Indian Education System-A Joke

I remember when I was in class 6th and I had my maths teacher scribble something on the board about an exponentiation corollary. It was about any number raised to the power zero being equal to one(x^0=1). When I raised my hand and asked him the reason, he chuckled at me and asked me to simply mug it. That was perhaps the case with almost anything I learnt at school. I never got a straight answer about the 'whys' behind theories, theorems or formulae. If and when I'd actually gather the courage to ask the teacher about the 'whys', I'd be mocked or worse be asked to stand outside the class for being indisciplined. So curiosity equalled arrogance back in school days. As a curious child I'd still try to find the answer to most of the questions around me. I'd read encyclopedias or books in a bid to find all the answers I was looking for. Occasionally or so I'd find myself mingling with some PhDs or some subject matter experts, who would actually be kind enough to explain me a bit about the 'whys' in mathematics. When I reached class X, I realised most of the subjects like mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science had an innate logic behind most of the theories. Unfortunately in chemistry and physics , most experiements that were done were theoretical in nature and there was no experiemental proof about the authenticity of the claims made, save a few lab experiements or some thought experiements. That was actually quite devastating because all the learnings were based on abstract theories that had no base in reality but conjectures. Now with the discovery of Higgs Bosons, at least we know for sure electrons, protons and neutrons are for real. Most teachers in an attempt to complete the course skipped through the essentials of subjects like mathematics, physics and chemistry that required one to understand fundamentals. So even though I passed Class X with flying colours, my understanding of subjects like mathematics, physics, chemistry or computer science was bare minimum.

Then came class XI and XII. I had to relocate to another school. I was under the assumption that things might go different here. But I was wrong. This school believed in high grades and almost everyone wanted to go to the prestigious IITs(Indian Institute of Technology).I had no clue what IITs were or what they meant to the Indian diaspora. I had been to IIT Kanpur a few times since one of my cousins was doing his PhD from there but I never realised, it's the holy grail for engineering education in India. Although there were a few subtle differences in the way education was imparted, this school wasn't that much different. There was a lot of emphasis on rote learning. Teachers were focused more on grades more than learning. So I started thinking hard about what I knew and what I did not when it came to mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science. Except computer science where one needed to have decent logical skills to build programs to solve problems, most subjects like mathematics did not require anything else other than the elements of rote learning. The papers were set in a way where one could easily get away with rote learning. Almost everything revolved around getting good grades. I managed to grab decent understanding of subjects like math, physics, chemistry and computer science that actually helped me in my engineering education later and then subsequently with my career.

I have thought about it a lot over these years and that brings me to the actual discussion- why is it that our education system has focused solely on archaic method of learning and banked on irrelevant data points like grades that have absolutely no correlation to talent? To answer that, one will have to take a walk down history to understand more about our current education system or Macaulayism. Lord Thomas Macaulay was highly instrumental for creating an education system where the medium of instruction was English. The education system was created to churn out 'Babus' or bureaucrats who would be loyal to the British Raj. The system cut down on creativity, innovation and curbed curiosity. It did not want people to ask questions as they feared it might lead to the creation of intellectuals who would question the system and might even revolt. This type of education did us more harm than almost anything remotely atrocious in nature as it decimated any chances we had at personal growth. Sadly long after the British left , we still have been following the same education system, where everything is decided on the basis of grades. Take a look at this picture.

That is exactly how our education system has discriminated between students, which strangely is scientifically wrong. it has been proven time and again that marks or grades are not an indicator of talent. In fact the marshmellow experiment brought out that delayed gratification could be one of the reasons behind an individual's success, but even that assumption is not cent percent correct. But what is definitive is that grades or marks play no role in understanding the talent of an individual. Now let us discuss about the repurcussions that a grade based system has brought about.

Grade based system has divided the children diaspora into four broad categories namely the excellent ones, the good ones, the average Joes and the poor ones. They have created a hypothesis which dictates that anyone who has the highest grades in an educational utopia is Numero Uno. In order to achieve that, they have created syllabus that they feel equips a kid for the real world and then subjected the kids to a rote learning module. Then based on how well a kid reproduces knowledge in the so called examination out of memory, he'd be allocated grades. Even the problems in STEM would be created to show the simple application of formulae or theories without any real correlation to solving real world problems. Now the larger problem is that talent or intelligence is itself divided into 9 different categories. The entire global diaspora could be divided into 9 different categories based on the category of intelligence they have but it still doesn't mean a student is superior to another student if he has better numerical intelligence than the other. We can't really compare Bill Gates to Mozart or vice versa to find out who is better? Unfortunately that is exactly what our education system has done. It has created a zero sum game where Mozart's loss is Bill's win and used an ineffective categorization to promote Bill and denigrate Mozart. What they forgot to acknowledge is that Mozart's skills are remotely different from Bill's skills and if Mozart is evaluated on his skills then there is a large chance he would perform far far better. Reminds me of this famous quote by Einsten,"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

