Indian Education System

I wanted to write about Indian education system for long. I am a cross over product of this system, making me eligible to comment on it. But I was in dilemma whether to talk on this topic or not. If I make a favorable comment on it, then people ask me that why the hell did you leave India for US education? If I make some unpleasant comment about it then I become foreign educated person who always is critical of their country. But one of my friends just sent me an interesting article about Indian education and I decided to take a shot.

Obviously, I am not going to make a favorable comment about the Indian education structure. But I am not comparing it with American education system either. I intend to focus solely on Indian education system.

The Indian education system is borrowed from Britain. We were ruled by them so it is obvious that they will force their education on us. But the problem is that even after gaining independence from them we continue to follow their system. I am not saying we should overhaul the system completely. But tailoring it for the Indian society will be a welcomed effort. Lately, changing the curriculum has become a political play ground, making it impossible to improve it further. But, the real question is, why did it become a political play ground? I think putrid idea of secularism among the Indians is actually becoming a cancerous growth encompassing virtually every facet of social structure. People don't realize that and in any case, making any statement against Western style education instantly places in the bracket of Hindu fundamentalism.

Indian education system emphasize on Science and Math. We do have reputed law and science institutions but generally, stress is on engineering or medical practices. The rigidity of the system is quite evident when right after 12th grade students are asked to make tough choices. I am not suggesting that we should change the system according to US style where medical education begins only after completing a bachelors degree, wasting precious three or four years. But students in India certainly deserve propitious conditions to grow. The division should be only medical and non-medical. Once you choose non-medical stream, after a year or so, students should be free to choose between economics or engineering or they should be able to even opt for literature. Such flexibility will help students to pick a line that suits them most but at the same time streams other than engineering and medical will gain importance too.

The other area I would like to press emphasis on is to introduce Indian education to Indian students. It sounds bizarre but the irony is quite evident when you see India's official name being India, nomenclature of British. When I was in India I had no clue about Indian philosophy, Indian medicine, Indian theology or Indian justice system. India was a developed country before Islamic invasions and we maintained our knowledge till the British invaders came. Not that we lost our knowledge but very little progress was made during the British era. Reason: they systematically suppressed our values. We were forced to get accustomed to alien law system and alien social system. And, all though the shortfall of these systems are quite evident, we still cling to it with our lives, refusing to change it according to changing time and according to Indian mind set.

I do not intend to make detailed comment on current educational system because that will require much more space. The recent hoopla about India dominating world worries me because it is not feasible for IITs and IIMs carrying progress on their backs. We need to have overall development, something that is unique, something that is by our people and for our people. For that we have to develop strong educational base exclusively focused on India and by India.