Indias education system

I have always held this opinion that the IITs and IIMs in India are doing nothing special and nothing different to the other institutes around the world. The fact that they produce top professionals is because they only allow the cream to be part of their courses. They are not doing very little to actually transform ordinary individuals into thorough professionals.

I read an article written by Michael Backman on The Age this morning, HERE, and totally agree with his views. In this article Michael writes about how Indias higher education system is just not sufficient to support the growth that the economy is now seeing. Also, the education system is focussed in areas that do not add value to the existing knowledge base.

This brings me to the point of the process of filteration at educational institutes. On one end of the spectrum we have IITs, IIMs and the like, that filter at the entry level and at the other end we have the CA Institute that filters at the exit level. Both these models suffer from limitations and have their own advantages. Looking at each of these systems :

Entry level Filteration

Advantages :

1. Sets a benchmark for aptitude required to take up a course and lets the individual know straight away if they are upto it.
2. Optimal use of training and infrastructure resources as only a selected number of people are trained.
3. Guarantees minimum level of competence among pass-outs.
4. Ensures a competitive peer group with the difference between the best and the worst not being much.

Disadvantages :

1. Entry criteria often has no correlation to the course being taken, thereby denying some individuals to take up the course.
2. Too much reliance on a 3 hour exam, which may not be the best 3 hours for an individual.
3. The entrance exam becomes more important than the course itself.
4. Limited opportunity for people to get access to the best training and infrastructure, which might just be teh reason why most people are not as good as they could have been.

Exit level Filteration

Advantages :

1. Equal opportunity provided for anyone interested in taking up a line of study. If they are good enough, they will get through.
2. Emphasis is on learning whats in the course, and not on something that is merely a gateway to the course.
3. Guarantees minimum level of competence among pass-outs.
4. Provides the same platform and infrastructure for everyone to make the best use of.

Disadvantages :

1. Huge strain on resources as a huge number of aspirants have to be catered for.
2. Peer group is a mix of people at various levels of competence, thereby diluting competition.
3. Individuals realise late that they may not be cut out for a particular line of study.

Preference

All said and done, I have a preference for the Exit level filteration for the following reasons.
1. Equal opportunity.
2. Equal level of infrastructure and training provided for all.
3. Onus on deciding line of study and responsibility of the same lies with an individual.
4. Non-reliance on a 3 hour entrance exam.

Myself in this regard,

I hate entrance exams and know they are not my forte. I might find it difficult to clear CAT, but I am sure that I have all it takes to go through the curriculum and the grind at any IIM and compete with others who might have come in thru the CAT structure. This is because the entrance exam is not always a test of skills required in the course that follows, it is just a process of elimination.

The system

Sadly, it focusses on where one has studied from and not necessarily what one has studied and what one knows. brings be to an earlier post on this blog titled Skills vs Qualification, HERE.

Ur take??