Education - Just Marks/Grades or Acquiring Real Knowledge?

[Cricketman]

Yep, i go just for grades. I hate calculus. I hate physics. I hate evrytying. My favorite classes are PE and photography, because I can slack off and/or study for other classes. But I need the grades to get where I need to go.

In the end, the grades are all that are going to matter.

 

[Varun]

BUMP!

Noticed some big ironies in the point of view of people regarding education in Indian schools.

1. The CCE has been implemented in India. And all I've heard from majority of my friends is complaints. That they're being stressed. And that they'd have rather the compulsory competitive boards to attempt this year, which give results as percentage and you don't have to be consistent all year, but just study in the last two months of the session and you pass with flying colors.

The irony in this is that that boards actually have been a cause of mass tension - in schools, in houses - and student suicides. WTF! The students enjoy sitting and cramming like nerds (even worse than nerds since they don't cram) and loathe extra-curricular activities like debates, science practicals, music, arts and sports. So, if under CCE you've to be a little consistent and try to develop as an allrounder, is it stressful? And the mass tension caused by boards (which itself is overhyped by tutors and coaching centres who promise success in boards, "Success in boards is success in life" ) is worth relishing and cherishing.

2. Another irony - that is often ignored but is crucial and testimonial to India's development at the current stage - is that that the most important environment and hygiene issues like energy conservation, waste management, resource management which are currently violated and ignored are generally considered as "trivial" and "not worth teaching/understanding" in our temples of education. (The teachers don't even put a diminutive effort to discuss these issues). The repercussions are obvious and are manifest everywhere in our "superpower country". Rivers clogged with garbage, people peeing on roadsides, increase in environmental pollution in the metropolitan cities, and what not?

3. The students who confine themselves to a room, studying 8-12 hours a day (not to mention their thick glasses) are considered mature and responsible while a student who instinctively scrutinizes the injustice going on, condemns it, and tries to rather expand his/her knowledge is rebuked as immature and egoistic.

And then we blame the education system. On a note, our books have every stuff which can improve a student's personality - projects, thought-provoking questions, creative activities - manifold. It's just that we, Indians are not interested in attempting these, our main stress being on getting marks.
And hence the low quality of Indian posts on this and many other forums.

 

[King Cricket]

[start_rant]

What more do you expect from an education system which thrives on rote learning and cramming? The ambience is too vitiated by robotic crambots to make room for people who have some grey matter in their brains and can actually think.

Another irony - that is often ignored but is crucial and testimonial to India's development at the current stage - is that that the most important environment and hygiene issues like energy conservation, waste management, resource management which are currently violated and ignored are generally considered as "trivial" and "not worth teaching/understanding" in our temples of education.

Didn't the ICSE simply scrap the subject a few months ago? Tbh, the languid approach of our teachers is not confined to just Environmental Science; it is discernible in the methods that they adopt to teach every bloody subject starting from History to English.

Anything, other than the science subjects, is considered worthless, and those who have a passion for these subjects are either looked down upon as 'losers' or labelled stupid fools 'having no future'. Most of my friends haven't even touched any good English novel, let alone reading one, as they think that reading a story-book is a 'waste' of time and energy which they can utilize in cramming their science books and 'study materials' provided by cram schools from the first page to the last page.

Even Science gets shunned as a subject after a while. That's why you'll find that India is in dire need of good researchers and scientists, despite the fact that a plethora of science graduates pass out from our universities each year. Most either do a MBA and settle for some tedious, small-level job in a private firm where they have to sit in front of a cubicle and do god knows what 24x7 (since obviously a crambot doesn't possess the ability to innovate), or sit for the SSC examination and enter into a school/college or cram-school (where the money offered is thrice that of government schools so as to lure teachers) as a member of the pedagogical class, thereby perpetuating the system of very-mediocre teaching and the absurd tradition of after-school coaching.

The Indian education system is kind of hierarchical. Those who are the cream of the crop, those who are oozing with creativity (!) always take up, or are expected to take up, Science in the higher classes. Those who are 'not so intelligent', go for Commerce, while 'back-benchers', 'losers', 'idiots' and 'fools' pursue Arts. At least that is the common perception.

[/end_rant]

 

[Varun]

KC sums up what I actually wanted to say.

 

[Atharv]

too much pessimism in this thread . I don't think that you can top by learning everything "by heart" (another name for cramming). There seems to be a false impression that to top you have to cram and if you are a topper then you are a crammer. I am yet to come across such a person .

 

[Varun]

Cramming to reach the top isn't the real issue. The issue is the ludicrous belief that only toppers are intelligent, no matter how they do it.

----------

and the general mentality of the people regarding education, that enrolling in a B.Tech course or MBA signifies the the person is intelligent or a degree is all that matters.

