Obsessions of Indians

 Americans are obsessed with 'football'- not as we know it. The foot is hardly used. Anyway, it's a national obsession. In India, we fret about cricket in the same way. Every run, each ball in every match big or small, is analysed by armchair pundits. Opinions about batsmen or bowlers see-saw faster than the stock market, or the dollar exchange rate.

But there is another obsession we have (not the fat wedding), which is not talked about as much. Education. From pre-primary play schools, to Kindergarten, and onwards, we obsess about schools, and grades-only we call them marks. It may sound crazy (it is? Ok), but every parent is obsessed about what his kid will study- at least in the middle class, which is infinitely larger than we assume based on statistics (which are dodgy at best). Whether it is the Board exams given by Super-bored students, or entrance exams that are cracked by the super-prepared ones, one thing stands out. The obsession about education, IITs, or IIMs, or the National Law Schools, that recently entered 'the league'. 

Coaching classes seem to be the largest industry in India, though fragmented into hundreds of brands in each town. Kota is a town known only for coaching classes, the way Hyderabad once was -or the whole of Andhra Pradesh. 

If we only cared as much about the outcomes of that education on society and its well-being..

Exam Obsession

 We as a country (I mean India) have an exam obsession. But I suggest going a step beyond, and doing some research on what kind of exams are good and what are counter-productive, or even unnecessary (!)

A simple aptitude test is probably OK, to check if a person has basic skills like language or logic for a particular field of study, but almost everything else can be learnt on the job if the candidate has the right aptitude, and attitude.

Within courses of study, application should matter a lot more than it does now. Industry needs to get involved more, in engineering, commerce, and management at least, in offering internships, live projects and practical training that is flexible, and results in learning of that kind. Teachers can do their bit by designing evaluation techniques that encourage these learnings- class projects, discussions, debates and presentations, rather than 2 hour exams that test rote learning, at all levels. If a simple test of aptitude can generate a merit list, Board exams can be eliminated, and replaced with other forms of continuous evaluation. The pandemic has forced a rethink on many centralised exam systems that may have outlived their utility. 

A major rethink is needed, on the whole subject of what role exams should play, at every stage.