EDUCATION SYSTEM OR THE MANUFACTURING UNIT???

There is no denying that discipline is an important trait that will equip a student to achieve various individual and societal goals. But we cannot forget that it is only one of the many traits that need to be developed for an individual to achieve personal and professional success.

A majority of us have somehow been convinced that the current exam-centric system works well despite overwhelming anecdotal and statistical evidence indicating otherwise. We need to remember that examinations are simply a manner through which one can assess a student’s ability to develop discipline and basic processing capacity. 

The point here is that the state of our economy and society is directly linked to the incentive structure of our education system. We were trained to write essays for answers that could have been written in 4-5 lines. Even teachers propagated this rule and we saw the results on the answer sheets. It goes against the skill of making the vast subject matter concise in our heads. Educational institutions are able to make a lot of money without ensuring the quality of their service or generating any real value in the Indian economy. 

According to the 2011 National Employability Report, only 2.68 percent of engineers in India are job ready. A study published in the journal Health Affairs said that the rate of correct diagnosis by doctors  is around 22 percent and correct treatment around 45.6 percent.

We learn about the flaws in our education system very early in our age. We know that there’s a chance that if we are not in good terms with a subject teacher, we will probably get bad marks in it. If you have been a brilliant student, do not even think of going into arts – you want to shame your parents?  By the time we are adults, we are the sum of what we learned in our education system. Therefore some of the finest students either leave the country or fall prey to deprived opportunity. More importantly the education system actively prevents students from developing a multitude of necessary traits that will lead to these positive outcomes.

Let’s take a look at some of the most damaging aspects of our education system.

1.The longer the answer, the more marks we got, no matter if the short answer was also sufficiently good.

2.Too many people, too few colleges, and competition that kills people – literally

3.Your performance decides if you’ll ever be successful in life

4.If you screw up your grades, you are destroyed for life

5.Memorization is more important than understanding

6.You need to unsocialize to concentrate more on your studies

7.Schools are only about studies. Very few focus on overall development – like social skills and sports

8.Infrastructure and facilities are so bad, it is actually understandable if your college mess is actually a mess

9. Anybody who scores less than ninety percent is an average student.

10. Very few good schools. Most (more than 95%) of our schools are in shambles

11. Incompetent teachers. Plus they have the power to make or break a career

12.There’s no scope for research

13.This is the most important exam of your life

14.No practical knowledge whatsoever

The idea is that changing the incentive structure of our education system should be an absolute imperative in order to significantly improve the educational experiences of children in India who have the privilege of going to school. This will create an incentive structure that will initiate the end of the ludicrous exam centrist schools and the rise of schools whose administrations are committed to providing a comprehensive learning environment to students.