How the Indian Education System is killing students?

Beginning

Only after a few years of your childhood freedom, most of India's children are dumped into a school that teaches nothing apart from academics. Most of the schools have almost no facilities for music, dance or sports activities, now as the school doesn’t have these facilities a child never gets exposed to them completely. Even though a child expresses his interest in some extra-curricular activities that he considers worth pursuing, it is either suppressed by their parents or school due to lack of facilities. He also starts to wonder that most people are only studying in academic institutions, which means other activities are not good career options. He ultimately suppresses his interest. The prime problem arises from a lack of exposure. If one never gets exposed to various things in life, he’ll never know either he likes it or not.

The academic curriculums of the schools are also quite heavy. They expect students to attend a straight 8 hours of classes along with homework, projects, tests, etc., and whatnot, which leaves almost no time for a child to explore other things. This is just the scenario until high school. The worst is yet to come.

When a student crosses high school, he is dumped in the sheep walk of coaching for competitive examinations (Novel named ‘Revolution 2020’ of Chetan Bhagat, kinda helps to understand this issue properly. Do give it a read to understand the life of a typical student in India). At this point, he has no extra skill, which he can even think of pursuing as a career option. In most cases, an individual has the potential to succeed in the field which interests him. Now the only option he is left with is ACADEMICS, and if he fails in this :

“ I am nothing” , “I have nothing left in life” , “What will I do now?” , “I am a failure” , “I am a disgrace to my family”

These are a few thoughts that come into the mind of a child, which often leads to a phase of depression. No one can be perfect in what he does, but still, he can handle the failures if he enjoys doing something. You can take the example of any competitive examination in India, selection rates are surprisingly low, and the examination difficulty is surprisingly high. This is because most youngsters are chasing the same goal even though they don’t even want to. Everyone is putting their efforts, but the one who succeeds enjoys the process. He can learn from that failure and still have a will to pursue that.

The reason behind this consistency is “interest”; if a person enjoys the process of learning, some failures won’t stop him from learning because it's not the destination that makes him happy. It’s the journey. On top of that, those failures will lead to a better understanding of the subject.

Now, one can argue that after scoring good marks in a physics test, one feels happy, confident, and fulfilled, so that means one is enjoying physics, right? And the answer to this is a BIG NO! The student is enjoying the feeling of accomplishment, not the learning process of physics! (You might be getting some Mark Manson vibes here) As the child had never been exposed to different activities, he doesn’t even know what makes him happy, so he misplaced his likes-dislikes.

And it continues with Indian colleges . . . .

Colleges also have heavy academic curriculums, but we can’t blame them entirely because colleges are for studying only, not for your “exploration of activities.” Suppose you knew what interests you wouldn't have joined such an “academic-oriented” college in the first place. The same problem arises again YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW YOUR INTERESTS YET! and the only thing you did until now was studying, so that's the only option remaining. Barely any college student then feel confident about learning anything new. Even though its yet not too late.

I think I made my point quite clear regarding the issue and how it is “killing” the students. We need a solution for this.

Solution

Parents can play a very crucial role here. Don’t just push your child into some ordinary school. Look for something special, look for something better. You don’t need a school that focuses on one thing for your child. You need diversity and exposure. In India, I know it's quite challenging to find such schools, but not impossible. I know many schools that allow leniency in attendance, and it can help if your child enjoy some other activity and wants to focus more on that. You can admit your child to the respective training institution without worrying about any school burdens. Even if you can’t find such facilities around you, just don't FORCE your child to study unless he wants to. You can provide a slight exposure over the internet and observe.

The Internet can be the second savior. Allow your child to explore and explain to him why it is important to know about your interests. Once you make the exploration path easy for your child, your half of the job is done. Just ask your child once in a while — “Do you like playing guitar?” “Would you like being an artist?” “Have you ever tried singing?”. Just make sure you provide the appropriate environment and advice.

For the students who are reading. If you are in the 2nd, 3rd, or even final year of your college. It’s never too late. Just start working on the things you like. Soon, you’ll find a way out of all the chaos.

Conclusion

• What were you before society told you what you should be?
• Stopped by the fear of being average?
• Would you do the same job, if you had everything?
• What was the last thing you really enjoyed doing?

Ask yourself these questions and start hustling.

“If you organize your life around your passion, you can turn your passion into your story and then turn your story into something bigger―something that matters.”

―Blake Mycoskie

This quote completely summarizes what I wanted to convey.

Thank you so much for reading this article. It means a lot ! Please share it with everyone : ) If you are interested in knowing more about Indian societal issue, do read my other articles.

Please give your feedback, any point that you agree or disagree with. Do share your views. I am a person who likes to go against stereotypical thoughts and mold my current beliefs into something better. So, I am open to any suggestions.

I’ll soon be back with an amazing article.

Cheers, See you soon : )

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FOOTNOTES

I have already published this article on medium.com . I want to republish this article at vocal.