If you enjoy
the privilege of a better memory than mine, you might be able to recall that
there was one solution that was common to all problems we studied about in the
wonderful school years, be it poverty, hygiene, environmental degradation or
calamities. This one solution was awareness, or education. And India has achieved
great heights in the field of education (hope you know I’m being sarcastic as
usual). I thank the mentality of people for this, a problem which again roots
back to education.
The Indian
society in general has a very strange air about it. Education is considered as the
most important asset to be acquired by our society, yet it’s the very thing
that it so unfortunately lacks. It however, is laced with qualifications and
degrees. Doctors (!) and engineers (!!!), managers and clerks, and nothing
else. How frequently have you heard of people starting their own business? Students
opting for athletics after high school? (No wonder a country with one-fifth of
the world’s population isn't able to win every 5th medal in the Olympics!)
How many have taken up research? Facts tell two out of a 1000 M.Tech students do a PhD.
After being ‘educated’, you get to work under
industries and companies. For some or the other person. If not educated, you
get to work as farmers, laborers and the likes. You can now imagine why India is one of the world’s few countries which switched directly from being agriculture
based economy to being service based, without crossing the manufacturing stage.
The repercussions are evident and more will be evident soon. The very few other
people who received little or no schooling, but got educated in the true sense,
are the people at the top. Industrialists, artists, sportsperson,
entrepreneurs, and the like. Even the illiterate politicians are far above the
class of literates. The root of the problem lies in understanding the true
meaning of education.
Education is
taken as another word for academics and quantified as number of degrees one
acquired. It’s not about throwing away your life into the books whether or not
you like it. It’s taking decisions, making choices about the field you want to
take up your career in, and pursuing it with full fervor and labor. USA might
not be the best example to state for education quality, (it’s degrading like
anything in the past years) but clearly it provides a huge variety of options
to choose as your career; real options.
Here in incredible
!ndia, we have science, commerce or arts after tenth grade. In science we have
only maths or biology (these are apparently the only two subjects that
constitute science!). And maths means engineering, while bio means medical
science! At the end of engineering, you get to choose from either CAT or GATE,
as if they are the only two criteria to be declared human. Actually, it was
meant to be business administration or m.tech, but the meaning has changed. Because
its qualification that matters, not knowledge.
Take cities
and then villages. Compare the voting percentages. See where people help each
other more. Observe where neighbors are friends. Look up where crime is
abundant. See where people are healthier (setting aside access to health). See
where people are happier. And city people are expected to be more educated!
The situation
that came up after the Delhi gang rape showed what education gives to
literates. On the day the incident occurred, no one- not a single person stopped
to help the victims. Next day you find the same shameless people (with a few of
those who genuinely felt sorry) protesting. Once the police showed signs of
aggression, they all vanished. Reading recently a case of the rape of a three
year old girl which received no attention whatsoever, you can see the protest
was a sham. And a shame.
And of
course the babas in our society. Literates adore people like asaaram, nirmal
baba (he asks you to eat samosas if you say that you have a bad stomach), and
follow their instructions to the word. Once I went to a recharge shop, and was
looking around. I found no pictures or idols of god. Just when I was about to
mentally appreciate this fact; I saw a picture on the wall, incense sticks
below it and quite evidently a symbol of devotion. It was nirmal babas. This
man worshipped that fraudster!
It is not
just the shopkeeper. Most of them are like him. Marriages are based on kundalis
and manglik crap. They wear rings to avoid non-existent evil forces. Animals are
killed in temples in the name of sacrifice. Sacrifice doesn’t mean killing
someone else, it means giving up something you don’t like to part with. The word
is sacrifice, for English’s sake!
So, we have
an awesome education system, sometimes lead by next-to-god-legends like kapil
sibal. I am proud to be an Indian. An educated Indian.
