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1. 

   Sumeet Gill September 11, 2013, 8:59 am

   Alok, you are looking at the top of the pyramid, I am looking at the bottom, i.e I have been teaching at the relative obscure private engg colleges for 10 yrs now and trust me next gen is rotting in those institutions. In a class of 58, I was conducting viva voce and 32 didn’t know the answer to : What weighs more, a kilo of cotton or a kilo of iron …..

   Coming to your question on IIM, I think its the curriculum that stops us to go beyond the boundaries. Main point that is taking us backwards in terms of higher education is lack of knowledge infrastructure: Faculty, And we are in the 21st century relying on books written in 20th century with processes on 19th century in mind

   However, I do think IIMs are a bright spot in India’s dark education horizons 

2. 

   Venkataraman Ramachandran September 11, 2013, 9:09 am

   Very interesting post Alok! These questions provoke me a lot too.Until a few decades ago, we were Macaulay’s Children, as British intended, to create coolies and clerks who would essentially be…coconuts..white inside and brown outside. As our economy opened up in 1991, we aspired to be  McDonald’s children, which would ensure that our  beloved aloos(potato) turn into standardized, crunchy French Fries, conforming to global standards. 

   From my limited experience, I have seen the following

   1) Indian education focuses on verbal knowledge with no focus on real-world experiences.

   2) Parents brain wash their children on the archaic success formula :Study well ->Get good marks -> Get a good jobs -> Get a good Life

   3) Post graduate Institutions like IIMs run often like ration shops. Ration shops came into being during the Bengal famine of the 1940s. Built on the idea of scarcity,they breed insecurity and drive hoarding behavior. Whenever scarcity impulse is triggered, our Pavlovian response has always been to hoard as much as possible, as if famine were just around the corner. Indian student today is no longer satisfied with one degree. He hoards degrees in a desperate attempt to win the rat race. With double MBAs, double Ph.Ds, double MAs, we are experiencing severe academic hyper-inflation of unparalleled magnitude. 

   4) As a culture, we romanticize scarcity and austerity.We have christened this scarcity with a puckish Indian name, driving  management gurus on steroids: Jugaad. Whatever little innovation we see around, it is happening because students are so frustrated with the education system. Its like doing innovation to book tatkal ticket in IRCTC. 

   I wrote about these points in detail in my blog here

   https://www.venkinesis.in/2012/06/does-indian-education-system-breed.html 

   My 2 cents!

3. 

   Ramanuj Mukherjee September 11, 2013, 9:10 am

   I meet a lot of management students – sometimes trying to teach them law. I heard only one thing everywhere – will that help me to get a job? A better job? A higher paid job? If they cannot connect any activity through possibility of immediate results to these goals, they don’t want to work on that. What the heck – to get into these institutes they had to struggle  – now they will just do enough to bag the degree and a job at the end of it. Learning is not the goal.

   I have seen this in the premier institutes as well – the problem is even more acute there. People know they will get a job anyway – why go crazy over things working hard?

   How does the college administration fight back?

   They increase the number of class hours, portions in the syllabus, and number of credits required to graduate. It doesnt work – it mechanically burdens the students, push them over the edge so much that they start hating academics. It takes away more time and control of life of the students – and they just drift along – marking checkboxes, making the grades, pushing through the drudgery – hoping for a better day when they will get a good job and all these will be history.

   Final year IIM students don’t care about reading anymore – because they are waiting for their glorious recruitment season and reading Steve Jobs’ biography won’t change a darn thing for them right now.

4. 

   Aman Jha September 11, 2013, 9:21 am

   This reminds me of an incident. When I was in my first year of graduation, few ex- Vice Chancellors of University visited our college for inspection. They interacted with us to find out whether the college is upto the mark or not.
   When my turn came, I pointed out the old teaching technique, lack of AV system, projector,etc. He got Pissed off, and The Great ex-Chancellor said, AV system makes the teacher’s task easy, let teachers write each n everything on black board only then you can learn and understand well.

   Basically, they were old traditioned people who lack connect with industry but highly connected with political parties. These oldies decide the curriculum for the universities.

5. 

   Rabi Gupta September 11, 2013, 9:21 am

   I was a good student throughout my life & scored only in subjects which I liked. Still, today I feel I have wasted 20+ years of my life reading to things which don’t matter now! Today when I see people doing MBA, paying 30-40 lacs for same.. I wonder what happens if all such people take that 40 lacs as seed money and start something on their own?

6. 

   Aman Jha September 11, 2013, 9:27 am

   Good thought!

   But most of these students get loan from banks for MBA. Irony of this country ,which dreams of becoming a Superpower is you get loans to waste on MBA very easily  without any need to present a financial projections, calculating ROI, etc. But for starting up, no support at all!

7. 

