This is an appreciation post…for our Indian education system.
It’s rare, I know.
Because it has seemingly become a permanent character trait of the human race…to be quick to complain and share our expert criticism in the name of positive feedback. Which is fine…Everybody’s opinion is required for growth and progress. (I’ve done it too, several times, in print, social media and via letters to the education board of our country.)
However when it’s time to give credit where it’s due, we are surprisingly and conveniently shy!
So I’m going to do it! Here is my vote of thanks!
Since the birth of our great Indian civilisation, we have had geniuses walk our soil, and this is no secret.
Zero, pi, astronomy, trigonometry, plastic surgery, apparently even gravity, what haven’t we gifted to the world?
These are historically documented facts that I needn’t elaborate upon.
And even today, we continue to contribute to the superpower status of several nations with one of our largest exports…
our Indian educated Human Resource.
We’ve all seen the wildly popular meme recently, when Mumbai educated Parag Agarwal took over as CEO of Twitter.
‘Padhega India, toh badhega America’
So we can all agree, as rigorous, militant, overly demanding and old school as our education system may be, we’ve clearly been doing something right.
And as I write this, for the first time in the history of Indian exams, when the various boards…CBSE, Cicse and others, encountered a crisis in the form of the Corona virus, they shed their decades-old thought process of
‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’
and adapted to the change that was needed:
Two board exams a year…
Half the syllabus in each…
Multiple choice question format
Unheard of! And yet it’s happening, much to the envy of generations of tortured students, past and future.
Did I, as a parent, think :
‘Multiple choice sounds too easy’
‘You’re not even going to put in half the effort that we did in our days’
‘It isn’t rigorous enough, stressful enough, sound enough to prepare you for the challenges of the real world?’
Yes, I confess I did.
And…I admit I was wrong!
The students still have to study very hard,
*Because not a word, not a line can be skipped without a complete understanding of it.
*There are no stock answers that they can just memorise and repeat (a skill set that was redundant anyway since the advent of Google)
*No part of a chapter is more important than the other.
*And even if they do know everything they can still go wrong unless they carefully understand every option given; developing reasoning and analysis.
In fact, the students have had to read the fine print of every text book so thoroughly that they are now programmed for life, ‘to invest in mutual funds after reading all offer documents carefully.’
No need for the disclaimer!
To sum up, the Indian education system which was already one of the best in the world is now New and Improved!
And that’s it! That’s my post.
Appreciation and gratitude for a tried and tested century old system of education that has always been a successful blend of western education and Indian grit & dedication; hard work & discipline, (and if I may say so…wisdom & intelligence.)
P.S: A humble request to the Ministry of Education –
Today, as the world adapts to hybrid ways of work in every sphere, my only prayer is…
now that we’ve discovered a better way of testing our children without compromising on the knowledge imparted to them, please let’s permanently shed that part of our system which was no longer working; namely lengthy subjective exams…and continue with the Multiple Choice Question format in the years to come.🙏🏻
indianeducation #exams #examstress #multiplechoice #mcq #icse #cisce #cbse #ParagAgarwal #sunderpichai
Sunset Effect - Nitya Satyani 