Indian Education system not really the Masti ki

paathshaala:
What drives you to go to school or college?? Is it because
you get to meet your friends and gossip about what
happened to whom the other day?? Is it because u have a
crush on that hot English teacher?? Is it because u have
that sports period?? Or is it simply because you r too
excited about what will be taught in class the next day??
Strangely it is never the latter. I wonder why?? . After all I
mean how could anyone possibly not enjoy the subject
recitals by their teachers. The amazing monotone that
can put anyone to an eternal sleep, or the hefty
assignments so called homework that can keep one up all
night. Why all the cribbing and cursing? Why the panic
before the exams? Why? Isnt our education system just
perfect? Well surprisingly enough it is not.
Let me take you through the life of an average student
Ram.
Madhur and Geeta have their fi rst child Ram. Even before
he can speak or even crawl, the blueprint for his future has
already been sketched. Right after he learnt to say Ma and
Pa, the next thing his parents thought he should learn is
the English alphabet, Alphabet posters and weird looking
educational toys surrounding his crib. He could say the
alphabet and the number system even before he got potty
trained.
And before you know it Ram is enrolled into a school.
Primary school to him seems like a lot of fun, making new
friends, intuitive lessons and fun ways to learn new things,
colorful textbooks, helpful teachers and lot of other fun
activities. Over the years, in middle school Ram learns to
play the guitar and also becomes the head of the junior

soccer team, he considers school as the best thing ever.

Only if he knew that the glory days were soon coming to an
end.
After middle school, the education system took a dire turn;
fun and learning no longer went hand in hand. Fun from
learning was lynched which resulted in monotonous and
boring classes. Teachers became more irritated than before,
doubts remained as doubts. Every time a student asked a
question beyond the knowledge of the teacher, it was
addressed either as; You will learn it in higher classes. or
the student would be sent out of the class for being over
smart. Imparting only the basic knowledge and loading
children with diffi cult assignments started to become a
thing. Expecting all students to perform well, assuming
every student is the same was the idea henceforth. So how
was Ram doing?
Ram was not doing so well. He found it rather diffi cult to
understand the lessons, and with the lack of proper
guidance, his grades dropped. On the parent teacher
meeting, his super excited parents learnt about his grades
and got super anxious. Instead of trying to fi gure out why
his grades were taking a hit, they assumed that it was due
to his increasing involvement in co-curricular activities.
Seeing other students do well in the same subject his
parents never even thought to question the education
system. Poor Ram was forced to take private tuitions, which
replaced his guitar and soccer classes. Ram was made to
believe it was his ineffi ciency that caused him to fail.
Unable to cope with the lessons Ram could see only one
way out to excel in the fi nal exams, Ram started to practice
the art of cramming. He became The Memorizer.
This art got him quite far, he started to believe as long as
he got good grades it didnt matter what he had learned or

not learned. Appreciations fl owing in from all directions, he

had full faith that he would easily get his dream job. After
all thats wat he was made to believe his entire life. After
Higher Secondary school, his art of cramming somehow was
not enough to get him to crack any of the entrance
examinations. So the only option left was to go to a private
university, which in India before asking for the students
marks asks for the so called management fee in other
words donations.
After enrolling into his new college by paying a handsome
sum of money, he was eagerly waiting for the day the
college started. A new beginning, a new chapter hoping to
fi nd everything the brochure mentioned. The ideal college
life and immense learning possibilities that were
highlighted again and again really got him excited. He
believed he will learn new things, do amazing projects,
build and innovate ideas from scratch and what not. On the
fi rst day of orientation itself his dream shattered. Looking
around he saw thousands of freshers just like him, hoping
for the exact same thing. In his department itself there
were about 1000 freshers. He realized that it was school all
over again but even worse. Lack of experienced faculty
members and having a faculty to student ratio of 1: 100; he
could barely rely on the classes or the teachers for
knowledge. Now as Ram was trained to think; he only
primarily focused on his grades and how to be better than
the rest of them. As competition was tough given the huge
no of students, and lack of proper teachers, he solely
focused on being on the top, he crammed lesson after
lesson, day in and day out striving for excellence. His hard
work did manage him a spot on the top 10% of the
students. It was his fi nal year now; companies started to
roll in for hiring suitable candidates.

Ram went in for the first company interview; all excited and
confi dent. But sadly for him he got rejected. Three more
companies came and left, but he still got no off ers. He
started to get frustrated, seeing his friends who didnt even
work half as hard as him nor had as good a grade as him,
getting hired. His 5 th interview was no diff erent, where too
he was turned down; but this time he fi nally decided to ask
the interviewer what was it that he was lacking, he met all
the requirements, he had all the good grades. The
interviewer smiled and replied, I am not rejecting you
because you dont have good grades, or that you dont
fulfi ll the requirements, the reason is simple; you have
worked too hard to be better than others, while you should
have worked hard enough to be more diff erent than others.
You are an assembly line product, we on the other hand are
looking for people who can think on their feet, and come up
with ideas and solutions on the go, you are too afraid to
accept change and try new things. You lack innovative ideas
and go by the book. We are not a company who will hand
you a book of instructions; rather we would like new
instructions and ideas coming from you. So like I said we
are looking for individuals who stand out from the crowd.
Ram was surprised by his answer and felt a rush of cold
sweat drench his body. Everything around him seemed to
fade as it dawned upon him that he was living a lie. A lie
told to him year after year by his parents and teachers; to
conform to the system, to get good grades, to be obedient,
because thats what the companies want. He realized all
that he had sacrifi ced, the amount of hard work he had put
into it. All of that hard work, to be an assembly line product
of an assembly line education system? A trained monkey,
thats all that he was; a trained monkey in search of his
new master.

So there you go; this simple story points out the disparities in the current education
system;
We Indians find solace in conformity, and are too afraid to change. Deviance is
discouraged, and risk taking is mocked. The education system does not reward us
for research and innovation but more on academic excellence achieved mostly by
memorizing and cramming volumes of lessons. Our schools are filled with
inexperienced and lazy teachers who have taken up teaching as an excuse for just
paying their bills, who completely lack a passion to teach or to help a student grow
and learn. Most schools lack in infrastructure.
Technology and access to e-libraries in schools and colleges should be made
available. And technology integrated intuitive and interactive learning practices
should be introduced in alllevels of education. Projects and on field training should
be implemented to improve and promote creativity among the students.
One should realize that not every student is the same and may have different