   Sai Rodinhood Pothuri September 11, 2013, 9:32 am

   Dear Alok

   1) The main thing letting us back is our feeling, we feel that this subject is in demand, that course is in demand so you go there and study but do we ask him what the student actually wants to be . if even he wants to be some thing, do he get enough support from college or university or from family  or from government ? Because of this students leave country and showcase there talents in developed countries 

   2) Teachers, professors, faculty are not aware of what is happening outside, because what ever they know is just about the subject in the text book ( which is prescribed by education board ) if government supports universities by releasing funds where teachers and students can work on building things, then both of them are benefited, then soon we can see a much developed country in the form of education

   3) My brother kids joined IB and we paid alot, why ? because they came from US and they need education that fills the gap in India. if you send them to normal school will they adjust or will they know what is actually happening around with there education.  It all depends on parents to join there children in IB or not, normal schools always follow regular curriculum that was provided by the education board. The basic thing is that the education system has to change. let student decide what he wants to be.  and let provide things near to him where he can start working out

   4) most current knowledge is endless, 99.99% technology we use is from some where in US or China . The main thing we have to teach our children is that, you can create any thing here, no need of brain drain. let me tell u a small example , its Facebook  the same code, the same programming language. can’t we create the same thing in India? yes we can create but the problem is with the number of people use that product. in US as every one is educated so they can immediately jump into the product, try some thing, if they can code they can create API . that’s how things move. in India the basic research failed  and i feel that government failed in creating a better India

   5) Tell your kid, its not about the ranking, its about the infrastructures, its about the policies, its about the governance  that Indian universities failed to reach those universities which are in top. even you can ask her, if she studies here provided the right facilities can she become some thing where world remembers that India still has Talent 

     In some Facebook posts i read that some percentage in NASA are Indians or some percentage in silicon valley are Indians and from whole heart i know that we Indians are talented people, as facilities are not provided they got chance to showcase there talents in developed countries. if the same is provided then  why Indians have to live in some other country.

     Note:  there might be some grammatical mistakes, please excuse 

   Thanks & Regards

   Sai Pothuri

8. 

   Rabi Gupta September 11, 2013, 9:39 am

   Ya but its all about mindset.. my point is NOT that if loan becomes easier for startups, startups will grow. Startups will only grow if the mindset changes!

9. 

   Faraz Potia September 11, 2013, 10:03 am

   Hi Alok,

   I think the answers would be the following:

   1. After primary education is too broad an area. I will answer the question with what is available after class 12 because there are no IB, IGSCE options there. The quality of teachers is the biggest problem here. I teach the BMS syllabus as a visiting faculty in Jai Hind College and see people around me not ready to adapt at all. (When I use videos and Twitter as mediums to educate, I face resistance). There are people teaching Entrepreneurship but have never started a single business in their lives. The solution here is more incentives to regular teaching staff to improve and more visiting faculty (motivated and experienced people).
   2. I think my first point answers this question. There are some who do read a lot. I think editorials and newspapers are popular among teachers. But rarely does a finance professor talk about M&A deals; a marketing professor talk about digital media and so on.
   3. IB schools is a bigger phenomena in Maharashtra in my opinion. They do work in other states but mainly to attract the very rich crowd (networking, lifestyle etc). In Maharashtra, the education after class x is the biggest issue. One can choose HSC (dinosaur), ISC (few options), CBSE (tougher to adapt for ISCE and SSE students) or then IB or IGSCE. The other important thing to note is that all the boards except HSC are very high scoring and for admission after class 12, this becomes a major issue. The merit holders of HSC find it hard to get BMS seats for example.
   4. I do not know how the future of India will perform. I think education and careers are like chickens and eggs. If we create better jobs, we will find ways to educate people to do those jobs. But we need to educate people well to have the vision to create those jobs. The other questions would probably best be answered by someone from IIM.
   5. I think your daughter is lucky enough that her parents can afford a good education. I think you should tell her that and to make the most of that.

   I also think you could have also asked about the public schooling system. I think that’s the key. Also, Mumbai Mirror did this big story on colleges outsourcing their curriculum to coaching classes.

   Hope my post is helpful.

10. 

    Kushal Bhagia September 11, 2013, 10:09 am

    @Alok We had a course at BITS whose text book was this biography of Steve Jobs 🙂

11. 

    Anmol Rajdev September 11, 2013, 10:23 am

    I think your second question answers the first question itself. That along with “Bhed-chaal”.

    1) “Bhed-chaal” of getting good grades.

    2) “Bhed-chaal” of getting placed.

    3) “Bhed-chaal” of joining an MBA coaching institute.

    No one wants to get into the technicality of things, just because everyone is doing it, I SHOULD be doing it too. That’s where we’re failing I guess.

12. 

    Amit Thakral September 11, 2013, 10:53 am

    Completely agree with Kushal, BITS is the only institute in the country that was modeled after MIT and has practice school – that is a 6 month training(1 full semester) in the industry. Also it is the only engg. institute in the country to have 0% attendance. Thats right we are given full freedom to attend classes or not, pursue our own dreams, provided we meet min GPA required to pass. Sadly it doesnt figure anywhere in the list.

13. 

    Kartik R September 11, 2013, 11:57 am

    Hi, Glad to know your thought process. We’re revolutionizing BMS education with http://www.BMS.co.in and can use your help into AV and hands on approach content. Please connect if keen.

14. 

    Kartik R September 11, 2013, 12:07 pm

    This topic is very close to my heart. Been wanting to revolutionize management education through ManagementParadise.com and BMS.co.in for almost a decade now. Started as a teen and after numerous interactions with students, academy, corporates and entrepreneurs, I’ve realized that there are a handful of people who have a long term vision. Almost everyone else wants to reach from point A ( where they are ) to point B ( comfort zone, where they will stop growing ). 

