Education is all about nurturing young minds and preparing them for the journey school called life. Or is it? Unfortunately, in India, education doesn’t really do that. The system is more about memorising and getting marks than actually training young minds to think and discover. All too often the Indian education system gives degrees that do not translate into employability. Check out this online debate about degrees and education:
Statistics show that primary school does not equip many kids with basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills. Less reputed higher education programs are often irrelevant, outdated or poorly designed.
Except for some of our institutions of higher learning, most are subpar when compared with premier institutions elsewhere. Many Indian degrees are not internationally recognised. Our first-past-the-post system means that too many aspiring students are simply left behind.
Obtaining a degree is the only way to become qualified for a particular profession, points out this tweet. This is a valid point. For instance, how many of us would be willing to be treated by a doctor without a degree?
Many disagreed with the original tweet’s characterisation of a hard-won degree as a mere ‘piece of paper’. That ‘piece of paper’ represents a lot of hard work, struggle and patience.
Some of the tweeple feel that the degree is an important document; students work hard to earn the right to have those letters attached to their names. In professional settings, that degree speaks for itself.
Our education system is frequently accused of being primarily a memory test rather than a method that teaches students to question, discover, invent and think for themselves. It certainly does not teach us how to be good citizens that recognise the importance of contributing to their communities.
This is true regardless of the country one studies in. While theoretical learning is important, on-job experience is the best teacher. That is why field internships should be a part of any professional curriculum.
Since the original post was from someone who appears to be an IAS officer, many were dismissive of what they saw as some sort of idealised view. In any event, Indian bureaucrats or babus as they are pejoratively called, are our society’s favourite whipping boys.
This is a recurring motif of Indian education: apart from the fact that many students don’t have access to quality education, the demand vastly outstrips supply. Students want to study, but there are simply not enough seats available. The competition is cutthroat; the sum of disappointment huge
There are good arguments on both sides of the ‘degree is just a piece of paper’ debate. The bottom line is that acquiring good values, valuing justice and behaving decently with others, has nothing to do with degrees. If a person is corrupt, tries to gain unjust favour and exploits the marginalised, their degrees are really of little value to society at large. After all, no school or college degree teaches us --- how to develop a conscience.
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