I’ve been meaning to write a post on this subject for a while now, but this news article in the newspapers today triggered this post:
Also consider this:
I spoke at IIM A this February. I actually spoke to both the classes of the final batches of 2013 on Mobile apps, Marketing and the Digital Scene in India
While speaking to the IIM A class, I casually mentioned something about Apple and then asked the students, “How many of you have read the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson?” (the world renowned book released just after Steve Jobs death).
NO ONE IN THE IIM A CLASS HAD read it.
Not one. In fact very few even seemed to know of it.
I asked Prof. Jajoo (pictured) if he had read the same. He too had not flipped through it.
That incident really struck me as odd.
I mean, why wouldn’t the brightest students of the country be reading a brand new, unique and highly insightful biography of a man who had changed the world and how we live today?
Isn’t IIM spelt ‘Indian Institute of Management’?
Shouldn’t its students understand how one the most valuable Companies of the world is ‘managed’ and got created?
Now, this IS NOT a rant or complaint about IIM A or its curriculum.
This post is supposed to examine the REASON why my younger daughter (aged 13) shifted from the very prestigious J.B Petit High School for Girls in Colaba (that had an I.C.S.E curriculum) to the relatively new B.D. Somani School in Cuffe Parade that has an IB curriculm
When I asked her WHY, she said, “Dad, I don’t want to MUG and score grades. I want to LEARN and achieve my scores”.
The 5 questions I ask and which I request you to answer are:
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?
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?
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…
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?
Taking the IIM A example – I am told that their library is one of the best in the world. Then, why is that when I spoke, no one in the class had even glanced at the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs?
Is it because they DECIDED not to include the book or because they had NOT HEARD OF IT? That is the key question I need an answer to.
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?
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??
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Please respond with your comments and note that this is NOT an Anti-India Anti -IIM post. This is a general inquiry!
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Caveats:
1) I am a B.Com and M.Com from Mumbai University. Thats about it. That in my mind (apart from the Economics I learnt) is being illiterate.
2) I have NOT read the biography of Steve Jobs myself but rather have ‘been read’ lots of paras by my wife Chhavi. Chhavi has WARNED me NOT TO read the book because she fears that I will relate to it SO MUCH that I will wreck my Company due to its influence. Chhavi knows me well after being married for 22 years and I have stayed away from reading the book so far…
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Added on 12/09/2013
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??
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