This article in not a critical analysis of the entire Indian society. Rather, I have a limited aim of portraying one of its features. My view may not be entirely correct given the huge diversity of our society. But, this is what I have experienced particularly in my own village and within my community.
In our society, what is the purpose of education? Is it to lead a good social life by adopting good values? Or to lead a good life in materialistic sense? Of-course, both these form a part of our education.
However, there is one more perspective found in low income groups. We educate our children to lead a "safe life" by getting a job with the available skill.
Someone, the other day told me that in foreign society (I have no proof of this however), a child is given free hand to decide what he wants to do with his life. However, there are ample number of cases in my knowledge where our society has made one's life difficult if he/she chooses to do something which is not easily achievable.
One of the examples that comes to my mind like a flash is of a Uttar Pradesh student Govind Jaiswal. His father was a rickshaw puller. With limited education, it was expected out of him that he takes up something in his life which pulls his father out of the clutches of poverty. But, against the tide and due to some kind of social discrimination, he decided to go for an unpredictable career option- IAS.
It so happened that once his father fell ill. Govind could not visit him on time due to the load of preparation. As expected, the neighbourhood people got opportunity to speak up their mind- "Baap yahan mar raha hai, beta Delhi mein aish kar raha hai" (the father is suffering here and the son is enjoying there in Delhi).
The only way out of this situation for Govind Jaiswal in this situation could have been to take up any job that came in his way. However, Govind survived the scare. But, everyone is not Govind.
What is the consequence? Many deserving students who are born to do excellent in his/her life become the victim of this society and finds a safe way in life (excellent here does not mean only by being an IAS, but in any other field of his/her interest).
When I look at the "Breaking News" to see that an Indian has become the CEO of Google, I do not know whether to be happy or not. This is because I am not sure if they could have recognised their abilities had they been here. Not only this, recently, I came to know that Silicon Valley has so many Indian entrepreneurs who are doing exceedingly well. Sometimes, I wonder if they could have made big in their life had they been cruising with their innovative ideas in India. I would not be entirely wrong if I say that it is the societal attitudes and values which promote such talents and gives them the opportunity to rise. (Well, I know in this example of entrepreneurship, it is not only society but the market regulations, tax structure_ but this is not the aim of this article).
Let me explain this with an example: Once me and one of my friends were discussing something with a professor regarding what to do in life. "What is your goal Mr. X" asked the professor to my friend. He replied "I want to find a job at this time to secure my career". My professor replied "I heard that students of this institute are job providers and you are so eager to get a job. It is surprising to me". Even though it was not at all surprising to me. And I know with full certainty that my friend was so brilliant that he could have done something extraordinary in life. But, he also chose the "safe side" of life. (I know opting for job is not a bad thing at all. But, there is a reason why I have taken this example. My friend in question was working on a novel idea. But, as he got the placement offer, he dropped his start-up idea and played safely. His reason was: my parents are expecting me to take up job).
I think it is because of these reasons that Indian students prefer to go abroad to pursue their career. One of my friends in my institute once said to me "if given a chance, most students from our institute would like to go abroad". I do not know the amount of truth in this statement, But, I do sometimes think what made him say this.
Looking at such cases, I think we as a society need to recognise the unique ability every student poses and must provide him/her full opportunity to grow (offcourse if other factors support). The modern society needs differentiation with respect to skills so that an individual is at the position best suited for him/her. This would make the society functional and efficient.
P.S: I have only shown one sided view. There is a positive side too in the same context if we look at the new generation.
In our society, what is the purpose of education? Is it to lead a good social life by adopting good values? Or to lead a good life in materialistic sense? Of-course, both these form a part of our education.
However, there is one more perspective found in low income groups. We educate our children to lead a "safe life" by getting a job with the available skill.
Someone, the other day told me that in foreign society (I have no proof of this however), a child is given free hand to decide what he wants to do with his life. However, there are ample number of cases in my knowledge where our society has made one's life difficult if he/she chooses to do something which is not easily achievable.
One of the examples that comes to my mind like a flash is of a Uttar Pradesh student Govind Jaiswal. His father was a rickshaw puller. With limited education, it was expected out of him that he takes up something in his life which pulls his father out of the clutches of poverty. But, against the tide and due to some kind of social discrimination, he decided to go for an unpredictable career option- IAS.
It so happened that once his father fell ill. Govind could not visit him on time due to the load of preparation. As expected, the neighbourhood people got opportunity to speak up their mind- "Baap yahan mar raha hai, beta Delhi mein aish kar raha hai" (the father is suffering here and the son is enjoying there in Delhi).
The only way out of this situation for Govind Jaiswal in this situation could have been to take up any job that came in his way. However, Govind survived the scare. But, everyone is not Govind.
