Education.. now stands in tatters!

Education in our country doesn’t seem to be very polished. I may be mistaken in assuming that’s true across all educational institutes but I can certainly talk about the places where I have sat and watched the blackboard blankly for hours or heard the ongoing drone of the lecturer.

I have stepped out of Engineering earlier this year from one of the “better” institutes of the country. Despite that quoted word, it doesn’t seem to be a much of a value add to me. The reasons being:

1. If I don’t have any strong motivation/incentive/interest factor, studying for the sake of studying is pretty much useless for me.
2. An absolute lack of such factors only meant that I, who can’t study if I’m not interested enough, didn’t even find the prospect of an upcoming exam with the threat of flunking the subject, even remotely painful
3. The lecturers themselves not having enough incentives to teach were just as casual about the whole teaching process as I was of the studying process.
4. Add to that the fact that more than half my department comprised of professors who were not more than a couple of years elder to the batch they were teaching
5. A few senior professors who were genuinely concerned about the welfare of the students tried their level best but only could get so far
6. Not to mention the absolutely pathetic system where if you can learn stuff by rote… voila! You’ve passed with flying colors but if your roting abilities are as impaired as your interest you can expect to come back again next term and write the same paper

What is thus lacking or is unduly stressed upon is:

1. Study for exams
2. Learning – that’s a word absent in this dictionary
3. You’ve found something extremely interesting in a topic and you really want to Google it up or dig up the reference section and learn more… but does all that effort get recognized? Nah… there is an absolute lack of such a forum. Besides the bunch of people hanging outside the cafeteria seem to have some more exciting conversation at hand
4. Is there a proper feedback system in place? I mean besides those forms passed around which half the crowd just marks without knowing whom they are filling the form in for
5. How about a proper evaluation system? Does every individual know where he stands? Don’t kid me by showing the grade sheet or worse the assignment grades. Not more than 10% of the class writes that assignment on their own.
6. Let’s talk about electives that come in right in the 4th year. Only the top half of the batch gets what they want. Worse, they take what they think is the easiest, convenient in which case not many get what they really want.
7. Stop talking about those outdated theories and concepts and quizzing us on them. They are obsolete for a reason. Get more real-time and dynamic information into the curriculum.

Proposed changes:

1. Give those professors a little more incentive. It doesn’t necessarily have to be monetary (though that would help to a great deal but I totally understand the lack of funds).
2. For heaven’s sake not every human in the world can teach. So get a proper feed on whether or not someone’s making an effective teacher
3. Is there absolutely no scope for the teacher’s being a little more creative and innovative? Why isn’t there a single lecturer who can infuse a little more exciting spirit in the class?
4. Is there no chance of getting in a whole bunch of case studies in? Not just vague examples cut-copy-pasted from the web… but a more heated group discussion/debate forum right in those classes.
5. How about experimenting with an internship in one of the terms. Let your students get a feel of what the industry is like. Some students do get independent internships during their vacations. How about getting it for everyone right on campus?

I can brainstorm and continue to enlist ideas; vague, impractical, possible and obvious ones. The clear cut point here is that anyone who’s reading this has been there and most likely felt the same way. Isn’t there any chance of contributing one good suggestion and trying to fix it in place? Imagine how the entire system could be revolutionized by just one step, one man at a time.

Another black strike….

I have in my life so far been witness to a number of terrorist incidents both in Mumbai and beyond. But nothing beats the nightmare that began 20 hours earlier. The sheer plan of action being executed by the terrorists seems brazen. Fanned out across South Mumbai targeting a hospital, a café, a railway station, a residential complex and two extremely posh and popular hotels, where the terrorists continue to lay siege, has come under the attack.

In this past night I have watched as top cops lose their lives in gun battles, numerous explosions and fires break out, people die, people are rescued and the heritage building of Taj keeps going up in flames.

I’m at present out of the city but I have lived there long enough to have my heart beat to the rhythm of the bustling noise of the city. And I know today must have been a freezing day for the denizens.

Of course there are tons of people with tons of ideas to deal with this. Some say the government is weak, some blame the inefficiency of the law enforcing forces, some believe in shoot-at-sight funda while others continue to be apathetic. I don’t see why anyone should think otherwise, but knowing & having loved the city as I do, it breaks my heart to see anything disrupt its glory and glamour and make it so vulnerable in this manner. I’m no better at devising strategies and bringing up a foolproof plan but as the hours tick away I can only hope that what we lose in this battle doesn’t mar our souls and spirit too badly.