 

[Dipak]

Yeah, people mug up and get grades, but yeah CCE has reduced that abit

 

[Atharv]

Cramming to reach the top isn't the real issue. The issue is the ludicrous belief that only toppers are intelligent, no matter how they do it.

Well, if they are toppers then they must have "some" intelligence . If understanding the concepts is not getting one the expected marks and results then there is no point in grudging the crammers. All the post that I have read seem to be dealing with the grades and marks in this thread. May be these crammers are intelligent and they are just being forced to cram their way .

No, I do not learn anything by heart .

 

[Varun]

I am not at all astonished reading that reply. Infact, I almost held the same views (albeit, a little hypocritically) a year back.

Well, if they are toppers then they must have "some" intelligence

As far as I know, MOST (not all) toppers are people who have mugged up every question from each and every ████ guide/helpbook. The topper of my class, is a topper, because before the exams she goes through all types of questions that are probable to appear in the exam paper. If there's a question, which challenges her critical skills beyond the level of learning, she's really doomed.
This isn't intelligence, for she has the answers, but not the opinion.

Secondly, even if the topper gets the marks - most of times (in India) - they're really immature idiots in practical life, and know nothing 'bout the outside world.
None of my classmates, barring few know about the Jasmine Revolution in Egypt, or the civil war in Libya, or any other current affairs.

Thirdly, and finally, marks/grades don't really matter in the real world. Einstein was considered dumb by his family and friends, and many other personalities are living examples of this fact. Complacency is what matters, not reputation or a degree or a top job.

 

[Meet]

I am not at all astonished reading that reply. Infact, I almost held the same views (albeit, a little hypocritically) a year back.



As far as I know, MOST (not all) toppers are people who have mugged up every question from each and every ████ guide/helpbook. The topper of my class, is a topper, because before the exams she goes through all types of questions that are probable to appear in the exam paper. If there's a question, which challenges her critical skills beyond the level of learning, she's really doomed.
This isn't intelligence, for she has the answers, but not the opinion.

Secondly, even if the topper gets the marks - most of times (in India) - they're really immature idiots in practical life, and know nothing 'bout the outside world.
None of my classmates, barring few know about the Jasmine Revolution in Egypt, or the civil war in Libya, or any other current affairs.

Thirdly, and finally, marks/grades don't really matter in the real world. Einstein was considered dumb by his family and friends, and many other personalities are living examples of this fact. Complacency is what matters, not reputation or a degree or a top job.

Well said dude.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Yep, i go just for grades. I hate calculus. I hate physics. I hate evrytying. My favorite classes are PE and photography, because I can slack off and/or study for other classes. But I need the grades to get where I need to go.

In the end, the grades are all that are going to matter.

I agree in the end to this!! Whatever you think @ Varun, Grades is what people in big companies here in India need.

I am with you that people should have outer world knowledge but may be some have interest in what you say like Egypt revolution and all but some might just have other area of interest.

 

[Varun]

I agree in the end to this!! Whatever you think @ Varun, Grades is what people in big companies here in India need.

A 'big and lucrative job' is not the need everytime. We Indians really need to abandon that stereotype.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

You see Varun!!

No Job = More Crime Rate due to illiteracy

Less Money = More Crime Rate which includes people going to in favor of betting and all those ████!!

If you study well and get a decent grade with decent money its enough

 

[Varun]

Are you crazy King Cricket ? IIT-JEE is one of the exams in India for which you require real knowledge and not cramming.

The top 1000 of IIT-JEE are really intelligent and hard-working students, they try to understand stuff and not cram it in. Just don't even think that IIT toppers are crammers.

varun_rustagi added 18 Minutes and 0 Seconds later...

If IIT-JEE and AIEEE are scrapped, the lives of 1000s of students will be wasted who can really build our science up.
Though I think that XII Boards are waste, IIT-JEE should never be scrapped.

Haha, this post of mine is ridiculously funny. I can't even believe I wrote this.

 

[jkartik]

Your 16 right ? you havent experienced the real world yet. its horrible.
i used to think in the exact same lines as you (still do but have mellowed down).

'big and lucrative job' sounds cliched and cheesy but believe me; most people work all their lives to achieve it.

unfortunately, the situation today is such that even happiness can be bought out by money. when you dont have money, are hungry most of the day, sweating it out in the metros in the jam packed trains and buses.........you soon realize that job satisfaction means ████!

as of 2011, job satisfaction = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!

coming to your point about "marks/grades don't really matter in the real world". again, i would like to reiterate that you havent experienced a job / office / corporate culture and will be utterly disappointed to find out that
marks and grades are ALL THAT MATTER in the real world.