Indian Education System and the Indian student mentality

The recent attack on Indian students in Australia gained a lot of Media coverage. In fact what is being said now is that these attacks have been happening since last one year but since the media gave it coverage, it came into limelight. Whatever may be the fact but all this thing brought a new fact into limelight: number of Indian students going abroad for further studies. I was shocked to read that around 4.5 lakh Indian students go abroad each year for further studies. What a huge number.

These numbers disturbed me and it made me think as to why these many students go abroad each year. What if the crores of Rupees that these students pay to these foreign universities would have helped our universities grow. It forced me to ponder over the issue as to why so many students go abroad each year.

The main reason for these many students flying abroad is being cited as our own Education system. I do agree that we have some world class colleges and universities in form of IITs, IIMs and many more such reputed college but these colleges don't have the capacity to serve the number of aspiring students that graduate each year. Moreover our education system is also very rigid in certain aspects. There is this system in which you have to study for 3 or 4 years for the stream you have chosen. Add to this the fact that if you have chosen science then only you can pursue Medicine or other subjects (In countries like US a student of maths can pursue Medicine if he/she wishes). The quota system did not help much either and in fact worsened the situation.

If you see the ratio of the number of students to the number of colleges then we dont have sufficient colleges to cater these many students. For this also we dont have anyone else but our government to blame for. For opening a college or university you need to complete N number of formalities, get N number of permits and N clearances from the government.

I will not say that only Government has to be blamed for these numbers. Out of all the countries: US and UK are the most preferred destination for Indian students. I do agree with the fact that US and UK have some of the best colleges in the world but the reason for them being preferred destinations has more to do with quality conversion rates (Dollar, EURO and Pound) rather than quality education.

I saw an show on NDTV channel and this was the view of the Educationalist that sparing 1 or 2 universities hardly any Australian university has better education than our colleges. I googled for the top 100 universities of the world. US and UK had the maximum numbers but I was astonished to find that there were only 2 colleges from Australia. The mentality of most of the students going abroad for further studies is to earn money and get settled there. That is the reason why Australia, New Zealand, Singapore or for that sake European countries are preferred more over country like Japan who has better universities, education and technology. There will be some people with the view that for going to US or UK you dont need to take up any language courses but you need to learn Japanese but just like our students to get quality European (Pound & Euro) education learn French, German or Spanish languages, learning Japanese will not be too difficult for them.

Our Education system and our own morality needs to be shaken up to stop this brain drain in the name of Globalization.

A child's question to a Doctor

In the context of our Indian culture we see Doctors as the incarnation of God. Well except the God there are only Doctors who can save you life with their medical expertise. I don't have any prejudice against the medical profession and I equally respect them but a thought that had been into my mind since my childhood days forced me to write this today. 

The other day I was doing my regular orkuting and surfing through my friend list when I came across a name Dr. XYZ. I was a bit surprised but then I recollected from my memory that doctors do have this habit of displaying their profession everywhere. Either you see social networking websites, email addresses, cars, two-wheelers everywhere they proudly display their profession. That made me into think that why aren't other professionals so proud to display their profession. I do agree that at times of emergency it comes in handy but then what can be the reason behind the email addresses and the social networking names. There are other professions who can be equally proud to display but they don't do it, then why do Doctors do it.  It may be because our society gives too much importance to the medical professionals and there is nothing wrong in that. They do an excellent job of saving lives of millions of people round the world.

If you see any profession, any business then the money you get depends on the quality of the work that you deliver. If you fail to deliver as per the buyer then you don't get the money for your work. This thing works in all the professions except doctors. When I was a child, and when I used to get fever then my parents used to take me to our family doctor. Most of the times that would work and I would recover. In case I dint recover then they used to take me to some specialist and that would help. At that time I always had the question that if the family doctor was not able to cure me, why dint he return the money back which he had charged. As I grew up, I learned that it is the tradition being followed everywhere. Even if a person is being operated for 2 lacs for an operation and if the operation fails, then also you have to pay the amount. When you see that professionalism of the quality delivery is being followed in every other industry then why only few have been left out. The little child in me still has not got the answer.....

Mahabharat - An epic of a lifetime

As a child I have always been fascinated by Indian mythology. I have memories of watching Ramayana and Mahabharata. But the impact that it made on me as a child was not as intense. Recently I have started watching Mahabharata from the first episode. Thanks to the websites that cater you all kind of stuff. I was just amazed by the direction, screenplay, characterization and above all the dialogues. The dialogues are so meaningful and intense that it reaches your soul.

The teachings that you can take from Mahabharata can help you in your day to day life. When king Bharat was the ruler of Hastinapur, the selection was merit based and not birth based. It shows you the instance from how it changed from merit-based to birth-based during the reign of Shantanu. During those times, the education that they used to impart in the gurukul had great importance on moral values, the quality that is missing in our Indian education system. A lot of problems that we face as a nation has a lot to do with lack of moral values. The respect that a child used to show not only for their parents but also to the elders was amazing. Even if you are not a believer of God and you watch it just just like a story then also it will leave you mesmerized.

There was Devvrat(Bheeshma) who took the 'Pratignya' never to get married and always protect the throne of Hastinapur, for the sake of his father's love. Then there is Vidur (minister of Hastinapur) who has all the wisdom of the world. You had Karna, who was well-known for his charity and he gave his life in charity. You have Eklavya, more talented archer than Arjuna who gave away his thumb as Guru-dakshina. You will find many characters who are modest but their characters speak a million words about them. The foremost of them all was Lord Krishna whose preachings of Bhavada gita has great followers even today. Bhagvada Gita need a seperate post and so I will not talk about it here.

As a nation I think we have failed to make use of such a great epic to build our nation. B.R. Chopra did a splendid job by bringing it to life and I thank him for this great work. I think I was lucky enough to be born in a time when Ramayana and Mahabharata were telecasted. But the current generation is not lucky enough. I think as a nation we have a very bad habit of following the west but we fail to recognize the good things that we have. You can find many examples in your day to day life. Yoga and meditation have been like the pillars of our Indian culture but we have started valuing them after the western culture has followed them. You fill find parents going crazy for Harry Potters and the other similar type of stuff for their kids, but we fail to recognize the great works of Panchtantra, Ramayana, Mahabharata and similar type of works. I am not against the western culture. But I think if we possess such great works then we need to utilize them for building our nation.

Every effort should be made to nurture the values of these great epics into the youth of our nation if we want to see ourself as a future superpower. For that we need to target the children which will be the future of our country. Entertainment is a very powerful media and we can use it for the same. Lately there have been movies like Hanuman, Ganesha, Krishna and Ghatodgach but we still need them on a bigger platform. If you see the history textbook then it is full of which country invaded us when and ruled for how much time. Rather than the history should include these great epics and similar kind of work. Bring such great books in the form of comics, video games, toys, clothes and the entire market segment of kids.

We need to do something or else such a great epic will be lost in history and as a nation we will not have anyone but ourself to be blamed for that.