Ok, so foreign universities will not come calling...

Its reiterated, Forbes India says that despite the opening up of the Education sector, the best foreign universities will not come calling. We have a huge demand and they may not be able to fulfill that demand alongwith quality. The demand, like I mentioned earlier, in education per se in India is huge. And its going to get bigger.

At the K-12 level, where again the demand is tremendous, private schools are going to help. But schools not allowed to make profit is what we need to rethink.

Freedom In Higher Education

I see students of higher education struggle with freedom given to learn. Perhaps because they haven't learnt to learn. Simple as it may sound I think the folly of our school boards (read CBSE) in encouraging a huge quantum of academic rote vis-a-vis well rounded individuals who would make serious contributions to society is hardly debatable.The rote and the methodology at school level in many ways discourages exploration and self learning. To produce learnt answers in exams is diametrically different from creating, exploring different aspects to a subject and the finding applications around us. The latter being non-existent at school level in India hampers original thought in higher education . So students expect platters doled out.....and then getting to work becomes more and more a struggle...with not much importance to life skills, they fall short - not because they can't but because they don't know how.

3 Idiots and Indian Education

Now everyone seems to have seen 3 Idiots and everyone seems to like it - Chetan Bhagat's crib not withstanding. Quite an entertainer. Looked at Aamir Khan reinventing himself (does that sound over-the-top ?) He has definitely reinvented himself in my perspective. Till a couple of movies ago, he seemed like a mix of an aggressive marketeer with decreasing focus on acting. But, this time I was forced to eat my thoughts (read 'words'). Brilliant acting.

The comment on education was extremely relevant to the times. We are all questioning our traditional education systems. The classroom education which was meant to produce people who could fit themselves into repetitive and clerical government jobs or probably just fit into the requirements of the industrial era, must undergo a change. Quite simply because if the times change and everything changes, so should how we teach and learn. In fact education should be forward looking. It should be able put a finger on the requirements of the world in the next few years and prepare the learners for that.

Does rote help in all this? Well, that's a no brainer. If we are looking at life skills, values and a love for learning to be instilled at the K12 stage then our current education system is not geared up to do that. A collective change is the need of the hour as against the sporadic little efforts that are happening at some schools.