Indian Education System - Are we really educating???

Hello friends... Tremendous support from you all for the last two blogs made me write one more blog with an issue that I've been pondering for a long time...

As I keep reading and hear stories about education, employment opportunities created, etc. I keep wondering are we really educating our younger generation.  The idea of education is to impart knowledge and make the student understand the subject.  Are our schools and colleges really doing it?

This blog can be considered as sequel of my earlier blog about Education Institutions (EI), which can be found at: https://eskay-blogs.blogspot.com/2011/06/which-is-best-school-college.html

The meaning of Education is defined as:

1. the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
2. the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills, as for a profession.

Does our EI's really impart knowledge on students or just prepare them as 'textbook' heroes?

The common belief (among students and parents) is that scoring 90%+ is successful education.  If the student is very good with his/her memory, under the current education system, he/she can easily score 90%+.  But does that mean they have gained knowledge in their subjects?  I don't think so.

In June 2017, NASA launched world's smallest satellite designed by a 18 year-old Tamil Nadu student, Rifath Sharook and his team mates.  What a brilliant achievement for a 18 year-old !!!! But he scored only around 65% in science subject during his higher secondary exam.

Purely based on marks (as always happens in Indian colleges/universities), Rifath would have never got an admission to do graduation in Science field.  

What's the status of colleges in India?  Before we see the statistics for entire India, let us see the statistics for Tamil Nadu as TN has more Engineering Colleges than many other states in India. On an average about 1,57,000 students graduate in Engineering field in Tamil Nadu alone.  All over India, it is estimated that about 15,00,000 students graduate in the Engineering field.  So, Tamil Nadu has little more than 10% of Engineering Graduate turnout.

It's amazing we 'produce' about 15 lakh engineering graduates a year... But, does our country has job opportunity for 15 lakh new engineers every year?  

Below is the statistics of students enrolling for graduation courses in India during the last three academic years (data is provided by Union HRD Ministry):

Stream	2016-17	2015-16	2014-15
Arts	97.30 Lakhs	109.40 Lakhs	107.10 Lakhs
Science	47.30 Lakhs	43.80 Lakhs	40.90 Lakhs
Engineering	41.60 Lakhs	42.50 Lakhs	42.20 Lakhs
Commerce	40.00 Lakhs	38.60 Lakhs	37.20 Lakhs
Medical	9.80 Lakhs	8.90 Lakhs	8.10 Lakhs
Management	5.60 Lakhs	5.20 Lakhs	5.10 Lakhs
Law	3.50 Lakhs	3.30 Lakhs	3.02 Lakhs

From the table above it's obvious that about 40+ lakh students enroll for Engineering graduation.  But only about 15+ lakh graduate with degree (graduation data is also from HRD and students with arrears and have not cleared during normal academic year are not considered)... Why such a poor rate of pass percentage?  Are we saying 2/3 of students who enroll are not competent enough to finish Engineering graduation or is it the problem of EI which does not teach/train them adequately.

Couple of incidents made me write this blog now even though I've been thinking a lot about quality of Indian Education in recent times.  The stimuli to write now are:

1. Sun TV runs a quiz program every Sunday afternoon (program name "Thaaya Thaarama" - for details of the program you can watch Sun TV on Sunday 12noon).  Couple of weeks back a guy participated in that program with his mother and wife.  The guy was a professor in a college (owned by his family) and his mother was the Correspondent of that college.  One of the question was about how many letters in Tamil language (total "uyirmei" letters in Tamil).  The guy, his wife and mother all three gave wrong answer.  The host told them that it's very bad that they didn't even know about their own mother tongue.  To follow-up he asked the guy "You are a professor.. So, tell me at least do you know how many vowels are there in English and what are they".  The professor guy just laughed and said he teaches Science in College and not English.  Then the host turned to his mother and said "You are the Correspondent of the College.  At least do you know the answer?".  Her reply was "Even though my title is Correspondent, I actually take care of Repairs & Maintenance and collection of Fee in college and I don't know anything else".
2. The second incident was while a phone call with one my best friends from school time.  While talking about quality of education and all he said that his daughter found that the formula taught by her teacher was wrong and she had the guts to go directly to the Head Master and complain about it.  In front of the child, the HM called the concerned teacher and told her "to learn and understand and teach them".  That's all he said and sent the student and teacher back to class.

