A couple of\nyears back, I was attending my college\u2019s technical festival; this is the\ntechno-management festival of one of arguably the best state-run engineering\ncolleges in Maharashtra. An auditorium not adequately filled to listen to this\nlady from TISS, now working to save India\u2019s indigenous, both people and\nresources. This is not expected, why, only a couple of hours ago, the\nauditorium was teeming with people to listen to a Harvard\nstatistician-turned-Indian-politician guiding the students about \u2018Innovation in\nIndia driving it to become a superpower\u2019. \u2018Innovation\u2019 and \u2018superpower\u2019 are\nbuzzwords, enough to get people on their toes fancying teslas running in India\nby 2020. This lady, who\u2019s clad in a typical khadi saree, refuses to be served\nmineral water on the podium, and in a didactic tone, she begins – \u201cEducation,\nyou see, is a tricky job. I\u2019d be impressed if even a single person from the\naudience ever wondered who HR Mahajani was (the road right outside our college\npremises was named after him, or her, who knows!). Have y\u2019all asked your\nprofessor (the only one in the campus other than her today in khadi) why he\u2019s\nchosen to take his middle name as his mother\u2019s?\u201d. And eventually came the one\nthat shook us all – \u201cDo y\u2019all ever discuss agriculture in engineering colleges\nwhen you talk of your innovation and sustainability ventures?\u201d The question was\nfollowed by silence reeking of neutrality. Neutrality because it\u2019s a safe mask\nto wear when we are guilty. We had no answers there. The IoT projects in the\nagriculture area happening on campus almost inadvertently inclined towards\nproviding more and more information either about the loans or for studying\nconsumer behaviour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those questions\nnever really left me. Every decision that I make reincarnates in the form of\nwhether they\u2019ll be able to look in the eyes of the lady and speak something. An\noft-quoted proverb goes thus – \u2018Empathy is the highest form of intelligence\u2019.\nEducation bereft of empathy and education bereft of a humanitarian basis is not\neducation at all. That\u2019s the point that the lady from TISS, with her apparel\nand water container choices, was trying to make, I think. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Is it incumbent upon students to move beyond the frontier\nof academics and make a change in society\u2019 you ask? But do you ask what goal\neducation in India serves today? Does it need to be limited to enhancing the\nemployability opportunities of students? And even if it were, is it serving the\npurpose then? Most of us would consciously deny. A recruiter from a\nmultinational company went ahead and said that Indian students after several\ndegrees still remain raw, unemployable. They\u2019ve to be then trained for\nindustry, or the real world for that matter. The chasm between the industry and\nwhat\u2019s taught in schools is vast. And vaster is the chasm between what\u2019s taught\nin schools and what society needs out of this education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fast\nforward to when I called up a friend, who had been working in the agriculture domain to help the international body\nwho has been striving for world peace. And his reply to what happened in the\nauditorium shook me for worse – \u2018Forget engineering colleges. Agriculture,\nisn\u2019t discussed in agricultural colleges either.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\nthen is the goal of education in India and where are we trying to reach by\neducating our children – by allocating some 94,854 crores to the education\nsector (FY\u201919 that is), by bringing in a brand new National Education Policy,\nand investing some 38,547 crores for the National Education Mission? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Data\nfrom the Indian Ministry of External Affairs reveals that there were nearly\n7,53,000 Indian students studying overseas as of July 2018. As against this, at\nthe same time, India hosted only a tiny fraction of foreign nationals of this\nnumber – 47,000. And this isn\u2019t surprising at all. What is the purpose of attracting\nforeign students to Indian educational hubs with the \u2018Study in India\u2019\ninitiative when we are unsure of our own system then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India\nhas moved beyond the primitive levels of focus on literacy. We have moved ahead\nof the agrarian community, skipped the manufacturing phase and are now also\noffering students niche vocational courses to help them suit the booming\nservice industry. But is the education that solely tries to aid output that our\ncountry produces in terms of GDP enough? What has improving levels of education\nin India after independence done to our economy? The questions are unlimited,\nespecially owing to the diverse and expansive population that we have at our\ndisposal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s\ntake the example of the reservation system in India. Education for the\nunderprivileged, the marginalized, and women was a way of emancipation, which\nis being secured through fixed quotas, scholarships and other incentives\nincluding the mid-day meals! Educating women and the Dalits meant they could\nnow be well informed and serve more dignified roles in economy and society.\nHigher education for a woman meant she could run her home independently of the\nabusive husband she would\u2019ve been with. Primary education for the Dalit meant\nhe could now read the documents he was officially agreeing with. So much for\neducation and economic independence of the marginalized and yet caste-based\nreservation as we\u2019ve known has improved the economic status of these\ncommunities only marginally. Education for these groups was Phule\u2019s thought in\naction where he tried to do away the oppressed from oppression through\neducation. If a group of college students is diverse and hangs out together, it\nis the effect of education. An MBA student who endorses a diverse class but\nlooks down upon caste-based diversity is only weakening the idea of diversity.\nA fee hike in educational institutes (which apparently are seeds for the left\nideology as seen by the rest of the world) only weakens the effort that\nreservation tries to bring about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And\nthis brings me to the other question that you pose – Are students exceeding\ntheir limits and are the recent encounters proving it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer is a clear no. The background of the recent\nmishandling in JNU was already laid with their ongoing protests against the\nhike in fees. As we know, the student debt in the US alone has been pegged to a\nstaggering $1.69 trillion with almost no solutions in sight. Research suggests\nthat debt doesn\u2019t support the emotional wellbeing of the students positively.