In Indian
culture they take pride in knowledge. It is not only an important part of India’s
heritage, but the world’s heritage. In India knowledge is a factor for
financial success and status, in a typical Indian household, families spend a
high amount of money on education. A survey that was conducted shows that the
average household expenditure on education raised from 2.55% to 7.5% between
the years of 2008 and 2010. The Central government has also announced a 24%
hike in the budget allocation for education for this year. Although the amount
of money spent on education and the budget allocation percentages have risen,
the overall quality of basic education is still poor. This is because education
is being seen in two different perspectives. One perspective is that allocating
more money to the education budget would reform the poor public education
system. While on the other hand, people see education as a means of employment.
India’s current education system focuses more on rote (memorization) rather
than experiential learning. Exams and marks are the important parts of India’s
education. India is looking to transform the attitude towards education because
currently their educational system is focusing on “knowing” instead of “different
ways of knowing and learning styles”.
The writer of the article says that education’s sole purpose can’t be to
just create a literate individual or a skilled technician, yes they are
essential, but they are not adequate in themselves.
This article
was interesting because it touched on what we talked about in the beginning of
class this morning. Not only in India, but other places around the world as
well, I believe have this same mindset. That education is important if you want
to get a job or have a career instead of the actual education of an individual to
make them a well rounded individual. Society has painted this picture for us and
it has become a norm, you need a degree to be successful. Which is not
necessarily true, there are many people that did not go to college who are very
successful in life and maybe even doing better than people who did go on to
further their education. This then goes back to the discussion in class about the
two men coming out of high school at the same time and the one person doing the
six week program getting a good job and the person who went to college who is
in debt and still furthering their education. I think that there should be able
to be a balance between preparing for a profession and molding a great mind,
but separating that gap between just preparing someone to be “employed” and “educating”
them is something that will continue to be a challenge.
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