Dear people at the helm of
education in India,
Let me
introduce myself. I am a 3rd year engineering student who “cracked” late IIT-JEE in 2009 and life
has never been the same. But this letter is not about the escapades of an
IITian. Many other writers seem to be doing the job of reminiscing those
stories rather well; some of whom aren’t even IITians themselves. I’m not even
trying to waste time by asking you to bring back IIT-JEE because as Dumbledore
said, “no spell can reawaken the dead.” And in my opinion JEE was pathetic anyways
but I’ll come back to that later. Lastly, I’m not going to bother to make this
article sound intellectually appealing because come on, I need to get the
message out to YOU and I know what language gets through with you. What I want
to talk about are my own selfish needs and how you screwed it up.
First I want
you to understand the difference between science
and engineering and please read it
carefully because for over 60 years now you have been having trouble with
understanding this. Science, is understanding that there are stars and planets
in the sky. Engineering is sending a rover to the planet to test its soil for
human habitation. Let me make a table for your weak attention span to absorb
better.
|
Science
|
Engineering
|
|
Trying to understand the stars, planets, and other
stuff out there
|
Making a flying bot to go out there and bring back
pictures and soil (and bacteria if they can find any)
|
|
Knowing that if you add up an infinite series of
seemingly random numbers, you get legitimate results on quantum mechanics
|
Writing a computer code to add up that infinite series
in 2 seconds
|
|
Knowing how electricity works and if you want a bulb
brighter, you need more power
|
Making the bulb
|
|
Understanding the method of genetic evolution
|
Buying a goat named Dolly and cloning her
|
I could go on, but I hope you get the point. Now let me
tell you what you did. You created the toughest exam in the world for science, and used it for selections in
the best engineering colleges. It
means you find a person who plays excellent chess, and send him to the Olympics
for basketball. And then we have half of the “tax-paying” Indians complain that their precious money is being
used by people who don’t even end up as engineers. There’s a reason why we
don’t end up as engineers. BECAUSE ENGINEERS ARE NOT WHAT WE WANTED TO BE! Yes,
some of us become excellent engineers because some have a passion for it and
JEE was only a hurdle they had to cross before they could hop on to the real
world of gadgets and computer programming. For most of us, we just wanted to
give the best exam you created to test ourselves for science. We worked our
asses out and became the best at what we enjoyed to do. Science. So we crack JEE and the whole nation is at our feet
shouting – “You made it! You’re the best at this thing. You deserve to be an
IITian.”
By now even
we want to be IITians. IIT, the place which created such a great exam to select
the best minds of the country and we do accept that we are the best brains.
Though this is only valid till you consider that what we call the “best brain” is only the left part of
the brain and the exams in no way test our creativity and intellectual thought.
Sadly in India, being good at studies means being good at exams relating to
science or math. If you score over 80%, you should opt for science. If between
50 to 80%, try commerce and if you’re so pathetic that you fall even below 50%,
then either take arts or get married. In either case your future prospects in
India would be the same. You won’t even take a moment to consider that the
reason you scored 95% in your board exams was because you were intelligent and not scientific. Again, two very different things.
Amartya Sen,
Rabindranath Tagore, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and Kiran Bedi. They aren’t
scientists or engineers. They’re just geniuses which a country of a population
of over a billion produces every day (statistical truth). Out of these
geniuses, most are stacked into believing that since they have good
concentration and hard-working ability, they should take science. It’s like
saying if you can hold a hockey stick well, you should play cricket with the
national team because that’s the sport which pays.
Yes that’s
what we do in India. We switch to the field which pays rather than improving
the field we‘re passionate about. If you want a good life, have a good dad. If
you fail at being born in an affluent family, study for what pays.
So why did I
study for JEE? Because I love(d?) science.
Why do I hate
IIT? Because it tested me for science and is trying to teach me unsolvable
equations every day.
What will I
do next? I’ll give CAT and try to get into an IIM.
Why MBA?
Because after 4 years of struggle I’ve lost faith and interest in the things I
love and was passionate about so now I’m going to go for the money. Besides,
again CAT is going to test me with Math and English two things I’m very good
at. Obviously again in IIM the curriculum will not relate to English and Math
but by now I’ve lost interest.
So to the
people who keep fretting about their tax-money. One, I’m in trouble too. And
this is a part of my struggle. Two, there’s not a damn thing you can do about
it sitting in the confines of a room infront of your laptops or PCs so abuse me
if you want to. It won’t make a difference.
This article
is over. The pessimists can stop reading. The people who live with the hope
that if we don’t all die in December 2012 (I wish we do), the world will be a
better place, read on…
I’ve told you
about the problems with the system but my English teacher at school once told
me that it’s the duty of a writer to give a solution to the problem he addresses.
It’s a good thing that they’re abolishing IIT-JEE. It didn’t do the people any
good to stack the best scientific brains of the country in 7 (or 13 whatever)
top engineering colleges. But making another exam which’ll again test the
students for science and put them in more engineering colleges isn’t going to
do better either. At least JEE ensured that the people with the best
left-brains got together and created wonders. The solution to the problem is
not making a new exam or making more IITs or IIMs. It’s in introducing the
career choices at an earlier level. Career counselors must visit schools and
tell students what lies ahead and when I say counselors I mean real career
counselors and not the son-in-law of the district mayor.
Secondly, for
students aspiring careers in science and engineering, they should be made aware
of the difference. Not like me who accepted the difference at the end of his 2nd
year in college by when it was too late to go back.
Thirdly, if a
student really aspires for engineering, computer coding must be made compulsory
at school level and should be a subject in competitive examinations because the
days when engineers fit nuts and bolts are gone. Today in every field of
engineering MATLAB, C++ and simulation softwares are compulsory and if you
aren’t good enough with those, you might as well write long open letters on unfamiliar
blogs.
Fourthly,
students must know the different career paths available to them and how to
pursue them. When I gave JEE, I didn’t even know about IISc, IIST, etc. All I
knew was if you want to study science, join an engineering college. Yes, it was
a fallacy on my part but that’s what 17 year olds all over the world without a
guide or a mentor do. They choose a path and by the time they realize the path
is not for them, it’s usually too late. Same goes for the arts streams in
India. Art students are seen with such a downtrodden look that they actually
feel shame for what they do. Art isn’t for the person with low grades. It’s for
someone who likes to open himself up. All over the world, successful artists
are geniuses who’ve changed the field they work in. Arts is what you do with
your right side of the brain which the Indian education system gallantly neglects.
As a result, that part of the brain rottens and one day collapses.
Anyways, this
article was a result of built-up frustration and now I feel better. I would
like to debate and talk more about this topic as I understand this space was
too short to cover all the points. But writing a book on it would only be a
waste of paper. Why would anyone want to read a book about how the book-system
in India is a failure. If you have been patient enough to reach the end of this
article, I bid you goodbye. I’ve got to study for my 6th semester
exams.
Sincerely,
A frustrated
IITian