I believe, the above two incidents should be a real eye opener for us as to the standard of education and EI's in this country.  First incident clearly indicates that if you have money, you can start a college, call yourself a professor, correspondent, HOD, etc...etc... even though you don't even have the basic knowledge of languages.  Hats off to the director to air this episode without editing (it's not a live show) and exposing them.  If the knowledge of the professor is so bad, what about the students studying in that college?  How do we expect them to be a really qualified graduate who has understood the subject?

In my opinion, the second incident is a big shame on the teaching profession.  A student knows that the formula taught by the teacher is wrong... A teacher, who is supposed to have been graduated in the field they teach (in this case Mathematics) and also have experience in Educating (B.Ed or equivalent) doesn't know that she's teaching incorrect.

Both the incidents cited above are just examples of something I came across recently.  I am sure everyone of us have similar experience which came as shock to us.

The day teaching professional became business instead of "service", I think the quality of education really started plummeting.  Every Tom, Dick and Harry who had money has started schools, colleges and deemed universities.  Our EI's have grown in number very fast but not in quality.

What has really happened due to this?  Most of the students who graduate from a college and could not find a decent job, becomes a teacher/professor/lecturer in the same college he studied.  A guy who just graduated becomes a professor/lecturer.  What experience he has in that field to teach the next generation?  I am sure everyone of us knows somebody who has done this.

Our EI's very happily send out 15+ lakh engineering graduates a year.  Does our country have the ability to give related employment opportunity to 15+ lakh graduates every year?  No.  Absolutely not.  See below example to see the condition of graduates:

Last September, Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) invited application for the post of gangman, gateman, pointsman, porter and helpers.  These are the lowest level jobs within Indian Railways.  For a total of 62,907 vacancies, RRB received application from 1.90 crore applicants (almost 302 applicant for each vacancy).   According to RRB, majority of applicants were Graduates (including Engineering graduates) and post-graduates even though the qualification required for these jobs were mere 10th standard or vocational training certificate.

Visit this site: https://theprint.in/governance/where-are-the-jobs-crores-of-post-graduates-and-engineers-apply-to-be-railway-gangmen/117282/ to see the heart-wrenching numbers.

So, the new standard of EI's have forced the graduates and post-graduates to apply for the lowest level jobs as labors.  Is this the achievement we want for our future generation?

Let us look around among our friends and relatives circle.  How many BE graduates are working in BPO and do a job which is totally unrelated to what they have studied hard for?  Unfortunately and sadly, our country's current ability to create jobs are in labor sector and clerical sector only.  We may give some glorified titles like "Associate, Processing Executive" and such but end of the day the work they do is just clerical.  Why waste parent's money by paying huge fee and capitation and complete your Engineering Degree and end-up working as a clerk?  Rather you could have saved that money for your future and finished some level of degree and still get the same job.

I do not underestimate the value of education in any way.  But all I'm up against is the quality of education in India currently and blind following (and forcing) of and by children to get into Engineering and such when this country cannot provide so many employment opportunities.  Another negative impact of such education with no opportunity to work is the "Brain Drain" this is creating.  This is another huge topic on which a long blog can be written and will be written by me very soon.

Most of the (so called) prestigious universities in the country has cut-off mark of 99% or so for admissions.  What do they expect our children to be?  If anybody who doesn't get cut-off mark of 99% and don't get a seat in such colleges, are we going to brand them as 'stupid'?  A student who gets 85% mark cannot be dumb or stupid.

Anna University in Chennai is currently ranked at 1,069 in the world (as per web site: http://www.webometrics.info/en/Asia/india) and the cut-off mark they expect is 99% or more.  So if we find a college or university in India which is ranked among top 100 in the World, what would be the cut-off?  300%??

For detailed cut-off mark (again it changes depending on the caste and community you belong to - another sorry state of Indian education thanks to reservation based on community and caste) for Anna University and other affiliated colleges can be found at:  https://info.tnea.ac.in/tinfo/district.php

About ten days back, Tamil Nadu Government has decided to shut down about 600+ primary schools across Tamil Nadu.  Reason?  There were only 10 or less students in these schools.  These schools are in rural areas.  If these schools shut down, how will the children get their education?  Given the financial strength of rural families, they will not be able to send their children to nearby town or village for education.  

