It all looks not so insidious or evil. You send your kid to school, like raising a disciplined little regiment of children. Other than taking 12 years to produce a vast array of idiots and dimwits (such as those who elect D Trump, in a 100% literate land also called the 'hope of the world'). The evil IMHO starts with the school leaving age.
There appears a big big disconnect between the schooling and the real world. I am a very literate person, I realise now, about midway through my life (fingers crossed), that I tend to take things a bit (too) literally, perhaps, for the country I was born in. This chasm (of the disconnect) manifests itself gigantically in a dysfunctional (or functional chaos?) country like India.
All is well till about the first 10 years of school, other than making you repeat some stuff to make sure you do get it. It is a wide array of topics, with reasonable coverage, which leaves a bit of time for goofing off. An average, non-psychotic kid should be able to enjoy the subject matter. The emphasis on big scores is counter productive, but here we have dimwits of the long ago generation as parents and a dog-eat-dog survival scenario.
The problem starts after, when you are put on trial by the Professional education system, before you can join it. What I am writing is perhaps dated. My experience was around the year 1996. I will not try to create a context about that year for dimwits here. Suffice to say that there were difficult times. In general, science ensured a lot of wealth but did not ensure its equitable distribution. It ensured a dramatic increase in population by healthy living and slow adoption of control measures. Economic and political scenario lagged behind the rapid advancements of Sciences, and thus concentrated the wealth and powers granted by way of science to the privileged few. The information revolution is decreasing the labor requirements like the industrial revolution did.
Professional labor recruitment system puts you on trial, without examining the results of the schooling years. The Profession in very many cases does not require the knowledge that it examines while putting you on trial. They are quite backward looking, testing the past proficiency in school not the future demands of the profession. Standard engineering testing is common for all varieties of engineering courses such as computer, IT, chemical, mechanical, whereas the varieties are indeed quite different, sharing only a quarter of the course (the first common year, however useful that is).
The overall level of such examination is such that the recommendation is to prepare for them by studying 1st and 2nd year prescribed text books for BSc courses. Preparatory courses start 4 years before and were common during and before 1996 also. So preparing to clear entry into a course takes as much time as the course itself! This can hardly be called modern or progressive.
The destruction of the British empire (of which the gain of Indian Independence, was a by-product), left the natives to their own ill developed devices. Immature politics destroyed much of our potential thereafter. Our leadership could vehemently argue for independence but did not have the ideas or competence to govern the country in any better way. Being connected to the progressive European thought (though much of it directed to their own self-preservation), had a healthy side effect on the natives. This colonial rent-seeking was perhaps a better trade off for us than the rapacious native political process of which perhaps India has seen better than many though worse than many more. The colonial deal would have progressed in a fair direction without the abandonment of colonies due to European self-destruction.
Entrance testing is for the Professional courses (non Professional courses do not have such testing, just school exam scores). Primarily the blame is on the over crowding of people competing for few resources of the jobs such courses grant them.
Stitching together a "system" for Entrances is the solution to the disconnect with schools. How is it possible that schools are not in sync with the professional course demands? Hogwash! The Indian system has multiple school exam systems, thus to standardize the results we resort to Entrances. And each professional institution or set of these, come up with their own Entrance. Courts are doing administrative work and pushing for common Entrances.
How relevant are Entrances in judging professional worth of candidates? They have broken the incompatible school system. Students no longer study in school but skip it entirely to prepare for the entrances, at least the last 2 years. A computer engineer is asked to be super proficient in chemistry and physics among other irrelevant subjects which will have no bearing on their future studies. A doctor is asked to do the same, and also judged in detail on botany. Such massive stupidity by the massively educated is gigantically mind bloggling (pun intended).
How do we build a social foundation on shoulders of such mind numbed and slave driven professionals? The overall education system and society needs revolutionary changes done by minor tweaks. Let them leave schools early, apparently the majority do not learn much anyway and the majority is irrelevant to their futures.
That is why I say we destroy the soul of a professional in the process of making one. We make them jump hoops and do other mindless acts, of little relevance to their futures. A truly driven person with interest in professional work would be hammered down by the sheer stupidity of the process of entrances. Professional training quality not discussed but we seem to enjoy Brahmanism in our DNA. Making an art of rote learning and creating barriers of non sense rituals for achieving caste distinction.
