Friday, February 12, 2016

The Great Indian Education System

Why most of the Indians in abroad, send their kids to International school, never wish for the local government schools?

Agree with the reason, most of us are uncertain about our stay in the foreign country and have a fear about kids’ education when we go back to India.  So it’s perfect to go for an English speaking school. But I get a different reason, keep hearing from fellow Indians:

Man, what are they teaching here? Our 1st-grade kid studying in India will know more than a 4th grade student here (Europe, US)”

Is it true? Are they still thinking that India is an education powerhouse — based largely on the reputation of a few islands of academic excellence such as the #IITs and some big Indian names in big companies like #Google, #Microsoft,..etc, or based on their own successful life?
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Just read a news that India has refused to participate in the OECD’s PISA survey this year too, when the other Asian countries outperform rest of the world.
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a survey, conducted annually to evaluate education systems worldwide by the #OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). The survey is based on two-hour tests that half a million students are put through, three categories – Mathematics, Science and Reading Comprehension.

India did participate in the tests in 2012, our students from all over India participated in the screening tests and students from only two states - Himachal Pradesh and Tamilnadu were able to score more nationally and make it to the global tests. Rest is the history!

In math, what we always considered as India's strong point, our kids finished second and third to the last position, beating only Kyrgyzstan. No wonder in science either, we again secured the 73rd and 74th position.

The sad part is: India refused to send our kids for the OECD’s PISA from 2013, quoting #PISA evaluation is not in-line with Indian Education SystemJ.  Well, we are always good at blaming others for our weakness!

There is a fundamental flaw in our education system which encourages only memorizing something and reproducing the same on answer sheets including punctuation marks.

The average 15-year-old Indian kid is over 200 points behind the global topper. Comparing the scores, will you still say that an Indian 1st grader is at the level of a 4th grader in Europe? Let’s accept the reality, stop arguing for some false prides!

Let's get rid of the illusion that Indian education system is highly intelligent. Completely to the contrary, we are taught and trained to be "smart", even cunning, to get ahead, because of competition and corruption. Our schools never teach to learn the knowledge; they just aim to get you more marks or to secure a job. This is why India ranks 119 on the Human Development Index, while achieving a growth rate over 8%, which is  unhealthy !

The Great Indian Education System

Why most of the Indians in abroad, send their kids to International school, never wish for the local government schools?

Agree with the reason, most of us are uncertain about our stay in the foreign country and have a fear about kids’ education when we go back to India.  So it’s perfect to go for an English speaking school. But I get a different reason, keep hearing from fellow Indians:

Man, what are they teaching here? Our 1st-grade kid studying in India will know more than a 4th grade student here (Europe, US)”

Is it true? Are they still thinking that India is an education powerhouse — based largely on the reputation of a few islands of academic excellence such as the #IITs and some big Indian names in big companies like #Google, #Microsoft,..etc, or based on their own successful life?
----
Just read a news that India has refused to participate in the OECD’s PISA survey this year too, when the other Asian countries outperform rest of the world.
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a survey, conducted annually to evaluate education systems worldwide by the #OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). The survey is based on two-hour tests that half a million students are put through, three categories – Mathematics, Science and Reading Comprehension.

India did participate in the tests in 2012, our students from all over India participated in the screening tests and students from only two states - Himachal Pradesh and Tamilnadu were able to score more nationally and make it to the global tests. Rest is the history!

In math, what we always considered as India's strong point, our kids finished second and third to the last position, beating only Kyrgyzstan. No wonder in science either, we again secured the 73rd and 74th position.

The sad part is: India refused to send our kids for the OECD’s PISA from 2013, quoting #PISA evaluation is not in-line with Indian Education SystemJ.  Well, we are always good at blaming others for our weakness!

There is a fundamental flaw in our education system which encourages only memorizing something and reproducing the same on answer sheets including punctuation marks.

The average 15-year-old Indian kid is over 200 points behind the global topper. Comparing the scores, will you still say that an Indian 1st grader is at the level of a 4th grader in Europe? Let’s accept the reality, stop arguing for some false prides!

Let's get rid of the illusion that Indian education system is highly intelligent. Completely to the contrary, we are taught and trained to be "smart", even cunning, to get ahead, because of competition and corruption. Our schools never teach to learn the knowledge; they just aim to get you more marks or to secure a job. This is why India ranks 119 on the Human Development Index, while achieving a growth rate over 8%, which is  unhealthy !

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Visaaranai - A realistic, raw and riveting story

Vetrimaaran is back with his third movie “Visaaranai”, with no hurry, almost 4 years after winning a national award.

It is the story of four young men who get imprisoned and exploited by the cops for their selfish motives and who are forced to prostrate in front of the bureaucratic system for series of reasons. The movie has a number of intricate layers within it.

The success of the screenplay is,  every audience could see from both from the victim's’ perspective as well from the cops side., who too feel helpless and let down as the victims of the so called “system”.

The police station and the bureaucratic system behind the entire drama naturally creates cold waves through our spine. We find it hard to see and digest such bitter truth, but these are the men that we face daily, people whom we lay our faith to protect us from harm and whom we got to go for many of our issues.

This movie is based on a true story that was penned as a novel by M. Chandra Kumar , who is the lone surviving victim of this dark and disturbing tale, the screenplay was adapted to suit the sensibilities without any botheration towards commercial elements.

I would say, “Visaaranai” is worth all the hype. An unbending, hard-hitting and spine-chilling attempt to uncover the abuse of power. The movie doesn't preach or do mere talking, rather it exposes a shock of the reality today. And it makes you think - because this could happen to you too!

Great Work Vetrimaaran. Take a bow!