    For some students, its getting into an IIM. For some its completing education at IIM and getting a job. For some its starting a small company and living a carefree life. 

    For some profs, its ensuring they have a good work life balance and some respect in the student community. For a handful, its about making a difference in the life of the students.

    Goes the same way with corporates. The associate and crack deals so that they can document those associations. The productivity and end result is seldom accounted for.

    Entrepreneurs are very shrewd in this aspect. They add value in return of some recognition for them or their organization.

    The correct formula over here would be to somehow create an institution which gets all these handful people and aligns all of them with the goal of a better education through technology and creates a role model of it for the rest of the wannabe’s to get inspired from. 

    How can one go about doing it? I’m still trying to figure it out.

15. 

    Badri Narayanan September 11, 2013, 12:29 pm

    Alok,

    Athough you have raised a very valid point, the means that you have used to assess the state of affairs isn’t!  I don’t consider Steve Jobs as “a man who had changed the world and how we live today” and hence if one of his biographies is not read by students (or the Professor) of IIM A, that doesn’t mean anything!!

    The extreme emphasis given to the marks and that too via question papers that only test your ability to memorize and reproduce, I would say is the bane of our educational system.  Instead of encouraging ”thinking’, we adore ‘memorizing’!!  

    Even at the primary levels at schools, if a child says “A for Audi” instead of the standard “Apple”, he/she would be frowned upon by the teacher on the grounds of non-conformism.

    My Rs.1.28 worth (2 cents at today’s forex rate)!!

16. 

    Azhar Hasan September 11, 2013, 1:34 pm

    Alok,

    I have attended one of the IITs in the above list and even i used to have these questions in my mind earlier.

    The reason i learnt from my experience is certainly not the quality of education at the IITs. It is by far the best on the planet. It is just that, the way these rankings are designed are not a good representation of Indian Ivy Schools. For eg, two major criterion in these rankings are one, the no. of foreign students enrolled and two, the variety of courses or curriculum on offer.

    For one, Indian Ivy Schools are too less for a country like India where there is a serious lack of infra. We cannot afford to give these costly opportunities to foreign students. We therefore spend little less on attracting them.

    For two, IITs and IIMs were built according to law as a dedicated tech universities or management universities. They hence do not offer programs in medicine, law, humanities etc.

    Although I agree, We have miles to go in order to achieve the standards of top world ranking colleges. We are putting great efforts in building this infra. We are not lacking on quality. Its just that we need more such institutions in india so that pressure on older institutions can be relieved and they focus on new areas of research.

17. 

    Sarvesh R September 11, 2013, 4:01 pm

    Never sat in my college for more than 30 days per year. Undergraduation or post graduation. Still I passed, this is wrong. I should have failed no? It just proves that the books are enough to get a degree.

    Why i didn’t attend lectures? Found Books boring. Some professors did use their own experiences and out of the books case studies, actual incidents, I attended some of their lectures and actually enjoyed for a short time. But colleges want grades they didn’t care to think what do student’s enjoy in management and how to make it fun.

    underqualified professors is another problem. They do have a degree but they are entirely focused on completing the syllabus. I should have dropped out back then. total waste MBA. whatever I learned I did it from BMS.

18. 

    Nishant Agrawal September 11, 2013, 4:27 pm

    This has more to do with our upbringings, and environment at home, than with the institute. Our natural instinct is to fit in with people, and not stand out. If we stand out, we are all alone.

    I spent my whole high school life alone and alienated because I was a commerce student who liked to read classic literature, philosophy and history books in my spare time. I tried to explain the subtle magic of Spinoza’s God, the ground-breaking thought behind Einstein’s Relativity and how it completely changed my perception of time, and the magic in Proust’s words, but I only succeeded in alienating people even further.

    We are trying to teach our kids how to prepare for the brutal world, instead of teaching them how to change it.

19. 

    Anirudh B Balotiaa September 11, 2013, 5:13 pm

    There was a time long back when having a graduate degree mattered. Then as the world changed and proxy in colleges became rampant, graduate degree was as necessary as schooling.

    Then it was MBA which mattered a lot, it still does BUT only if one does from say IIM or top 5-10 Univs in the world. But now even this is slowly changing as only MBA wont set you life, nada, doesn’t work anymore. It may get you a job, a good one at that. 

    JOB, that’s what matters at-least in India and even now it does. 

    Lets understand why, my small attempt. In the world to get anything to afford anything to be respected, a capital is required. It can be a service(which gets you money), it can be a product(which sells and gets you money) or can it be money. 

    Now, the Social Capital in India is STILL 99% marks in class 10, 99% marks in class 12, admission in a good college(IIT for engineering) and then MBA from IIMs. This will fetch you a job and that is what is the most recognized Social Capital. This will further lead to a good prospect for groom/brides, then buying a flat, then have a kid in 2 years and then kiss your own life goodbye and slog at the expense of your family to settle your kids and the cycle goes on. 

    This lure of the social capital is what fetches our rotten education system loads of capital(fees, capitation money, donation, bribe, etc). Those who run know the importance of social capital and exploit it full on by giving the illusion of owning it someday. 

    Coming to whats wrong in our own Edu. sector, I think this flourishing of IB curriculum is a lot due to influx of expats coming and staying in India along with their families for extended period of time. They provide the luxury(basic for them) in terms of environment and the surroundings(all rich kids). 

