence, they are still trying to figure out the symbolism. Do they symbolize the frustrated youth who give up on the country and leave for better education? Do they symbolize for the better facilities which rank them nowhere on the global scale or is it the grossly outdated curriculum being pursued for generations. I am sure our first prime minister did not have that on his mind when he made that uplifting speech.

Over half a century has passed since then and we have ridiculously molded the meaning of education to suit our lazy attitudes towards it all. The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men. The Indian Education system has stifled this real thought, the thought that education should encourage the process of our curious intellect. The method of instruction has become such that it single handedly strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. The domain of knowledge is to revolve around the teacher’s will and anybody who’s found straying is discouraged to the point that he gives up and learns to follow the “right procedure”. The procedure of rote learning and clearing examinations, which have become by far the single most important criterion to determine intelligence in this country.

“And as Albert Einstein said long before, We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”

“We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought”

A narrow approach to education has resulted in such a system that it professes no love for creativity. A system which leaves nothing open to exploration. As a consequence, students are brought up in such an environment that eventually leads them to decide within pre-conceived boundaries. The society also has led itself to believe that they can set the quality of an individual’s intellect by deciding which field he’s in. For being an engineer or a doctor puts you in category A, and anything else downgrades you to a person with seriously too much free time on his hands. Only if that wasn’t true enough for the category A in the first place.

Also if one would like to blame the population for his or her hapless situation, I would beg to differ. Our country has an immense pool of talent, those individuals who have honed their skills through intense competition and hard labor. For they are ready to work 18 hours a day to get closer to their aims. Such a ruthless environment has made them intrepid, ready to tackle any obstacles. Let’s face it. The fact of the matter remains that the only reason we might prepare for entrance examinations or our grades in college is to get a letter saying you’re hired. The education system has done nothing to elevate your value. Only being in this country has developed your set of skills to take up a task and strive for it. Imagine if the system were to play a bigger role in this process. It think it would make this country unbeatable.