What is the consequence? Many deserving students who are born to do excellent in his/her life become the victim of this society and finds a safe way in life (excellent here does not mean only by being an IAS, but in any other field of his/her interest).
When I look at the "Breaking News" to see that an Indian has become the CEO of Google, I do not know whether to be happy or not. This is because I am not sure if they could have recognised their abilities had they been here. Not only this, recently, I came to know that Silicon Valley has so many Indian entrepreneurs who are doing exceedingly well. Sometimes, I wonder if they could have made big in their life had they been cruising with their innovative ideas in India. I would not be entirely wrong if I say that it is the societal attitudes and values which promote such talents and gives them the opportunity to rise. (Well, I know in this example of entrepreneurship, it is not only society but the market regulations, tax structure_ but this is not the aim of this article).
Let me explain this with an example: Once me and one of my friends were discussing something with a professor regarding what to do in life. "What is your goal Mr. X" asked the professor to my friend. He replied "I want to find a job at this time to secure my career". My professor replied "I heard that students of this institute are job providers and you are so eager to get a job. It is surprising to me". Even though it was not at all surprising to me. And I know with full certainty that my friend was so brilliant that he could have done something extraordinary in life. But, he also chose the "safe side" of life. (I know opting for job is not a bad thing at all. But, there is a reason why I have taken this example. My friend in question was working on a novel idea. But, as he got the placement offer, he dropped his start-up idea and played safely. His reason was: my parents are expecting me to take up job).
I think it is because of these reasons that Indian students prefer to go abroad to pursue their career. One of my friends in my institute once said to me "if given a chance, most students from our institute would like to go abroad". I do not know the amount of truth in this statement, But, I do sometimes think what made him say this.
Looking at such cases, I think we as a society need to recognise the unique ability every student poses and must provide him/her full opportunity to grow (offcourse if other factors support). The modern society needs differentiation with respect to skills so that an individual is at the position best suited for him/her. This would make the society functional and efficient.
P.S: I have only shown one sided view. There is a positive side too in the same context if we look at the new generation.
5 comments:
I don't agree fully with the reason you posed for most of the students, "brilliant students" opt to go abroad because of the family reasons (as I inferred from your statement, please correct me if I am wrong). Rather, I think most students prefer to go abroad because of the learning opportunities there. Being developing country, Indian universities are not equipped with proper facilities (in the field of education and research); and if we talk about business or startup, ease of doing business index tells us a lot about the struggle of startups in India. Red carpet instead of red tap is still a far dream.
Thank You for reading and giving me your time.
Yes you are right. Please look at the big picture. I was only saying that it is the societal attitude here which restrict an individual (to some extent) to follow his/her own footsteps. I did not talk about higher education specifically but the overall scenario (But,yes you are right in case we talk about higher education).
Regarding entrepreneurship/business, I did talk about the ease of business and other factors.
It is very true that our society does not encourage 'risk takers' and people with innovative ideas, so society expects you to consolidate your resources and get the highest bang for the buck - once the entrance results start coming in the relatives start asking "Computer science mila hai kya!?". And you say I want to find my interest, they say "Ye interest kya chiz hoti hai?".
Risk aversion has a lot to do with attitude, one example is that when I was young and played cricket, I was thinking of being a wicket-keeper but was discouraged, because there is lesser probability of being in a team - as a team has only 1 position. So when you play cricket you should think of whether you can be in the team rather than would you like doing that in the team!?
One more thing is that when somebody is doing something novel, they need time and resources to keep doing that.
And time that a person has freedom to experiment with depends a lot on the society. Our society as a whole does not encourage taking breaks after milestones, like highschool, graduation or post-graduation etc. They want you to be continuously involved in some professional course or the other, if not you have to have or be looking for a job.
From experience people from other countries I have interacted with are much older than their counterparts in India, because they take many breaks, some even for an year or two during undergraduate study for internships they are interested in, this is possible because they are not under time pressure.
I agree that the mindset for education in contemporary Indian societies is not what education/learning is ideally meant for. And if one delves deep it has a lot to do with history and why our culture happened to be a particular way. The reason everyone focuses on exam based structure is because there's a need to survive in a competitive world where many people are fighting for the same resource. It has to do with the population; it has to do with the discrimination (caste/religion/income/etc.) and how it shaped up through our history; it has to do with the mindset of people higher up in the system who continue to promote such system of job-oriented education.
The root of this problem, in my opinion, is with the mindset of fighting the best for limited resources so that one can prove oneself better off than others in their relation. If the social element of caring what others would think about one's progress is put on hold, people will themselves thrive on their habit of learning and explore more of what they like.
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