    Also as Alok mentioned about his daughter shifting to IB, this is a new shift a very important one. I think its encouraging that at age 13, she is aware of why she wants to do IB and why not ICSE. I can be reasonably sure majority of parents will detest this shift to IB because its not as recognized in India. Of-course money can be one important factor also. 

    But the social capital is now changing very slowly. In US does anyone care whats your education background? No! If you can show offering some value in present or a promise of the future that’s all what matters. 

    I know a few of cousins from IIM, etc who are well settled in their cushy jobs and flats, but have not read Jobs biography or even heard of it. They use iPhone cos they can afford it and that’s the most expensive and a social status in their gathering. 

    I think the emphasis on Jobs biography is a bit over-rated. Since all of us here are on Twitter/Facebook, some kind of social media and living the digital life, we know how much is an influence Steve Jobs is, but do you think the thousands of investment bankers care? We can relate to the book, not many can and will. There are many many books equally or even more better than the one of Jobs, it all depends who one relates to. 

    Teachers, principals of India edu system are DEFINITELY out of sync, out of date in general. 

    There are classes like which Alok takes is refreshing among the other prosaic textbooks courses. 

    In the past 18-24 months, Online Education in the form of Coursera, Udacity is exploded and just to see how well informed the professors are, sample few course. Boss, they are discussing Apple, Google among other relatively new success stories of the past 10-15 years. They are up-to date as to how fast everything is changing and how important it is to have meaningful discussions and the ability to think/analyse/observe. There is no right/wrong but definitely more convincing arguments depending on what ability one is at the present. 

    Tell me one professor from IIM who is involved in such a online course which is world-class in terms of content and can be taken for free??

    But I am surprised none of the IIMs or even ISB featured in the top 200 univs. 

20. 

    Karan Pandhi September 11, 2013, 6:27 pm

    The Indian Education system is now History, 

    and IB, IGCSE is the modern science.

    I studied in Maneckji Cooper, ICSE, today most of my school friends are well settled in abroad, where as I’m a college dropout from Middlesex University, London ( due to personal and stupid emotional reasons) I’m back, and now I can say I was much better of there than here. But on the contrary I’m almost on the verge of a start-up. 

    There is a reality that Indian education is dying, and I feel the system which is in India much before a school was made anywhere in the world. The unfortunate problem is that teachers themselves lack the knowledge of current scenario, the institutions have become rigid and dont want to be aggressive on being competitive, they are like “Naam ho gaya na, ab bas paisa kamao” . A live instance near my house is Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal (SVKM), they just had a hardly 2 or 3 schools and just 2 colleges, now has almost 4 schools, n number of colleges in Mumbai, Shivpuri, Bangalore and god knows where. The educations system has gone from imparting knowledge to earning money.

    Subjects which don’t matter aren’t thought in the IB, IGCSE schools, even in abroad as it doesn’t matter to them, they let the student focus on a single core subject and its interlinked subject. For eg, Maths & Science, Maths & Business, Eco & Accounts, History & Geography.

    Unfortunately the politics in India play a huge part on the education system. We have 3 languages to learn, plus social studies, of which I don’t give a damn about who lived and died where as it doesn’t affect my today. Geography still has a decent impact, Maths and Science is like if you hate us but we still love you .

    So the system is bad in the country, if it understands how the worlds running, we can get ourselves there too. I wish the education minister wakes up and brings in some change, instead of making quotas in god damn knows in how many sections.

    Very well explained in a Marathi movie Shikshanacha Aaicha Gho and a Hindi movie Aarakshan.

21. 

    Tushar Solanki September 11, 2013, 7:05 pm

    My 2 cents:

    1) Family Pressure: Every parent want their kid to be in top 5 if not 1st. Its more for the status symbol or gives them bragging rights in the FAKE society we live in.

    2) Peer Pressure: Kids since long have been compared to others and are expected to do better than their classmates/cousins. It is our responsibility as parents to make our kid comfortable in who they are or what they do, as long as they love it (remember Taare Zameen Pe, where father could not accept that his son was dyslexic). I realized this recently, when my daughter started asking WHY?? for everything and at times I’m left scrambling for answers.

    3) Flawed Education System: In todays world person is valued (in College/ at Job etc) based purely on their grades, grades which are achieved through flawed education system.

    4) Lost Identity: In trying to better their peers todays kids have lost their own identity, interest, creativity, uniqueness, hence they are like Zombies with no direction & goal. And are lost souls if they do not have anyone to compete with or copy from.

    5) Practical Vs Theoretical: Our education system is still mainly based on theory rather than practical, where as western education is more practical & gives room for creativity & innovation.

    6) Mentors: Parent & Teacher must play a bigger role to groom the next generation and keep their EGO at the bay. Remember there would not have been GOOGLE without help from the professor or the university of the founder. Secondly, we must learn to celebrate other peoples success & happyness.

    I’ve listened to Steve Jobs  audiobook & I must say the only reason he was successful was laser focussed, his obsession with Simplicity & love for Art and avid reader of AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI.

    Alok, you have Entrepreneur-In-Residence (your 13-year old daughter), I wish her God Speed!!

    – Tushar

22. 

