Observations On The Educational System In India

The other day my brother was telling me that the IIT's (Indian Institute of Technology) aren't ranked in the top 25 engineering institutes in the world. I replied that I had read that they aren't ranked in the top 100 even. (http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOICH/2010/09/17&PageLabel=10&EntityId=Ar01000&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T) He wondered why... In India the IIT's are very highly reputed.

That set off a train of thought. This is something I had been thinking about for a long time. The students who come out of IIT's are very bright. They go on to do their masters and doctorates in reputed colleges in USA like MIT, Stanford etc. And many of them go on to work in organizations like Bell Labs or NASA. There is no doubt that the students who graduate from IIT are "high class".

Now that raises a question. What are the factors that result in "high quality" of students who graduate from an institution?

I think there are primarily two factors.

1. What kind of students are taken in? What is the entry criterion like? Very high bar or a fairly low bar? (The better the quality of raw materials, the better the quality of finished product)
2. What kind of value add is done in the institution? Does it convert a fairly "inferior" raw material and process into a high grade?

It's my belief that in the IIT's, as well as in other institutions of learning, the quality of students graduating is largely determined by point 1 above and to a very small extent by point 2 above. Meaning the students who are gifted go on to do well. The school itself doesn't convert the not so gifted ones into high grade. And IIT's have a fairly high entry barrier and hence the students passing out also are relatively better. No thanks to what happens inside IIT (to the education inside).

Now is this really so? Meaning isn't there much quality teaching in IIT's? What about quality research?

To answer that question (just a yes or a no) let's see the factor that is relevant in an institution for higher learning. "How much are the institutions trusted (and hence) involved in solving problems?".

Let's take some examples:

1. Water scarcity in many towns in India in the coastal regions.
2. Electricity shortage and the abundance of sunshine in most parts of India.
3. The frequently recurring train accidents in India.
4. Heavy engineering: Construction of airports. Incidentally  yesterday, (a couple of days after I wrote the first version of this blog) I was talking to a friend of mine who is privy to the expansion plans of one of the major airports in India. The current status of that airport, as he explained to me, corroborates this point.
5. Cooum (a stinking river in Chennai) desilting.

I have listed some of the very common problems (or areas) faced in india which need an engineering solution. How many of these problems are solved in India (as against technology obtained from elsewhere and "adapted" locally? To the best of my knowledge most of these have been solved largely through technology acquisition than by indigenous development. This despite having 5 (now more) such IIT's - the so-called "high end engineering institutes". Now if we wont depend on our own institutions to solve our basic problems, if we won't eat our own dog food, it reflects a rather poor trust that we have on these colleges.

Why aren't these institutes ranked among the best in the world? Why don't we go to them for solving our problems?

This is not just because the teachers aren't good or that the facilities are not adequate. I think the issue goes deeper than that. Culturally Indians have always been good at solving (read: memorizing) solutions for known problems. 

Right from the time we were kids we were encouraged (I should say we were forced, not encouraged) to repeat what our teachers/elders said. We were actively discouraged from independent thinking. "Why don't you just write what is there in the text book? Why do you have to change the wording?". Remember these words from our parents/teachers?
In India it's perfectly acceptable (as a matter of fact it is insisted on) that we take large chunks of material from other textbooks or references and submit the same as a paper/essay. In USA, the same action would be strongly discouraged and considered as plagiarism (unless the material is given appropriate reference and inserted inside quotes). In India, we believe anything can be trusted only if we didn't create it ourselves. 

See the difference in culture? This resulted in Indians dreading any open ended problems. It's like how a child hates darkness. We have been forbidden to go THERE (THERE meaning the unknown); to look inside THERE, to explore THERE. Born and raised in such a culture, how do we ever send a man to the moon or  or design a new rocket or a submarine?

While South Africa hosted the World Cup Soccer game to perfection about a month back, one just has to look at the struggle India is going through, (to host the Commonwealth Games due to start in 2 months time), to realize how pathetic our performance has been. South Africa and India are ranked 129, 134 respectively, in the Human Development Index.  Here is an article explaining the basis of India's success as an economy
(http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CUN20100925&articleId=21182). While the article is extremely critical, there is some truth in it, which we need to reflect on.

Indians knew about eclipses and could predict them thousands of years before physicists like Galileo Galilei, Newton or Kepler came along. Indians had a flourishing civilization, their literature dates back thousands of years. See this link which tracks the economic strength of India and China in the last few hundred years:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOICH/2010/08/22&PageLabel=16&EntityId=Ar01601&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T. I wonder how Indians solved problems then. They must have been were very good at problem solving many centuries back. Somewhere as time passed, they have gotten into a rut.

How does one get out of this rut? When do we learn to solve our own problems? When do we understand that it's ok to think independently?

Additional reading: (Updated on 16th July 2015)

1. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/has-iisc-contributed-to-society-narayana-murthy/article7426651.ece
2. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/revamping-indias-scientific-ecosystem/article7492142.ece?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication

8/20/10, 5:52 AM

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