Why must we follow traditions and request value addition of a degree, any kind will do, to make our administrators? Legions of old hacks being supported in their cobwebbed ways by their boot licking well regimented acolytes of the new hacks.
Train them less but better. Have systems to enable flexible careers. Waste less time in pen pushing and more doing, on the job. Here we have legions of degreewalas producing more such copies, little value addition to society in the process, except acronyms of degrees to flaunt.
Even Athenians had Socrates drink hemlock. Truth, is difficult.
Entrances give rise to an unhealthy obsession, even craze, which asks you to lay your self-respect at the altar of success. Any person cannot be motivated to such a great extent for any good reason or cause. It has to be some great ambition and certainly not service to society. But, if society finds them useful, then fine, the system 'works'. Most likely these super ambitious, personal rent-seeking behavior individuals will be self-serving and wreck the social good for all. Corruption, bureaucracy are all bred from such breed of people our society selects as saviours.
Most people getting the selections and societal badges of power, honor and knowledge are already born-with-it. So, to say naturals. No amount of hard work by 'ordinary' folks will ever qualify them in the selections of Entrances. Quite dis-heartening for the ones with the healthy motivation but not divinely gifted. Then you get the Lehman bankers et al. of yore, some were in fact such Indian Brahmans.
Do we need professional and ordinary graduates as our administrators? Blind Colonial style waste! of the valuable professional training (and other knowledge) on ordinary administration tasks. No where in the entire world in its entire history has such an abomination been institutionalized. To top it all we are subjecting the largest population in all history to be governed in such an ignominious pattern.
The Brits after all created some professional structures and we have maintained and used them in a way that turned them into rigid institutions, ill-serving our needs. These do not even serve their own countries which originated such structures. That is why they import students and professional both in awesomely large numbers (to generate tongue-lash even from Obama, of body-shopping against likes of Infosys, leave alone Trumpism). Their own institutions cannot attract and/or produce the talents required from their native population. Thus, Institutions need to change with the times, and the times change ever faster.
MCI declared "most corrupt body" by SC; guardian of the portals of an essential, life-saving (and thus money spinning) profession. Quite the opposite of Cuban experience (leading health care standards in all of South America) in the face of USA led restrictions. How? The Cubans decided they needed professionals, a lot and lot of Healthcare professionals, for the good of Society. Not Brahmans. Q.E.D.
There appears a big big disconnect between the schooling and the real world. I am a very literate person, I realise now, about midway through my life (fingers crossed), that I tend to take things a bit (too) literally, perhaps, for the country I was born in. This chasm (of the disconnect) manifests itself gigantically in a dysfunctional (or functional chaos?) country like India.
All is well till about the first 10 years of school, other than making you repeat some stuff to make sure you do get it. It is a wide array of topics, with reasonable coverage, which leaves a bit of time for goofing off. An average, non-psychotic kid should be able to enjoy the subject matter. The emphasis on big scores is counter productive, but here we have dimwits of the long ago generation as parents and a dog-eat-dog survival scenario.
The problem starts after, when you are put on trial by the Professional education system, before you can join it. What I am writing is perhaps dated. My experience was around the year 1996. I will not try to create a context about that year for dimwits here. Suffice to say that there were difficult times. In general, science ensured a lot of wealth but did not ensure its equitable distribution. It ensured a dramatic increase in population by healthy living and slow adoption of control measures. Economic and political scenario lagged behind the rapid advancements of Sciences, and thus concentrated the wealth and powers granted by way of science to the privileged few. The information revolution is decreasing the labor requirements like the industrial revolution did.
Professional labor recruitment system puts you on trial, without examining the results of the schooling years. The Profession in very many cases does not require the knowledge that it examines while putting you on trial. They are quite backward looking, testing the past proficiency in school not the future demands of the profession. Standard engineering testing is common for all varieties of engineering courses such as computer, IT, chemical, mechanical, whereas the varieties are indeed quite different, sharing only a quarter of the course (the first common year, however useful that is).
The overall level of such examination is such that the recommendation is to prepare for them by studying 1st and 2nd year prescribed text books for BSc courses. Preparatory courses start 4 years before and were common during and before 1996 also. So preparing to clear entry into a course takes as much time as the course itself! This can hardly be called modern or progressive.