Government's argument is that it's not "feasible" to run schools with lower students strength.  This is purely money oriented.  The schooling system started with "Gurukuls".  The Guru didn't bother if only one disciple he had or hundred.  It was Guru's service to the society to teach the disciple.  If Government doesn't want to run schools because of the financial losses, how will poor children get even basic education?  What's the future of those students?  Government cannot think Education is business.  The whole education system is rotting because it's considered as business.

When the craze for Engineering studies started, every parent wanted their children to be an engineer and demand for Engineering Colleges and admission into the Engineering Faculty craze began.  Money monsters with money and political power started colleges in every nook and corner of the country.  The quantity increased rapidly without any quality.

The solution to this is not an easy one and will not happen overnight.  Parents and students should think about the future and decide on what to study.  If we produce 15+ lakh engineering graduates every year, does this country have enough companies and infrastructure to employ this 15+ lakh engineers?  Then, why keep running behind the Engineering field.

So, how did all this start?  Who's to be blamed?  As general public, we have created far too many monsters in our society and now when things are looking bleak, we are worried and also afraid to fight the monsters we have created.  I may soon write a blog on such monsters created by us, which is biting our behind and also eating away our country.  As general public, we are responsible for almost every mishap as we have knowingly and unknowingly created a lot of monsters.

What we can do?  Almost every year about 30% of Engineering seats in  colleges across Tamil Nadu remains unfilled.  Parents and students should avoid colleges that do not have basic amenities and good teaching faculty.  This will force the colleges to be shut down.  Even when the student cannot get what they wanted, go for the second best choice from a better EI.   Again, this is not going to happen overnight or within an academic year.  This is a slow process where colleges with lesser amenities and staff will be eradicated and only good standard colleges will survive.

God willing, when this happens, both students and parents, should not fall into the craze of Engineering or other branches like a swarm of bees attacking.  Leave it to your children to decide what they want to do and guide them accordingly.  Parents (and students) should never go with what's popular in the market.  This is not choosing our clothing or something else.  This is the future of our children and future of younger generation of this nation.  This 'going with trend' has gotten us into such a big mess with so many colleges with poor to no amenities and highly in-competent staff, which has resulted in this grave situation of our education system.  I believe we have already spoiled at least two generation of youngsters with degrees but no in-depth knowledge about the subject.

Why the status of Engineering studies and Engineering graduates has come to this pitiful situation?  Is Engineering new to India and Indians?  Absolutely not... Ancient Indians have excelled in Engineering, Architecture, Study of space and planets and Science.  Some wonderful creations by Indian in these fields include:

• Floating Shiva Linga in Somnath temple.  This temple is first of the Jyothir Linga temples in India.  Nobody really knows when the temple was actually built with the floating Shivalingam.  It is believed that the second time it was built around 649 CE.  To know more about this temple visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnath_temple
• Iron pillar of Delhi.  This was erected in 3rd to 4th century (around 1,700 years ago) in honor of Hindu God Vishnu by Chandragupta II (King of Gupta Empire).  This iron pillar is famous for it's composition, which prevents it from rusting even though it is erected in open area.
• Tanjore Bhrahadeesware Temple - Built by Raja Raja Cholan between 1003 and 1010 AD.  This temple is now considered UNESCO World heritage site.  More than 1,000 years ago the temple was built utlizing Axial and Symmetrical Geometry rules.  More about this temple can be found at:  http://www.findmytemple.com/en/thanjavur/t156-tanjore-big-temple
• Chidambaram Natarajar Temple - Built in 9th century.  A lot of research was going on about the temple as to why it's considered so important by Ancient Indians.  After years of R&D, finally the scientists agree that the point at which Natarajar's big toe (the main idol in the temple) is situated is the center point of Earth's Magnetic Equator.  How did our people find out the exact center point of Earth's Magnetic Equator some 1,200 years ago without any scientific advances we have today?
• The Eight Shiva temples built on same Longitude.  Out of this eight, three temples in Chidambaram, Kancheepuram and Sri Kalahasthi are aligned in exact straight line position. These three temples are at least 1,000 years old when there were no satellite imaging technology available.  These are truly an Engineering, Astrological and Geographical wonder (refer this site for more details:  http://www.mysteryofindia.com/2015/12/ancient-hindu-temples-straight-line.html)

Engineering, Architecture, Astronomic studies, Science, Mathematics, etc. was never a challenge for Ancient Indians.  Indeed Indians contributed a whole lot to the world on these fields and were really the pioneers who mastered these Sciences.  From such a big heritage were our Ancestors excelled and lead the way in these fields, what are we doing to our younger generation?

