Students are the victims and culprits of India’s broken higher education system
1–10 of 72 posts
Re: Students are the victims and culprits of India’s broken higher education system
#2The problem pointed out in the article is a commonly accepted truth in India. Some hard truth - even though there have been many efforts to bring the economically and socially under developed class into the mainstream, it has not happened yet. Most of the students who even come to UG especially college's like St. Stephens are from middle class or upper middle class families. They have very little incentive to fight the system. The brand comes with privilege which is the only thing they are after. In short, people do not fight the system but have learned to make it work for them. The poor and downtrodden are the unfortunate majority who are not able to do it.
Re: Students are the victims and culprits of India’s broken higher education system
#3This was published weeks back in The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/college-and-unive...
Re: Students are the victims and culprits of India’s broken higher education system
#4> reservation system for the admission of scheduled castes and others residing at the bottom of India's socioeconomic pyramid
Correction: it's social pyramid only. Classification of SC/STs is purely based on caste alone, not on economic status -- and we must fight to make it economic-only pyramid.
Re: Students are the victims and culprits of India’s broken higher education system
#5> reservation system for the admission of scheduled castes and others residing at the bottom of India's socioeconomic pyramid Correction: it's social pyramid only. Classification of SC/STs is purely based on caste alone, not on economic status -- and we must fight to make it economic -only pyramid.
As an outsider, I would certainly agree with your comment. Caste quotas seem like they would only strengthen the system...
Still, how synonymous is caste with economic status? I would guess "very" but your post makes it seem like there are some interesting nuances. What are India's caste demographics, anyway?
Re: Students are the victims and culprits of India’s broken higher education system
#6The problem pointed out in the article is a commonly accepted truth in India. Some hard truth - even though there have been many efforts to bring the economically and socially under developed class into the mainstream, it has not happened yet. Most of the students who even come to UG especially college's like St. Stephens are from middle class or upper middle class families. They have very little incentive to fight t…
Agreed! Emphasis is not given to 'economic' or 'social' need but only to caste-wise situation. If your papa's uncle is on the driving seat of the Government, you're in the game.
In many ways we Indians deserve the shit we live in. How many of us actively participate in politics? No one comes forward even if there is incentive to do so. In fact many armchair experts criticize Anna Hazare or Arvind Kejriwal who at least go ahead an walk the talk, trying to garner some support for better Governance. Support them? Nope. Zilch.
We love to be in Americas than to make India better - a short-cut. Consider this: Many of us know who the president of United States is, his wife's name, his daughters name, and yet more than 90% Indian kids of our age (i.e. below 25 yrs, and it is not a researched number) would not know the name of the Indian president, or his wife or even consider the fact that he could have children. :)
[Edited a couple of times.]
Re: Students are the victims and culprits of India’s broken higher education system
#7I agree that nationalism is ruining India. But, this article paints quite a one-sided picture. You can see that in this sentence: "Indian students are taking their useless Indian liberal arts degrees and going abroad to get real ones that signify a real education".
See? That's just it! Most people who do well in high-school get pushed into technical fields. My cousins are mostly engineers or doctors, and a few are lawyers. "Liberal arts"? That's something that children of rich parents do when they are not too good at studies. Some girls do it when they want to be housewives when they are done with studies.
I have a bachelors in EE (E&C) and have worked for a few multinationals. I have had to work with western-European and American colleagues. If I were asked for my subjective evaluation, I'd say that my EE colleagues at this level are more or less the same. Yes, the degree mills of India do churn out engineers by the millions. 10% of them understand what they have learnt. The others memorize and regurgitate their notes. It's fairly easy to screen people at this level. And that's why I find my colleagues comparable.
Leaving aside medicine, about which I know nothing, a masters degree from India in science or engineering is mostly useless. Academia, with the exception of IITs and IISc, is mostly a joke.
To conclude: Yes, education here is generally bad, but not as bad as this article paints it out to be.
Re: Students are the victims and culprits of India’s broken higher education system
#8The problem pointed out in the article is a commonly accepted truth in India. Some hard truth - even though there have been many efforts to bring the economically and socially under developed class into the mainstream, it has not happened yet. Most of the students who even come to UG especially college's like St. Stephens are from middle class or upper middle class families. They have very little incentive to fight t…
Agreed! Emphasis is not given to 'economic' or 'social' need but only to caste-wise situation. If your papa's uncle is on the driving seat of the Government, you're in the game. In many ways we Indians deserve the shit we live in. How many of us actively participate in politics? No one comes forward even if there is incentive to do so. In fact many armchair experts criticize Anna Hazare or Arvind Kejriwal who at leas…
I am not sure in which part you disagree with me. Yes most of the present youth in India - who are in a position to make an impact, are not doing it. A very simple case - they would rather pay the bribe to get LPG connection rather than fight. But the poor, they cannot do that and they are not in a position to make an impact and are trapped. This is a vicious circle. The effect of reservation based on caste is debatable but that would be a topic of its own.
Re: Students are the victims and culprits of India’s broken higher education system
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed! Emphasis is not given to 'economic' or 'social' need but only to caste-wise situation. If your papa's uncle is on the driving seat of the Government, you're in the game. In many ways we Indians deserve the shit we live in. How many of us actively participate in politics? No one comes forward even if there is incentive to do so. In fact many armchair experts criticize Anna Hazare or Arvind Kejriwal who at leas…
I am not sure in which part you disagree with me. Yes most of the present youth in India - who are in a position to make an impact, are not doing it. A very simple case - they would rather pay the bribe to get LPG connection rather than fight. But the poor, they cannot do that and they are not in a position to make an impact and are trapped. This is a vicious circle. The effect of reservation based on caste is debata…
Damn, corrected.
Re: Students are the victims and culprits of India’s broken higher education system
#10> reservation system for the admission of scheduled castes and others residing at the bottom of India's socioeconomic pyramid Correction: it's social pyramid only. Classification of SC/STs is purely based on caste alone, not on economic status -- and we must fight to make it economic -only pyramid.
As an outsider, I would certainly agree with your comment. Caste quotas seem like they would only strengthen the system... Still, how synonymous is caste with economic status? I would guess "very" but your post makes it seem like there are some interesting nuances. What are India's caste demographics, anyway?
Initially caste based quota was chosen because they were discriminated against by the society for a really long time. The profession one would go in was based on the caste they were born into. A barber's son would be barber, a cleaner's son would be cleaner. Here is one example : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devadasi . People from certain caste are still socially backward while other caste have managed to come out. The problem is the reservation system is not reformed based on that. This is a topic of hot contention.