Indian Education - Where do we go from here?

Ok, so that's that. McCauley is tossing and turning in his grave. But where do we go from here? When I look around, many NGOs, government and individuals are working to change the system. But I have only been impressed by a few.


Bollywood is not just entertainment anymore. Aamir Khan's movies Taare Zameen par and Three Idiots have really been on target and woken up lot of people. People don't change very easily and quickly, but I see lot of parents now talking about the child's rather than their wishes for what the child should do with their lives. This is a change from my generation.


Swami Ramdev, India's yoga guru has rently launched a people's movement called "Bharat Swabhiman". One of the key initiatives of this movement is the education system. The kind of changes he is talking about resonated with me. He is talking about strengthening the villages with a values based education system with focus on peace inside and prosperity outside (param shanti, param vaibhav). Millions of people are supportinh him and this movement has the potential to become something like Gandhi's freedom movement. If that happens, the changes would be definite and radical. One other key point of this movement is that citizens start demanding their rights from the government, educators etc. If the sleeping giant (that is India) wakes up, nothing like it.

There are many other efforts from NGOs and individuals as well as schools themselves, but the collective impact is yet to be seen.


I am not for or against any particular school of thought or system. I feel that good things should be learnt and adapted from anywhere, be it east, west or anywhere else. This is also the wisdom of ancient India which tells us to be open and accepting. This is the reason why so many immigrants and even offenders have integrated into the Indian society and lived peacefully for centuries. So, I feel that Indian values definitely need to be brought back to education, but we also need to teach and integrate strengths of the west such as, work ethics, analytical thinking, creativity and innovation, planning and execution skills for carrying out any work or project, working in teams rather than individually, civic sense and cleanliness.