I know the blog is getting long... But to educate today's generation of what our Ancestors achieved without any advanced instruments or science available today is really amazing and should make us all feel proud that we are indeed the pioneers for modern science.  Below 10 facts will amaze you how accurate, intelligent and advanced ancient Indians were:

1.   Sushruta Samhita, the oldest medical and surgical encyclopedia known to Mankind - Written during  the 6th century BC, the Sushruta Samhita contains 184 chapters with descriptions of 1,120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources. Its author Sushruta is also considered to be the first ever human to perform medical surgeries on humans. The book also has vast details on embryology, human anatomy, along with instructions for venesection, the positioning of the patient for each vein, and the protection of vital structures (marma). The oldest documented evidence (9000 years) for the drilling of human teeth of a living person was found in Mehrgarh along with the evidences of orthopedic surgeries.   

2.   The first ones to acknowledge the existence of the Solar System -While history credits Copernicus for proposing the heliocentric model of our solar system, it was the Rig Veda that first noted the central placement of the sun and other planets orbiting it in the solar system. 

Rig Veda 1.164.13 - “Sun moves in its orbit which itself is moving. Earth and other bodies move around sun due to force of attraction, because sun is heavier than them.”

Rig Veda 1.35.9 - “The sun moves in its own orbit but holding earth and other heavenly bodies in a manner that they do not collide with each other through force of attraction.” 

3.    Mahabharata mentions the concept of cloning, test tube babies and surrogate mothers - The fact that in the Mahabharata, Gandhari had 100 sons is pretty well known. But what’s unknown is the scientific explanation behind her giving birth to a 100 kids. Each ‘Kaurava’ was created by splitting the single embryo into 100 parts and growing each part in a separate kund (container). This is identical to the cloning process today. The birth of Karan, who was ‘born from the “characteristics adopted from men of her choice” also has striking resemblance to the present-day test tube baby concept.  

4.    Hanuman Chalisa precisely calculates the distance between Earth and Sun

“Yug sahasra yojana par bhanu, leelyo taahi madhura phal jaanu” 

The above excerpt is from the Hanuman Chalisa and translates to: ‘[When] Hanuman travelled thousands of kilometers to swallow it thinking of it as a fruit’. The word-to-word translation of the same excerpt reveals the distance that Hanuman travelled. 

1 Yuga = 12000 years. 1 Sahsra Yuga = 12000000 years. Also, 1 Yojan = 8 miles. 

Hence, “Yug Sahsra Yojana”, the first 3 words mean 12000*12000000*8 = 96000000 miles or 153,600,000 kilometers. Interestingly, the actual distance from earth to sun is 152,000,000 kms. Astonishingly, there’s error of just around 1%. 

5.    Indian Vedas figured out Gravity before the West did.   

      Yet again, way before Isaac Newton explained gravity, ancient Indian scholars had already figured out how it worked.  
      
      Rig Veda 10.22.14 - “This earth is devoid of hands and legs, yet it moves ahead. All the objects over the earth also move with it. It moves around the sun.”

6.    We already knew about the speed of light

Sayana, a vedic scholar from the 14th century once said, "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha." A yojana is 9 miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. Therefore, 2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75/8 nimeshas = 185,794 miles per second or 2,99,000 kilometers per second. That’s astonishingly close to the real ‘scientifically-proven’ 3,00,000 kilometers per second figure. It’s often believed that his source was none other than the Vedas. 

7.    Vedas explained the science behind the rather ‘feared’ eclipses

While the world feared the eclipses and associated all types of paranormal occurrences with the phenomenon, Vedas already had a very proper and scientific explanation. The below excerpt is also proof that they knew that the moon wasn’t self illuminated.   