\nThis should make us question the vicious cycle of \u2018Improving human life –\neducating students for working towards improving human life – debts for\neducating students – measuring the ill effects of students\u2019 wellbeing due to\ndebts – thereby having a negative effect on the initial purpose altogether\u2019. Research also suggests that students caught\nin debt were less likely to take up jobs to improve the well being of the\nsociety as compared to those whose debts were written off. An MBA grad in a\ngrand debt trap is more likely to be lured by \u2018We make the rich richer\u2019 kind of\ntaglines from prospective recruiters who will pay their debts off than a\nhumanitarian job which is less likely to help them do it. And why shouldn\u2019t\nstudents rise in revolution against these issues when they\u2019re the ones who are\nbeing affected by it?; when we\u2019re looking upon our demographic dividends to\nsomehow magically transform India? Kierkegaard goes on to tell us how \u2018truth\nalways rests with the minority\u2019 and if students who are thoughtful enough to\ncome up and wake us up by telling some truth by risking all that they have,\neven lives, we should be alarmed. The universities in the forefront are the\nones renowned for their research and change-making abilities all around the\nworld. These are the centres for improving the fabric of society and the\neconomy. To me, the student community is essentially a basic model of the\ncontemporary society. The student elections here are indicative of the voters\u2019\ntrends in the upcoming general elections of the country and so on. And what do\nstudent protests look like (now, and over the history of 200 years or so of\nstudent agitation in India)? Unarmed students fighting with revolutionary songs\nand posters facing the water cannons and armed policemen? From burning down\nCurzon\u2019s effigy in 1905 to the \u2018hok kalorob\u2019, students\u2019 protests are based on\nthe underlying intention to make the world only more human. And I think society\nowes them for their efforts, but we\u2019re only paying them back with higher debts!\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, let\u2019s say that the purpose of education in India should be\nto secure individual future first, enhance the national GDP second, and then\ntransform society et al, if at all. Consider then, the well accepted idea that\n\u201cpolitical reform cannot with impunity take precedence over social reform in the\nsense of reconstruction of society\u201d as was exhibited in the case of the Irish\nHome Rule as well as the case of the Patrician and the Plebian while making the\nConstitution in the history of Rome. The same idea also goes on to explain how\n\u201ceconomic reform by equalization of property must have precedence over every\nother kindo of reform\u201d (including political and social reforms) is but a\n\u201cgigantic illusion\u201d. If you were to tell me how an individual being\neconomically sound contributes to the society better by being more active in\nthe economy and thereby contributing more to the output, I\u2019ll beg you to read\nin between your own lines and acknowledge the purpose of it all, whether it is\nto create a consumerist society or to create well being for humankind. For instance,\nas the Mckinsey Global Institute estimates, \u201cAchieving complete gender\nemployment equality would mean the global GDP soaring by 26% by 2025\u201d! So,\nsocial reforms essentially drive the economic reforms and not the other way\nround. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n All in all, to\nme, intelligence is a function of how sensitive you are to everything that\u2019s\nhappening around you, how empathetically you make your decisions in these set\nups, and ultimately how woke you behave when trying to act as individuals\ncoming out of your family\u2019s narrative. If you have secured a place in a highly\ncompetitive course but make a conscious choice to let your actions make fellow\nhumans suffer the same evil that they suffered at your family\u2019s hands, you need\nto rethink about the purpose of education. If you are a 99.something\npercentiler and make a conscious choice to weed out the concept of\n\u2018sustainability\u2019 from your lifestyle, your education has failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As was pointed\nout in the book \u2018The Goal\u2019 by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, if we are not aware of what\nthe goal is, all our efforts will be futile. Increasing the efficiency of one\nparticular department by using robots does not always move us towards the goal\nof making more money for the corporation. And for these reasons, we must be\nthoughtful about making our choices. About thinking if profit maximization\nshould be the end goal of a corporation. Of whether or not students should be a\ndecisive part of the ideas towards which society is leaning. Of whether students be given the power to\ndirect our country right when they\u2019re learning or when they\u2019re done with\neducation in a socially isolated environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I firmly\nbelieve that philosophy should be a part of the ethos of education systems. For\ninstance, it\u2019s only after you read Plato and Aristotle and compare their theories\nwith the present day financial transactions that you realize how far we\u2019ve come\nand from where. It\u2019s only after you read concepts like \u2018interest on money being\na pointless manipulation\u2019 that you begin to formulate and improve ways to make\nthe present system better through mindful and more humane ventures. It\u2019s only\nthen that leaders of the world community and also at various positions in the\ncorporate, in the education system, in the developmental sector make choices to\nnot exploit the resources that we have per se but to help them replenish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a concluding\nnote, I\u2019d like to quote Bertolt Brecht – \u201cThe worst\nilliterate is the political illiterate, he doesn\u2019t hear, doesn\u2019t speak, nor\nparticipates in the political events. He doesn\u2019t know the cost of life, the\nprice of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of\nthe medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is\nso stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics.\nThe imbecile doesn\u2019t know that, from his political ignorance is born the\nprostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad\npolitician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\nus pledge to make the Indian student community less politically illiterate and\nmore empathetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n References –<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [The article is the winning entry for the Article Writing Competition organized by Public Policy Club, IIFT. ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you have secured a place in a highly competitive course but make a conscious choice to let your actions make fellow humans suffer the same evil that they suffered at your family\u2019s hands, you need to rethink about the purpose of education. If you are a 99.something percentiler and make a conscious choice to weed out the concept of \u2018sustainability\u2019 from your lifestyle, your education has failed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":13287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[284,283],"class_list":["post-98588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social","tag-purpose-of-education","tag-student-activism"],"yoast_head":"\n