We don’t need no rigid education

I graduated from one of the finest colleges in India, still, at times, I feel there is something lacking in my education. And when I look around, I realise what I have missed. What constitutes an education? Today, it is largely a rigid set of instructions, a mix of a lot of subjects and a lot of exams. There is no need to emphasise the importance of education. It is not only a way to make you professionally competent but also to make you more aware, more empathetic and more thoughtful.

But are we really able to do that? Or are we only making them go through cycles of syllabus and exams? In a highly viewed TED talk, Ken Robinson makes a very strong point about how the current education system was formulated after the Industrial Revolution in English schools. We are essentially doing the same. Teachers in school do not ask the students to “think”.

The presence of numerous education boards has worsened this problem. What purpose do they serve, other than being equally rigid and equally bad? Why can’t the central government try to make a basic curriculum that can be taught in all the schools, taking into account States’ concerns?

Universities have become hallmarks of rigidity. Admissions based on entrance exams or board exams, and a major decided on the same basis, put students in a constant state of frustration. It will not be wrong to say that it takes a lot more hard work to get into a college than it takes to graduate from a college, while it should be the opposite.

There is no flexibility, or little of it, to supplement students’ skills and interest. There are just a handful of colleges which allow one to take up a minor degree or a double major. Academic policies and rules are ridiculous.This is the time for universities to remodel themselves, to wipe off the dust from their outdated courses and curriculums, to resuscitate the joy and fun that is present in a college education.

It is widely known that the US dominates the higher education system. But the kind of flexibility it offers is surprising. For example, when Prime Minister Modi met Dr Harold Varmus on his trip to America, I went on to read about Dr Varmus and his work. And I was astonished to find that Dr Varmus graduated in English Literature from Harvard University and enrolled himself in a PhD programme in the same before abandoning it to join a Medical School. And to top it all, he won a Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1989 for his work on cancer.

This clearly indicates the kind of system the US has built which lets one adjust their interest and skills anytime in their educational career. It’s almost impossible to imagine an English literature graduate going on to become a doctor in India.

The universities and colleges have many tasks to deal with, but this one is equally, if not more, important: allow flexibility in the system — in admissions, in exams, in testing, in courses, in curriculum and in academic laws and rules.

The government’s inability to understand the importance of education is the most reasonable explanation for the dismal funding of education, its political interference in institutional administration and its lack of effective education reforms.

The government should create a separate service, Indian Education Services. A dedicated service that will be only concerned with education, with academic policies and supervision of schools and colleges, with an aim to get every citizen educated in this country. The government needs to put right people at the helm of the educational institutions and give them the autonomy they deserve.

What’s more, the government must create an educational environment which is flexible for talented and motivated people to enter and leave whenever they want. Barriers to entry are very high in the educational sphere. For example, anyone who wants to take up a position as an Assistant Professor has to give NET (National Eligibility Test) which is again a set of exams based on information and memorisation and serves no purpose.

The President believes that education would be the single biggest transformative factor in catapulting India into the league of developed nations. But does the government think so?

The writer is an engineer with a technology company

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