Now let's discuss about the consequences of the aforementioned. It has created unnecessary divide between students where the guys who opted for Science or Maths got the necessary respect and opportunities as opposed to the ones who opted for humanities or commerce. Some of my friends who opted for simple B.A.(bachelor of arts) or B.Com.(bachelor of commerce), did not have too many opportunities to exploit back then since the entire subcontinent was going gaga over IT careers. In this mad race to touchbase the Indian dream we forgot the most important part of education- the purpose. We did not focus on learning and understanding knowledge in ways that could help us solve real world problems. We completely extricated problem solving from our curriculum. We paid absolutely no emphasis on creativity and innovation. Most of what a kid learns in 12 to 14 years does nothing to prep him for the real world. The entire education system has been designed to help students pick a trending career instead of a right career. There has been zero focus on excellence in a subject of choice.

If you compare that to some of the other education systems across the globe where the focus is on learning and the application of knowledge in solving real world problems , then we can visibly see the difference. On top of that we have not been able to inculcate a set of skills that are extremely important for an individual's career. Let's start with communication skills. A majority of students in India cannot communicate effectively. A large part cannot do effective public speaking. Most Indian students cannot sell themselves effectively. Sales as an attribute is largely missing. When I was in the US, I'd meet 4 year old kids selling lemonades in buildings and gated communities and their pitch was so solid that most onlookers would actually go and buy from them. Most kids would do something like that during their summer breaks. It was never considered menial. By the time a kid grows up to do college in America, he has decent sales skills to present himself or anything he is endorsing. Let's talk about writing skills. How many people can actually write well in India? The answer is abnormally low compared to America, Japan, Germany, Canada or any developed country one can think of. I am surprised to see a large part of the diaspora have not had any encounter with writing for close to 14 to 15 years of their lives. Most people I have interacted in my professional life have barely written something save the occasional emails or random posts on social media. I could go on and on about real world skills but you get the point.

What we don't realise is that we have created this monolithic monster that is chiefly responsible for the mediocrity we see in our country. Students are cramming stuff, passing exams and joining the workforce without an iota of creativity and innovation or problem solving skills. I remember going to my school 2 years back and I was asked to address some 150 or so students who wanted to take engineering careers. I went and spoke to them at length about engineering careers. In the end I asked them a simple question that I mentioned in the first paragraph(x^0=1). I asked them to prove it and not even one student could do that.Imagine students like these going for engineering. These guys have absolutely no clue about the fundamentals of mathematics and anything that is an extension of basic mathematics would be crammed by them to pass exams. Eventually after college these guys would join the workforce and be reduced to another one of those mid life crisis guys yearning for a beter career full of growth.

What's even more ridiculous is that the ministry of HRD and Neeti Aayog(new avatar of planning commission) never batted an eyelid over the same. Nandan Nilekani in his seminal book 'Imagining India' talked about 'Demographic Dividend' that India has in the form of a large youth pool. What he forgot to mention is that a majority of these students would be deemed unfit for many of the new age jobs that require problem solving skills. Today when education has reached a stage where colleges like Ecole 42 and Lambda are democratising education, we still have a medieval education system hinging on false positives. Most of it is because we have never really thought about education in the context of an intrinsic purpose. Education was always thought of as a tool to grab a job. Parents barely understood the reason why they were educating their kids. Kids were taught to cram things and pass tests. If the kid would demonstrate innate curiosity to ask questions and learn things or do things differently, he would be admonished. Take a look at this scene from 3 idiots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MlkASchodc

The scene aptly shows the importance of cramming in Indian education system. Any attempt at straying away or being creative or coming up with innovative solutions is immediately curbed away or suppressed. Students are intimidated to ask questions in class. Students never understand the purpose behind learning the 100+ subjects they are taught in 12 to 14 years. It's really surprising that even after 72 years of independence when the entire world has realised that pedigree and grades have no role to play in a child's development or an individual's talent, and when companies like Tesla or Google are inviting people without degrees to join them if they have relevant skills, our lacklustre education system is still churning out students at an exponential pace devoid of skills that the real world requires. Why would one spend 12 years in a utopia and spend unfathomable money that doesn't guarantee excellence in any subject? I think the education system in India needs a major rethinking and reshuffling.

The idea should be to create problem solvers. The education system should focus on learning and conceptual understanding of subjects than just cramming as a methodology to pass exams. Unless that happens, I doubt we would ever produce subject matter experts or visionary leaders.