Rig Veda 5.40.5 - “O Sun! When you are blocked by the one whom you gifted your own light (moon), then earth gets scared by sudden darkness.”

8.     They knew the exact length of a year

Ancient Indians used 4 ways to measure the length of a year namely ‘Nakshatra’, ‘Savana’, ‘Lunar’ and ‘Saura’. Saura was one method based on the tropical zodiac that defines the seasons: equinoxes, solstices, year-halves, and months in relation to the (six) seasons. As unbelievable as it sounds, Saura estimates the length of a year to be exactly 365 days, 6 hours 12 mins and 30 seconds.

9.    Aryabhatta’s deduction of the value of Pi

 According to documented history, the irrationality of pi was proved in Europe only in 1761 by Lambert. The great Indian mathematician Aryabhata worked on the approximation of the value of pi, and concluded that is irrational and its value is approximately 3.1416. He did this in 499 CE at the age of 23.

10.  First ones to measure the circumference of Earth

Sadly, the Greeks enjoy the credit for this discovery while it was actually Aryabhata, who deduced a formulation proving that the Earth is rotating on an axis. Then, by estimating the value of pi to be 3.1416, he concluded that the circumference of Earth was approximately 39,736 kilometers. The actual circumference of Earth, as deduced by scientists today, is 40,075 kilometers.

The recent craze (after Engineering) is being a Chartered Accountant.  If I meet 10 guys who just finished High School, at least 6 of them say they want to pursue Commerce and Accounts and appear for CA entrance exam.  This CA craze is the new breed of Engineering craze.  In another 10 years, every company may have to employ about 10 CA's so that these people will not fall in the "unemployed CA" category.  Another shocking recent trend is students taking a break during second year of graduation to pursue and finish CA... Is this the right approach? I am not too sure and if anybody can enlighten me on this, I would be really happy.

We force our dreams and ambitions into our children.  If our dream was to become an engineer or scientist and couldn't do it, is it fair on our part to force it on our children?  Every human being have their own dream and desire to do something with their life.  As parents, we should ensure their dream is realistic, achievable and then guide them in that direction so that they don't fail.

World's first university was established by us, Indians.  The first university was University of Takshashila, details of which are below:

As early as 700 B.C., there existed a giant University at Takshashila, located in the northwest region of Bharat(India).

Taxila also known as Takshashila, flourished from 600 BC to 500 AD, in the kingdom of Gandhar. 68 subjects were taught at this university and the minimum entry age, ancient texts show, was 16. At one stage, it had 10,500 students including those from Babylon, Greece, Syria, and China. Experienced masters taught the vedas, languages, grammar, philosophy, medicine, surgery, archery, politics, warfare, astronomy, accounts, commerce, documentation, music, dance and other performing arts, futurology, the occult and mystical sciences,complex mathematical calculations. 

The panel of masters at the university included legendary scholars like Kautilya, Panini, Jivak and Vishnu Sharma. Thus, the concept of a full-fledged university was developed in India.

When most of the Western World and today's developed nations were in Primitive stages and hunting, we built an University (the concept of University to teach varied subjects under one roof was Indian) and taught students in diverse subjects.

Aren't we all proud that we established the world's first university and at one stage (in those ancient days, when traveling across was difficult) had 10,500 students who studied varied subjects in a single university?  But what's the current status of Indian Education Institutions?  We don't even feature in the top 500 in the World.  What a tragic way to destroy our heritage and now our future generations are running abroad to get better quality education.

Unfortunately, current education system is not working on the principle of 'imparting knowledge' but making money as business unit.  Sadly, even the parents and students are looking for EI's which has good placement records (even if not in the desired sector) so that they can earn right after graduation.  Most of us has stopped bothering about knowledge we gain than look at what we can earn after such education.

With the current situation of graduates being getting qualified in branches were we cannot provide employment, there may be a day when our "Swiggy" delivery person be a "B.E degree holder", Amazon delivery person a Post-Graduate in Science and Big Basket delivery person may be a Ph.D holder.   Even though this thought sounds cruel, looking around us at youngsters working in totally unrelated sector gives a scary feeling that this is a possibility in future.

Swami Vivekananda said "We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet".  Can we honestly cross our heart and say our EI's today do this?