NEED FOR A REVOLUTION

Our current educational system was created by our ex colonial masters to create clerks and civil servants. Little has changed since then, as I among many Indian students as scapegoats of this system prepares to crack the JEE or NEET. The only change that happened after 100 years is that JEE and NEET has replaced bank tests and civil service exams. This system has sunk into inertia. India was ranked 48^th in the 48 countries that participated in a U21 survey analysing the quality of education. Allowing more colleges to mushroom will not do the trick as we have enough colleges already.

All Indian students are part of “the great Indian educational rat race”, an unrealistic, mindless and ruthless crusade for a pointless cause. Indians spend their life`s savings on education because they believe education is they way to climb up the social and economic ladder. Yet, many students struggle to find a career of their choice. Many bright young minds are even driven into suicide due to peer pressure.

This system crushes creativity and imagination of our youth. Here, the best crammers are rewarded. No one can remember the crammed knowledge after the semester. Risk taking is mocked. Creativity and talent is rarely considered. We have to correct this fundamental flaw in our system and understand that memorising is not learning. We have to focus on skill based education. If you give a man a fish, you give him food for a day. But If you teach him how to fish, you give him food for his life. Skill, unlike knowledge is less likely to be forgotten. That ironically is what was followed exactly in our gurukulas. The students were driven by their interest in curiosity and the teachers were saints, the enlightened ones. It would be unrealistic if I said that we have to go back to those ways. So I won’t. But we can use their ideas as a source of inspiration.

“Guru” literally means enemy of light. A teacher is supposed to lead his pupil from darkness to the light of wisdom. “Gurur brahma gurur vishnum guru devo maheswara, gurur sakshaal parabhrahma  thasmayi sree guruve nama”. That is a story of a really distant past. Now, teaching is considered as a safe, well paying and risk free job. Stupid teachers waste the precious time of students all over India. Get smarter people to teach! End of story.

We don’t need Babus and pen pushers. Nor do we need engineers. We have the most number of engineering graduates. But where is the technological revolution? Where are the innovations? Oops! They are busy running call centres. We need great entrepreneurs, innovators, scientists, artists, thinkers and writers. They can make us a knowledge based economy than a low quality service providing nation. The Indian youth demands a REVOLUTION......