    Atul Joshi September 11, 2013, 7:10 pm

    When it was the time to know about legal facts, government, changes for the cause and reasons to be inspiring, tackle daily problems, we were made.. formula learning freaks, to fight among our-self.. Even I did the same.(options was limited, i was a middle class boy, have to fight to get security, at least making my parents realize I can, and for them, to their relatives and colleagues, yes my child can)
    There was a rat race to earn number and then the rat race to earn money….
    In India we have trend where people decide what to do rather than you…
    A fish is asked, learn how to fly, you have better opportunity there, and fish come out to fly, since adaptability is something which makes them adapt to that nature, and then it becomes their sustainability, but they lost the way they could have swim. (most of Indian grads, hope, feels it)
    After all by 2015 Only two countries of the world, India and China, will produce 40% of the grad pass outs  in the world. It seems Indian Education system is a prototype that has to be followed. The ratio of teacher to student has became really minimal, We need a change in Indian Education System… we have a market not to just put up building to earn but to produce a self learning, motivated, leading stars.
    Globalization is good but it seems talent is moving to west and market is coming to East.
    We are just seen as a market place to earn, both from insiders as well as outsiders, not as a talent pool to invest.

23. 

    Saraswathi Pulluru September 12, 2013, 1:58 am

    1. What ails Indian Education beyond the primary level? What is the ONE single point that you think holds us back and is actually taking us backwards?

    The single point that holds us back is the proven ability to sustain oneself without a JOB. The society works towards what gives them food on the plate. Slowly ,if we can penetrate the society with success stories of people who made it big due to skills not taught in school – then people would start teaching it, only to produce better success stories.

    2. Do you think the teachers, the principals and the teaching staff really KNOW what is happening to the outside world? Are they CONNECTED to the REAL world?

    I’m afraid there is no right or wrong answer for this. On a personal level – may be YES. Everything depends on the focus we have towards the end goal –  IF It’s getting a job in Investment bank, how does reading Steve Job’s biography fit in? You should have asked the IIM guys about those rare things they read to get “that” job. 

    3. Why are IB Schools proliferating and becoming the preferred choice for parents? This despite the fact that the fees are MASSIVELY higher compared to the old legacy schools in India…

    Because, if not everyone – few people are realizing that the end to education is not a job, but to open up your mind to various possibilities available. With time, this will only get better.

    4. How will the future of India perform in a hyper competitive economy when we do not educate our kids with the most current knowledge?

    No, we cannot. But, I have to make a statement here. Current in Technology means nothing to an Arts professional. Trust me, I have read in newspaper where few famous personalities did not knew Sachin Tendulkar! Does that make them stupid, irrelevant and out of knowledge? In this fast paced world, we cannot know every single famous personality in every single field. But, after you have a certain area of focus – not knowing your bigwigs and the industry wide news, that shows that you have not quite arrived.

    5. Most Indian parents (like myself) are shuddering sending our kids abroad due to costs and the discomfort of having your kids so far away. But when my 17 year old daughter shows me the Times of India with the article snapped above, what do I tell her??

    Seriously, I think of this lot of times, even with my 3 year old daughter now. I cannot escape giving her Education , but how do I get her to escape the MUGGING and encourage her creativity and innovative spirit? I’ll wait for you to discover and let me know too.. 🙂

24. 

    Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal September 12, 2013, 5:01 am

    For all those who asked – Why should Steve Jobs exclusive biography be important for IIM A grads?? Heck! Steve Jobs created the MOST VALUABLE COMPANY ON THE PLANET! Now, HOW he did that is not study material for Management Grads??

    

25. 

    praveen sinha September 12, 2013, 5:04 am

    The topic of education system of our country brings forward the vindictive feeling in me. I took in the belief of the ‘sequential step to success’ – i.e. BTech –> MBA –> Job. I was a directionless student before that. And now, i have become disillusioned from the whole assembly line concept. Now, I believe anything can be done even without the institutional degree -(exception being medical field).

    The day before this post, I was discussing a new model for higher education with my father. It’s still in its infancy but I would like to put it here :
     The trending concept of educational institutes being an assembly line for success where each student is treated like a commodity, to be sold in job market. 
    I proposed that the market is working wrong. The teachers should be competing to provide quality education to the students. It should be a market of ‘Educational service providers’ where a student is the customer. He/She should be able to choose as per his own needs & interest.
    Instead of having 2yr,3yr,4yr or 5yr fixed full time-stay structures. It should be flexible examination based system, like in CA. One should have exams for level-1,2… for each stream & subject. If I want to learn programming plus philosophy – I should be allowed to take the yearly/half-yearly/Quarterly common tests for both the subjects.A student should able to structure his own courses.(The job market can adapt to this). If I want to take level-1 & 2 in the same year – I should be allowed to do so. If I want to study by myself & appear, or take help from a teacher or trainer, it should be my choice.I hated literature because it was not taught to me in creative manner – now I am in love with it.

    There can be a whole market of teachers, like traders, providing there service by different means – online,offline,home,group session, starting a co-op.
     
    I am from Engineering background, so pardon me for my ignorance of other streams, but I don’t get the idea of having infrastructure for Arts’, Commerce,& Engineering institutes – I find there is no on-hand experience provided there. And the infrastructure being in use can be made for temporary periods as per the need. We anyways study in short semesters.

