Delhi University is introducing 4 year degree courses.
Overall many young persons now get 18 or 20 years of education.
1 year in Nursery
1 Year in KG
10 years in Class 1 to 10
2 years in class 11 and 12
4 years in Engineering or graduation
2 years in MBA
Academic/Research minded people will add 3 to 4 years of PhD.
[I am excluding discussion of medicine profession.]
By the time a young person is ready to join the ranks of working adults, she/he is 24 years. It takes another two years to get a sense of settling down.
And marriage? Marriage is ruled out for the majority before they are 26.
All this is common knowledge. So why am I belaboring on this.
My view is that lot of the learning in these 18/20 years is a waste of effort.
I repeat that all the hard work put in by sincere students is partly useful and partly a waste.
Most of the wasteful learning occurs in college or university.
Consider the two segments.
Class 11 and 12. In present day environment in India, you find that the students work the hardest to gain admission to a good course or a good institute - IIT, NIT or MBBS.
Class 11 and 12 also see sudden increase in the workload, complexity and the information deluge.
Those who do not get admission in Engineering or medicine, 50% of what they learn during these two years is a waste.
Now I come to graduation.
Take engineering. While the first and second years give a good grounding and cause good development of the young persons, a lot of what is learnt in third and fourth year is hardly used. These papers and classes only serve to give employment to the teachers and nothing else. Most of the times, young people end up in jobs where lot of this learning has no use.
Now come to those who do MBA. For them again according to my estimate only 40 to 50 % of the learning in 4 years of engineering is useful rest is a waste.
Even in MBA in two years of learning about 40 % is wasteful. Students specialize in some area and do not work in that area.
Can we clearly identify the waste?
My view is definitely "yes".
Can we eliminate it? Yes we can.
How? By reviewing the entire education system.
Before I proceed further. I would also like to point out the trend of people marrying late and then having children even later. This is going to prove a sore point for the society in long run. My view is that young man and woman should normally get married around the age of 22/23 and have first child by the time they are 25/26.
This would require compressing the period of study to really 16 years by eliminate wasteful learning.
I would vote for four year degree course but not after class 12 but after class 10 itself.
Out of these four years, first two years should be in the hands of academicians only.
After two years, the industry or the employer gets in. They do the initial selection and take over the curriculum and make major decisions about what is to be taught. Learning continues in University but the academicians now have a coordinating role and they do ensure that quality of teaching does not go down.
(To be continued)
Overall many young persons now get 18 or 20 years of education.
1 year in Nursery
1 Year in KG
10 years in Class 1 to 10
2 years in class 11 and 12
4 years in Engineering or graduation
2 years in MBA
Academic/Research minded people will add 3 to 4 years of PhD.
[I am excluding discussion of medicine profession.]
By the time a young person is ready to join the ranks of working adults, she/he is 24 years. It takes another two years to get a sense of settling down.
And marriage? Marriage is ruled out for the majority before they are 26.
All this is common knowledge. So why am I belaboring on this.
My view is that lot of the learning in these 18/20 years is a waste of effort.
I repeat that all the hard work put in by sincere students is partly useful and partly a waste.
Most of the wasteful learning occurs in college or university.
Consider the two segments.
Class 11 and 12. In present day environment in India, you find that the students work the hardest to gain admission to a good course or a good institute - IIT, NIT or MBBS.
Class 11 and 12 also see sudden increase in the workload, complexity and the information deluge.
Those who do not get admission in Engineering or medicine, 50% of what they learn during these two years is a waste.
Now I come to graduation.
Take engineering. While the first and second years give a good grounding and cause good development of the young persons, a lot of what is learnt in third and fourth year is hardly used. These papers and classes only serve to give employment to the teachers and nothing else. Most of the times, young people end up in jobs where lot of this learning has no use.
Now come to those who do MBA. For them again according to my estimate only 40 to 50 % of the learning in 4 years of engineering is useful rest is a waste.
Even in MBA in two years of learning about 40 % is wasteful. Students specialize in some area and do not work in that area.
Can we clearly identify the waste?
My view is definitely "yes".
Can we eliminate it? Yes we can.
How? By reviewing the entire education system.
Before I proceed further. I would also like to point out the trend of people marrying late and then having children even later. This is going to prove a sore point for the society in long run. My view is that young man and woman should normally get married around the age of 22/23 and have first child by the time they are 25/26.
This would require compressing the period of study to really 16 years by eliminate wasteful learning.
I would vote for four year degree course but not after class 12 but after class 10 itself.
Out of these four years, first two years should be in the hands of academicians only.
After two years, the industry or the employer gets in. They do the initial selection and take over the curriculum and make major decisions about what is to be taught. Learning continues in University but the academicians now have a coordinating role and they do ensure that quality of teaching does not go down.
(To be continued)
Would you say your main concern in the proposed DU reforms and the overall education set up is the duration?
ReplyDelete