IISC Prof Says Students Leaving Schooling to Prepare for IITs 'Destroys Fabric of Education'

The education system plays an important role in deciding the learning outcomes of the students. Pointing out the ‘unstructured’ school education, Indian physicist Arindam Ghosh recently shared a famous quote by Albert Einstein on Twitter.

In the tweet, the IISc Bangalore professor shared a screenshot of a post from a Twitter handle dedicated to American Physicist Professor Richard Feynman. The tweet reads, “The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think. – A. Einstein (1879-1955).”

Sharing it on his wall, Arindam Ghosh highlighted the importance of school education and how the recent structure is destroying the minds of the students. He tweeted, “Like college, balanced education in school is absolutely essential. Which is why children dropping out of school at Class 8 or 9 to start preparing for IIT JEE is destroying the fundamental fabric of education in this country.”

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The tweet was followed by a series of replies from various users. One of the users thanked the professor for bringing out the issue while few called it a marketing stunt of coaching institutions. It followed a debate whether students are opting for the structure of mugging the facts to pass the entrance examinations. Different users had different takes on it.

“Ultimately, we are preparing Robots out of humans. I have many examples where a class 12th candidate is interested in AI, ML, Robotics, but not able to explain simple things like atom, electron, electricity, energy etc. Because AI maintains the social status, electron doesn’t,” wrote one user. (sic)

“‘Doing something for the love of it’ is an alien concept when it comes to education in India. Following a pattern for success is what we love to do. The faster you mug up, the faster you forget,” wrote another. (sic)

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However, there have been many incidents in the past where the craze of the IIT-JEE took over the heads of parents. In 2017, a Quora question caught the eyes of the people. A parent asked about the best institute for IIT coaching for a student of fifth class. The question drove criticism and many users called out the parent for their mindset and pressure they are building on their kid. An HSBC survey report titled ‘The Value of Education’ found that 51 per cent of the parents give priority to the successful career of their kids and not to their health and happiness.

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