    I am really curious about this type of model. And I would like to see, this idea being put into each college of india & understand the feedback from the students.(most of the teachers will oppose such idea even if for sake of creative ideation).

26. 

    Faraz Potia September 12, 2013, 9:35 am

    Sure. You can email me at faraz.potia@jobinsight.com or call me on 9833103654.

27. 

    Anirudh B Balotiaa September 12, 2013, 12:58 pm

    Alok, as some one who relates to you(and so does many of us here), I totally concur with your views and found it very disappointing about your experience at IIM-A when this book discussion came up. However, the folks, or rather the present and past lots at IIM’s are not attracted to technology companies as they don’t really understand technology. Apple is what it is, because of Steve Jobs, because of the path-breaking-technology their products have, but those who don’t really connect to technology and those who haven’t heard of Steve Jobs(yes its true!!!) will not relate to Apple. At its core, Apple is a pure technology company and a dream to work in for millions of Engineers but not so for many MBAs. Surprising as it may be but its true.

    Google comparatively has a much larger MBA workforce due to their diverse business. 

28. 

    Ankit Mahindru September 12, 2013, 2:46 pm

    You were lucky that you were at IIM, try visiting a 3rd tier engineering/management college, you will be shocked!

    To give you a slight glimpse, try reading this:
    https://www.quora.com/India/What-are-the-worst-things-about-studyin…

    PS: I happen to be a student of one such college and i can relate to a lot of points mentioned in the answers.

29. 

    Pranay Airan September 13, 2013, 10:38 am

    Very interesting topic Alok, here is what i can think of

    1. I think mindset that change is bad, if we have 1 example in family or friends about someone’s daughter/son got success in doing Engineering/Medical or went to Kota then we should also follow the same route. We don’t want to take risks, if some neighbor kid scored 98 we want our kid to mug and do the same, it doesn’t matter if they are learning or not.

    2. Lot of them are and they want to teach this to kids as well, but our education system is designed in such a way that we don’t have any compulsion to upgrade our courses or force teachers to upgrade themselves with new technology new way of thinking and teaching, if thinks are working how it is correctly nobody wants to come out of their comfort space

    3. Don’t have much knowledge about working of different schools, but from reading differences between different boards, IB teaching methodology is different and i think they focus more on learnings then grades. this link gives a good description about all 3 boards and how IB is different https://www.slideshare.net/skoolz/ibvscbsevsicse-6709046

    4. We will have a good chance to fail, with rising forces from China, Indonesia and other countries we already started loosing out BPO and Manufactirung, if we don’t revamp our education system we might soon start loosing other sectors and jobs as well.

    5. Since you are connected to the outside world and most of us are now, i think we should start bringing a change without depending on our education system entirely, start talking about new things with the kids, make sure your focus is no on their grades but their learnings, take means of internet, MOOC courses and try to take advantage of whatever we can.

30. 

    Abhik Prasad September 13, 2013, 10:48 am

    Most of the guys at IIM’s don’t read much apart from the course and required books.

    There is so much of pressure that it leaves you with very little time for recreational reading (RG ensures that all reading is optimized to improve grades and anything that does not aid in it will probably not be read)

    The libraries do stock good books though. I still remember when I chanced upon ‘Shantaram’ at the IIML library.

    That said, its not an IIM problem. Its a fundamental problem in India – that children are not reading enough and neither are parents encouraging them at an early age. If we teach kids to ‘read’ beyond course books, its an habit that will stay with them for life. (Not that it can’t be picked up later in life)

    On another note, you should read Jobs. Apart from the good stuff, you will also find out what an asshole Steve Jobs could be at times !!

31. 

    Ashwin C Parulkar September 13, 2013, 12:01 pm

    Now govt is on the verge of Approving Foreign education providers bill,without intervention of UGC-all the way govt influenced body.hope for the best

    THIS CONFLICT OF BOOKISH VS OPEN KNOWLEDGE WILL GO ON FOR EVER

    Pl answer my Qn How does Jobs biography- help some one be good manager (ref to IIM)?

32. 

    Parixit September 13, 2013, 4:27 pm

    Great article, reminded me of an article i wrote a few months ago for myself. I had decided to call it quits to join B-School when I heard your speech at India today Conclave. 

    Here’s what i feel about your 5 questions.
    

    1.  Indian education system is TOO old. We are still stuck with classroom education where a professor comes with chalks , sits in the class for a 35 mins , reads something from the textbooks and goes. This NEEDS to change and ACROSS India.
    

    2. Hell No, so many Indian teachers who teach at Middle school( which is the most important phase of education system) are TECHNOLOGICALLY challenged.  Yes, this is the term I define them as. So many of them are unaware of how to use GOOGLE. A prof at college once gave me his email ID along with city name as he feared that my email will reach a different city if not specified. So yes, we need to EDUCATE teachers before they can EDUCATE students.
    

    3. Parents are now realizing that children need to learn from schools that educate rather than train kids. Quality education is the need of an hour.
    

    4. This is a serious issue. Right to education is not just enough. RIGHT to RIGHT EDUCATION is needed.
    

    5. Why not have world class education in India?
    

    Coming to your IIM-A library question, having world-best library and using the books of that library are two different things. Habit of learning from books outside syllabus needs to be inculcated from childhood by parents and teachers. Parents also need to understand that if your child is getting  95% in school but that’s only because he can bug up, then there is something wrong.

