College Education System - An Analysis

“Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth, for a particular commodity, and for the future, it won’t serve us.” : Ken Robbinson.

India is a home to 152 central universities, 316 state universities and 191 private universities. Other institutions include 33,623 colleges, including 1,800 exclusive women’s colleges, functioning under these universities and institutions and 12,748 institutions offering Diploma Courses.

All these institutes together send out millions of graduates every year. But the questions galore are: How many of these graduates end up with jobs matching their education and how many are left by the way-side?

There is ample of rote learning in our system, leaving a minimum scope for creativity. Most people end up taking the conventional jobs, which signifies that there isn’t a plethora of options to choose from. Very little focus is directed towards creating an education system that would open up the avenues of creativity. This has led to a substantial squandering of the talents.

Our learning approach is primarily restricted to classroom sessions. Even if we were to take inspiration from our ancient Gurukula system of education, we would know with crystal clarity that even in those times, the guru taught everything the child wanted to learn, from Sanskrit to the holy scriptures and from Mathematics to Metaphysics. All learning was closely linked to nature and to life, and not confined to memorizing some information.

Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay brought the modern school system to India, in the 1830s. The curriculum was then confined to “modern” subjects such as science and mathematics, and subjects like metaphysics and philosophy were considered unnecessary. Teaching became confined to classrooms. However, a balance ought to have been struck when structuring education modules and a blend of the two systems would have been an excellent choice.

India is plagued with the problem of Brain Drain, for a reason. Even with the highest intellectuals that the country has, Indian Education System has failed to expand the horizons of study. Thus, those with a desperate urge to follow their passion end up taking the high road and fly away to different countries.

We’ve been trained to mug up, encouraged to be a part of rat-race. The movie “3 Idiots” is a classic example of this when ‘Rancho’ (played by Aamir Khan) says: “This is College. Not a Pressure Cooker. Even a circus lion learns to sit on a chair in fear of the whip but you call such a lion “well trained” not “well educated.”

A rigid assessment system of ‘pen and paper test’ is followed to determine our worth and capability. And with crystal clarity, those who can’t achieve certain expected range of marks, they’re not considered much in the eyes of the professors. It is the general ideology of our parents, our peers, our teachers- all have minded their minds to believe that ‘a three hour test’ determines your fate. But in reality, it only examines the skill of recollection and writing while failing to identify other intelligences.

This notion primarily persists because ever since we get on with the primary education, we’ve been trained to believe that marks indeed, are an indicator of your capability.  

Our syllabus and course structure are still archaic, lacking a fresh perspective and most of them do not suit the contemporary needs of the students.

However, not all is bad, our college education system has also seen an overhaul in a handful of universities. Students are also becoming more and more eager to break away from normal routines, and participate in as many extra-curricular activities such as MUNs, Debates, Declamations etc. College fests have become a great platform for students to showcase their talents.

There are job opportunities for fresh graduates but only the excellent ones bag those opportunities. Some universities have also started sending their students on exchange programs. Lately, India has seen a rising spurt in the number of startups by young college goers.

Another problem area is that the students from top universities grab the best internship opportunities as well. Imagine a scenario where a certain person doesn’t have much on his curriculum vitae but has a strong desire to intern at a reputed place, he or she is more likely to be told that “you need to have some experience to gain experience.”

Alternatively, either the student has a contact to get through or he/she has to be extraordinarily brilliant.

Despite everything, the country doesn’t offer various semester exchange programs, summer schools and distant education programs. A lot of development is really called for.

To bridge the gap, the government in 2010 tabled legislation to invite foreign universities to set up branch campuses. The Government of India also initiated the Foreign Education Providers Bill, 2013 to allow the foreign universities to set up their educational campus (colleges and universities) in India. The Bill, if passed, would help students get access to education provided by overseas universities.