The destruction of the British empire (of which the gain of Indian Independence, was a by-product), left the natives to their own ill developed devices. Immature politics destroyed much of our potential thereafter. Our leadership could vehemently argue for independence but did not have the ideas or competence to govern the country in any better way. Being connected to the progressive European thought (though much of it directed to their own self-preservation), had a healthy side effect on the natives. This colonial rent-seeking was perhaps a better trade off for us than the rapacious native political process of which perhaps India has seen better than many though worse than many more. The colonial deal would have progressed in a fair direction without the abandonment of colonies due to European self-destruction.
Entrance testing is for the Professional courses (non Professional courses do not have such testing, just school exam scores). Primarily the blame is on the over crowding of people competing for few resources of the jobs such courses grant them.
Stitching together a "system" for Entrances is the solution to the disconnect with schools. How is it possible that schools are not in sync with the professional course demands? Hogwash! The Indian system has multiple school exam systems, thus to standardize the results we resort to Entrances. And each professional institution or set of these, come up with their own Entrance. Courts are doing administrative work and pushing for common Entrances.
How relevant are Entrances in judging professional worth of candidates? They have broken the incompatible school system. Students no longer study in school but skip it entirely to prepare for the entrances, at least the last 2 years. A computer engineer is asked to be super proficient in chemistry and physics among other irrelevant subjects which will have no bearing on their future studies. A doctor is asked to do the same, and also judged in detail on botany. Such massive stupidity by the massively educated is gigantically mind bloggling (pun intended).
How do we build a social foundation on shoulders of such mind numbed and slave driven professionals? The overall education system and society needs revolutionary changes done by minor tweaks. Let them leave schools early, apparently the majority do not learn much anyway and the majority is irrelevant to their futures.
That is why I say we destroy the soul of a professional in the process of making one. We make them jump hoops and do other mindless acts, of little relevance to their futures. A truly driven person with interest in professional work would be hammered down by the sheer stupidity of the process of entrances. Professional training quality not discussed but we seem to enjoy Brahmanism in our DNA. Making an art of rote learning and creating barriers of non sense rituals for achieving caste distinction.
Why must we follow traditions and request value addition of a degree, any kind will do, to make our administrators? Legions of old hacks being supported in their cobwebbed ways by their boot licking well regimented acolytes of the new hacks.
Train them less but better. Have systems to enable flexible careers. Waste less time in pen pushing and more doing, on the job. Here we have legions of degreewalas producing more such copies, little value addition to society in the process, except acronyms of degrees to flaunt.
Even Athenians had Socrates drink hemlock. Truth, is difficult.
Entrances give rise to an unhealthy obsession, even craze, which asks you to lay your self-respect at the altar of success. Any person cannot be motivated to such a great extent for any good reason or cause. It has to be some great ambition and certainly not service to society. But, if society finds them useful, then fine, the system 'works'. Most likely these super ambitious, personal rent-seeking behavior individuals will be self-serving and wreck the social good for all. Corruption, bureaucracy are all bred from such breed of people our society selects as saviours.
Most people getting the selections and societal badges of power, honor and knowledge are already born-with-it. So, to say naturals. No amount of hard work by 'ordinary' folks will ever qualify them in the selections of Entrances. Quite dis-heartening for the ones with the healthy motivation but not divinely gifted. Then you get the Lehman bankers et al. of yore, some were in fact such Indian Brahmans.
Do we need professional and ordinary graduates as our administrators? Blind Colonial style waste! of the valuable professional training (and other knowledge) on ordinary administration tasks. No where in the entire world in its entire history has such an abomination been institutionalized. To top it all we are subjecting the largest population in all history to be governed in such an ignominious pattern.
The Brits after all created some professional structures and we have maintained and used them in a way that turned them into rigid institutions, ill-serving our needs. These do not even serve their own countries which originated such structures. That is why they import students and professional both in awesomely large numbers (to generate tongue-lash even from Obama, of body-shopping against likes of Infosys, leave alone Trumpism). Their own institutions cannot attract and/or produce the talents required from their native population. Thus, Institutions need to change with the times, and the times change ever faster.
MCI declared "most corrupt body" by SC; guardian of the portals of an essential, life-saving (and thus money spinning) profession. Quite the opposite of Cuban experience (leading health care standards in all of South America) in the face of USA led restrictions. How? The Cubans decided they needed professionals, a lot and lot of Healthcare professionals, for the good of Society. Not Brahmans. Q.E.D.
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