    There are many issues with education system.Caste based reservation is one of them. Why don’t we have compulsory MERIT across all the educational institutes?
    

    After paying a high amount also, Indian graduates are not of the INTERNATIONAL standard. A survey conducted by Aspiring Minds, employability solutions company in Jan 2013 ( full article HERE) says nearly HALF of Indians graduates unfit for hiring due to Poor English, computer knowledge, analytical, cognitive skills and basic accounting knowledge. ( on personal basis, I want to start a company which will EDUCATE graduates into these fields)

    The sole purpose in India of training child is one day child can get highly PAID job. Hope this scenario changes someday.
    

33. 

    Mandar Joshi September 14, 2013, 5:59 am

    Hi Alok you have once gain touched a very painful nerve of educational system. I am wondering how did I miss such an important post 🙁 what you have noticed is a fact and there are numbers of reasons for the deterioration of quality of education in India. Let me attempt to answer your questions and while doing that express my thought process as well

    What ails Indian Education beyond the primary level? What is the ONE single point that you think holds us back and is actually taking us backwards? In my view education at Primary Level is also in shambles barring very minor exceptions where people are experimenting with the teaching methods. Most of the primary and secondary education is aided ( Funded by government ) and hence the whole machinery is typically dysfunctional due to various reasons such as corruption in recruitment of teachers, dispassionate teachers towards their duties and responsibilities however still this phase of education is rated good because of extreme peer pressure and involvement of parents and typically less complex nature of the studies ( When I say less complex it relates to the application of the subject matter to real life which is very less and even the subjects covered are of very generic nature) Sorry for my rumbling but I am so passionate about this I can’t stop writing about this 🙁 you mentioned about ONE single point and as per my opinion that would be ignorance about the objective of the education and common belief that education = marks or grades = good job = good income 

    Do you think the teachers, the principals and the teaching staff really KNOW what is happening to the outside world? Are they CONNECTED to the REAL world? I guess I have touched on the answer for this in the first question. Yes you are right they are absolutely clueless about whats happening in the outside world and looking at the speed the world is changing around us they are already obsolete. In fact the root cause is very of from our teacher fraternity choose this profession because they are passionate about this profession. Majority chooses this profession as its easy to get a job of teacher than doing anything else. There is hardly any accountability towards performance ( At least qualitative ) and lots of holidays 🙂 They are completely disconnected from the world of internet and possibilities brought in the forefront by this new technology such as social networks, Khan Academy, Various Forums and portals like TED or podcasts. In fact whenever you mention technology to them they feel insecure and try to reject any change that is happening around them.

    Why are IB Schools proliferating and becoming the preferred choice for parents? This despite the fact that the fees are MASSIVELY higher compared to the old legacy schools in India… Unfortunately I have never dealt with any IB schools however as I have written in the answer of the first question parents who are wise and mature have understood that the current educational system in the present format is incapable of preparing their child for the brutally competitive world and therefore those who can afford have started shifting towards these IB Schools which believe in experimenting with learning and give more importance to the outcome of education rather than its process.

    How will the future of India perform in a hyper competitive economy when we do not educate our kids with the most current knowledge? Yes I agree with you in fact the Industry at present or in the past have always voiced out their concerns about the quality of the talent input they are getting from the Education System in India ( We also call it un employability in common language ) the gap between what students are  learning and what they would be doing when they join the industry is increasing day by day which is putting lot of stress on all the stake holders ( Students/ Colleges/ Parents/ Industry/ Society ) the sad part of this is nobody is willing to look at the problem in holistic manner and dig it to its roots.

    Who determines the content pipeline for students in the IIM A? Are the decision makers aware of the external world? Do they not understand that in today’s age and time, what you have to read TODAY cannot be postponed for tomorrow? Frankly those who are responsible to determine this are either not doing their job or outright incapable of delivering their responsibilities. The higher you grow in the education hierarchy the more you disconnect yourself from the business realities. If you notice Indian Universities enjoy very less credibility and respect when it comes to solving the real problems of the industry which is not the case about universities abroad. 

    I believe the roots of these problem lies in the basic hypothesis of why do we learn ? Why do we spend almost twenty years of our early and most productive years of life in the present academic system. Majority feels that we do that so we can get good marks, grades and based on that get a good job which will give great package. We don’t consider Education as a means to unleash the capabilities or potential we have as a Human resource. We never try to create value which can be long lasting and encashment of this value in the form of a job or business would be a byproduct. Unfortunately we believe that education is a P & L business for us and not balance sheet business and thats why we measure the success of an educated youth based on his pay package rather than the value created by him or her. 

    and beyond all this discussion I see an opportunity here as an Entrepreneur of creating a virtual platform for those students who understand that its not their marks or grades that will be valuable in real world but their vision and understanding of this world.   

    I have written a post related to the similar discussion in the past  

     

34. 

    Geetha Ravi September 15, 2013, 4:41 pm

    Very true.I thought i am the only one thinking on this line.

35. 

    Geetha Ravi September 15, 2013, 4:46 pm

    What if some kind of practical training is given on entrepreneurship for some reasonable fees. Entreprenuership development programme by our Govt is waiting for students.They tell us to bring atleast 10 students so that they will be in a position to train. But these schemes are unknown to public.Hope these schemes by govt of India is taken seriously for the future of India.

