On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 3:44 AM, keith.adam0 <[email protected]>wrote:
> > Howevewr, I have a question for the list... > > Given the huge population of India, what is the percentage of young adults > studying engineering or medicine? What of the percentage (who can > quantify?) that can never conceive the idea of going to a school, college, > or university that offer these courses? > I'd disagree with Shiv on "only medical and engineering"...but agree that professional courses of all kinds are sought after. There is now Law, and Catering and Fine Arts, and so the list grows....but education in India is job-oriented and this is the reason for everyone wanting to get a bachelor's degree that isn't worth the paper it is printed on. Yes, I'd also like to know some figures... I will add a point of my own...most of us, on this list, are the products of precisely the kind of educational system that we can see so many flaws in, and don't want to inflict on our children (but, mostly have inflicted, anyway.) . But...we seem to have turned into thinking adults, with ideas of our own and the ability to think for ourselves. So...is the educational system all that bad? I don't like the stress it places on only rote memory, but rote memory is not an entirely bad thing, as any Indian, faced with a supermarket assistant who needs a calculator for the simplest reckoning, will agree. So...I am still looking for an educational system which is a good blend of the two "types" of education...the "I teach" and the "you learn" methods. Hmm....Keith..there is at least one person on this list, who grew up in urban India, who did not go to college...I learnt this fact only yesterday, and I don't know whether it was choice or chance. I've had long, pleasant, and sometimes intense conversations with this person. The lack of a college education, to me, has no relevance at all to anything...not the thinking, not the ability to earn the living, or be a good human being. Deepa.
