Rather than imparting knowledge, education in India has become a "commercial commodity", rued eminent scientist G Madhavan Nair. The former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that "real education" was not being imparted to children who, in fact, were being "spoon-fed", and that most evaluation exams were memory tests rather than gauging their understanding of the subject. He also spoke out strongly against the tendency of parties to make campuses a training ground for budding politicians.
"That's why the education system has deteriorated considerably. The result is that even people who come out after graduation or engineering, are not employable. They don't have the basic understanding of the subject, don't have the skills for applying knowledge for practical applications and this is resulting in a pathetic situation," he said. He also added that quality was the "first casualty" at many of India's private institutions, which were only interested in increasing student intake numbers and making money.
"Basically, I think that education has become a commercial commodity these days rather than acquiring excellence in knowledge," Nair said. However, he added that institutions such as IITs and the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru were maintaining their standards, mostly because they got the "best of the students" on their campus, but they needed to raise their level from a global perspective. He also expressed the view that one should not mix politics with education. "Today, there is a bad tendency. There are many political parties who want to use these institutions for building up their cadres, and that should be stopped," Nair said.
Instead, he said, interested political parties can start a separate institute for training politicians, rather than converting educational institutions for such a purpose. Nair stressed that the thrust of education should be on improving observation, analytical and communication skills of students, in addition to cultivating moral values. "These should form the basis of primary education. Once the foundation is strong and you show them the way how to acquire knowledge, that is sufficient. There is no point in just learning 10,000 answers by heart. The education system should be an enabler, that kind of change is required," he said.
Nair also regretted that talented people were not choosing the teaching profession and that teachers were not being given proper and professional training. Stressing that quality is a must in teaching, he said that teachers also needed to be evaluated periodically. Nair advocated adopting some basic lessons from the 'Gurukul System', particularly the strong relationship between the teacher, student and parent. "That ambience has to be created. Evaluations should not be based on annual exams. It should be constant, where the parent also participates in a very scientific manner. Moral studies have to be given importance in an early part of the education," he said.
According to him, three language (Hindi, English and local language) policy has to be adopted in all the states. Hindi is a link language, while English cannot be kept out of our system, he said, adding, basic education can be imparted in a much more efficient manner through the local language. He also favoured giving students an option to study Sanskrit. "Sanskrit is one of the most scientific languages, learning that, I understand, will improve analytical skills of the individual."