36. 

    Geetha Ravi September 15, 2013, 4:47 pm

    Some kind of awareness should be created through colleges.

37. 

    shridharan Ramamurthi September 21, 2013, 5:56 am

    I think we are looking at lots of things from a staid point of view. As my GURU says on the subject-The problem is not with the system the problem is with the delivery-How many teachers make the children wonder….how many make them think and perceive things the way they see it….the entire education system is designed for hunting for jobs….to fill in the roles created by corporates…who wouldnt care hoot as to how the individual is …

38. 

    Sajid Syed October 14, 2013, 11:48 am

    Hi Alok,

    Indian institutions don’t feature in the top rankings because these rankings have been under the influence of USA for years and favour the western part of the world. This is not my view.  This is the view of the British academics/educationists who were my colleagues during my tenure in the UK. They found the systems to be unfair and were quite honest about it when I asked them this question. 

    Also the rating agencies consider the quality of research conducted in the institution as one of the parameters in the ranking system, which is where our institutions lack. To be fair,  in my view,  this is not our fault as we have been engaged in facing quantity related challenges, than quality. India today has more than 2000 business schools which is larger than any other country.

    1. What ails Indian Education beyond the primary level? What is the ONE single point that you think holds us back and is actually taking us backwards? 

    Lack of motivation in the system.   

    There are two main types of players that operate here. Government institutions that are bureaucratic and Private institutions that are run by the Lala’s of the world.

    The government who has the intent to bring about a change (for instance very recently it has launched the RUSA)  is facing difficulties overcoming execution related challenges in transforming a sector that is far more complex than it sounds. (Even US institutions today are being criticised for not having been able to adapt to the changing/emerging times).  The private institutions on the other hand have no intent to transform education and have no clue of what a quality system should look like. Both have failed miserably in creating a system that is motivated to excel.  

    When I look back at my own school teachers, except for the teachers day and the 5^th or 6^th  pay commission(don’t know which one actually revived the salary structure) they don’t have anything else to rejoice about. I wish they were part of a more successful system. 

    And when an education passionate like me, tries to approach industry experts to create a forward looking model I have to wait for ages for a single meeting 🙁  

     2.  Do you think the teachers, the principals and the teaching staff really KNOW what is happening to the outside world? Are they CONNECTED to the REAL world?

    You know the answer to this question

    The academic climate here is very sadistic.  When I came down to India I was motivated to take up a lecturing job and make my own contributions. When I joined an institution, looking at the environment around I felt like I was a Nursery student who wanted to pick up his bag and run home as soon as the bell rang (or even before the bell rang…lol). The people who were teaching there included those who were retired, ladies who took up the  9-5 job (as it enabled them balance their personal life) and wanted to rush home as soon as the class is over, visiting faculty who were there to make some extra money by giving their own gyan but not sticking to the lesson plans given to them (but are slightly more effective due to industry knowledge they bring in). 

    The point that am trying to make is that very few academics are academics by passion and not by profession. Also anyone can become a lecturer. Do you know a recent graduate who is unemployed? Tell him/her to go to apply for a job at colleges in the city and he/she shall not return back unsuccessful. I haven’t heard of any top rankers/bright students in the country who want to take up teaching. 

    I had to resign from my teaching position in two months as I felt choked in the system. I am now making an effort to contribute via my company (http://www.revovisionconsulting.com). You know me as I had sent u the ISE plan 🙂

    3. Why are IB Schools proliferating and becoming the preferred choice for parents? This despite the fact that the fees are MASSIVELY higher compared to the old legacy schools in India…

    IB schools are proliferating, because they have a slightly more mature system of education as they come from a more mature part of the world.  (though I don’t know how effective these schools are in India). But our old legacy schools are not poor either (thanks to the rigorous curriculum), which is why Indian students who go abroad to study do not necessarily face problems adapting to the systems abroad. What IB schools will manage to do differently is ensure that their students are able to communicate better from an early age (for eg. my visit to an IB school unveiled that the Teachers there sat with their students during the lunch break to make  them implement table manners and also how to eat with a fork and spoon)  and develop the thought process with more refined teaching methods.

     4. How will the future of India perform in a hyper competitive economy when we do not educate our kids with the most current knowledge? 

    The answer again lies in your question.

    A possible solution to this is two fold – Improved standards of delivery and challenging assessment methods. The latter cannot be achieved without the former. 

    Standards of delivery- The role of any teacher/professor and the education system should be make the students think critically (in simpler terms think common sense). If we are able to attain this, you will stop being cribbing about the quality of MBA’s……lol

    Assessment methods-  The assessment methods(both formative and summative) should be structured in a way that it motivates students to read  and research more to stay abreast with current knowledge. 

    5. Most Indian parents (like myself) are shuddering sending our kids abroad due to costs and the discomfort of having your kids so far away.

    Show this link to your daughter :-). She might not want to go after hearing this (Only in case you don’t want her to go). 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVlycBDl6rY

    And incase you both decide that she should pursue education abroad, PLEASE do not send her until she completes her graduation in India.

    Or maybe by then ISE would have established itself as the new form of education 🙂 she may as well be motivated to pursue. Cheers!

39. 

    Vijay Khubchandani October 15, 2013, 9:43 am

    IIM – Indian Incubator of Monkeys

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