Some institutions of India, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Science, University of Mumbai have been globally acclaimed for their standard of undergraduate education in engineering. Last year, Punjab University was ranked the highest ranked Indian institution clubbed in the group of universities ranked between 226-250 ranks. Along with this, 5 Indian institutes made it to the top 400 list of Times Higher Education’s (THE) World University Rankings 2013-2014. These institutes included Indian Institute of Technology from Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Roorkee.

Time and again, foreign universities have shown their interest to set up in India. Once the FEP is passed, it’ll be a giant leap for the higher and professional education system.Foreign universities such as Stony Brook University offer up diverse courses. As per the information shared by a friend from Stony Brook University, the school is known for biology. Basic biology classes one has to take include BIO 201, which is about ecology and evolution; BIO 202, which is molecular biology (i.e. glycolysis, TCA cycle, cell division, etc.), BIO 203, which is the body systems and such. These are only a couple of the biology classes offered, many of which are required to get the degree. It gets more and more difficult as you increase the number of the course.

In addition to the many biology classes, you need to take several chemistry classes as well, including general chemistry semesters 1 and 2, and organic chemistry for 2 semesters; you also need to take labs for each chemistry semester. In addition to the courses required for your major, you need to take DECS, which are general education requirements.

For instance, if you're an economics major, they want to make sure you aren't just good at maths, you also have to be good at arts and science so they make you take 3 credits of each knowledge area.

As far as the diversity of other courses is concerned, the University offers hundreds of other courses, with approximately 110 possible majors, with comprehensive classes associated with these courses. From Africana Studies to Zoology to Underwater Archaeology, the learning structure is very wide. Underwater archaeology talks about... well, archaeology underwater, having you look at different sites, like Port Royal in Jamaica, Tybrind Vig in Denmark, etc, different kinds of boats and proof for ancient civilizations using boats and stuff. Also, there's a unit on pirates. If the university doesn’t offer a particular major, one can create his own and just take classes specifically associated with that.

For example, Jim Henson, creator of Sesame Street, created a Puppetry major and took classes associated with puppetry.

Asked about the job opportunities, I was made aware of ZebraNet, which puts graduates in touch with alumni who are working in the same field of interest. There are also job placement services where they help you polish your resume free of cost or at a minimal cost.

Underwater archaeology talks about... well, archaeology underwater. It includes covering different sites, like Port Royal in Jamaica, Tybrind Vig in Denmark, etc. Students learn about different kinds of boats and proof for ancient civilizations using boats and stuff. There's also a unit on pirates.

Another friend from University of Illinois, pursuing biology major with animal sciences minor, is also taking up evolution, anatomy and physiology, organic chemistry lab, and animal nutrition. With a full throng practical work environment, students are also made to work on technical and modern equipments.

Fordham has it’s first Fashion Law Institute... Central Michigan University offers up a course of Wilderness Therapy. The US caters to the needs of large voice acting industry. The top cities for voice acting in the US include Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and San Francisco.

Every profession is treated at par and no preference is given only to a certain course. To bring India at par with foreign institutes, a long way lies ahead, which must start with a mental revolution among parents, teachers and students.

If looked from a different angle in Indian education, things also largely depend on an individual student’s goals and the kind of atmosphere and facilities he/she wants from an institution. Even one factor is student’s aims and goals. So it varies from person to person.

With intensive learning such as this, the education system targets the overall growth of a student and imparts proper logical knowledge. If Indian Universities can move past the conventional examination system and hone our education system, the country might be termed as an education superpower by 2030. For realizing the vision, it is important to adopt a learner-centered paradigm of education, introducing muti-disciplinary, industry-oriented, entrepreneurship, and skill-based courses, and adopting new pedagogical techniques such as blended learning, flipped classroom and experiential learning, facilitating faculty development and exchange programs, attracting and incentivizing best-in-class faculty to conduct research would also help.

About The Author:-

Nupur Walia

4th Year

BA LLB (Hons) 

University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University.

Posted in: Blogging,YOUR VOICE