The jury is out. Indians’ famed analytical abilities are under the scanner. The last few decades of globalization or say global exposure – had exposed the poor EQ of Indians through our students and managers. We had a self satisfying pat about low EQ, but telling us that we have higher IQ.
But the people land of Aryabhatta are no way the best in terms of quantitative abilities. GMAT scores of 2010 say that Indian rank as low as 7th globally in quantitative score, below the Chinese, Japanese, South Koreans, Taiwanese, Turks and Israelis. This is a much bigger cause of concern, if one factors that the Indians who take GMAT are normally the top quartile students [this hypothesis needs to be tested though].
A part of India shining was the fast burgeoning IT/ITES industry, thanks to the English language proficiency and middle class diligence. Now the whole world is learning English in hordes. I really don’t know for how many more years, the can smile because of our English history.
We can ignore the Chinese if we want to. But there are others too. Luckily, they are smaller countries – and wont have the numbers to beat us in a volume game. However they will be a huge threat in the valuable, high end premium knowledge industries.
What this tells that our quest to being a global superpower will be seriously dented unless to get seriousness and substance back in the schools. It is not enough that Indians have a high innate intelligence. It is not enough that best of Indian students, the most driven parents/students drive each other to compete against the global best with ease. We really need to get the seriousness in studies and education deep down into the national psyche. Every strata of students and families need to demonstrate the need to get better than what they are. With zeal and commitment. Learning as an end in itself, not to pass exams nor to get jobs. That is the only way we can change the national character away hype, rhetoric to rationale and hard knowledge. We need to shed the general complacency, good enough approach and focus on application and high aspiration as an end in itself.
In that sense, we are still in Theory X space or in the ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ end of the continuum and need some more SQ before we move into Sibal’s Theory Y to reduce the load of the students. This is an apparent digression. But clearly, no stress is no gain. I am sure there are many of us who mugged like crazy for class 10th, and suddenly saw the spark in us and realized the beauty of studying and almost overnight felt like a man. If there is choice between last minute cramming vs no cramming; the last minute cramming is far better. Taking away the class 10th exam, is a lost opportunity to a country of exam mongers. Till the time, learning gets into a part of the country’s character and is seen as fun; removing it will only lead to more number of half-baked citizens.
We can ignore the whole world around, there is absolutely no problem being happy and satisfied with ourselves – in fact it is a wonderful trait that we have. However if we are happy because we are ignorance and not spiritual evolution. Then we are foolish and the happiness will not last. The stress will only get pushed away from class 10th to the rest of our lives!!
So, again, we can ignore the whole world around. But lets not ignore ourselves. Lets slog smart. India needs another 50 years of dedicated hard work [as an end in itself] for the behemoth to be shaken into an auto-pilot of continued vibrant action. The India shining is just the promise not the main story. We can still lose the plot, if we get complacent of ourselves and other aspiring countries.
Maths was just a starting point for discussion. We definitely need to hold our fortress there. But need to get far better is communication and far far better in commonsense and smart habits. The seeds of the same have to sown in the families and at the schools [and not pushed to the higher education courses].
Bhubaneswar
January 24, 2011
But the people land of Aryabhatta are no way the best in terms of quantitative abilities. GMAT scores of 2010 say that Indian rank as low as 7th globally in quantitative score, below the Chinese, Japanese, South Koreans, Taiwanese, Turks and Israelis. This is a much bigger cause of concern, if one factors that the Indians who take GMAT are normally the top quartile students [this hypothesis needs to be tested though].
A part of India shining was the fast burgeoning IT/ITES industry, thanks to the English language proficiency and middle class diligence. Now the whole world is learning English in hordes. I really don’t know for how many more years, the can smile because of our English history.
We can ignore the Chinese if we want to. But there are others too. Luckily, they are smaller countries – and wont have the numbers to beat us in a volume game. However they will be a huge threat in the valuable, high end premium knowledge industries.
What this tells that our quest to being a global superpower will be seriously dented unless to get seriousness and substance back in the schools. It is not enough that Indians have a high innate intelligence. It is not enough that best of Indian students, the most driven parents/students drive each other to compete against the global best with ease. We really need to get the seriousness in studies and education deep down into the national psyche. Every strata of students and families need to demonstrate the need to get better than what they are. With zeal and commitment. Learning as an end in itself, not to pass exams nor to get jobs. That is the only way we can change the national character away hype, rhetoric to rationale and hard knowledge. We need to shed the general complacency, good enough approach and focus on application and high aspiration as an end in itself.
In that sense, we are still in Theory X space or in the ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ end of the continuum and need some more SQ before we move into Sibal’s Theory Y to reduce the load of the students. This is an apparent digression. But clearly, no stress is no gain. I am sure there are many of us who mugged like crazy for class 10th, and suddenly saw the spark in us and realized the beauty of studying and almost overnight felt like a man. If there is choice between last minute cramming vs no cramming; the last minute cramming is far better. Taking away the class 10th exam, is a lost opportunity to a country of exam mongers. Till the time, learning gets into a part of the country’s character and is seen as fun; removing it will only lead to more number of half-baked citizens.
We can ignore the whole world around, there is absolutely no problem being happy and satisfied with ourselves – in fact it is a wonderful trait that we have. However if we are happy because we are ignorance and not spiritual evolution. Then we are foolish and the happiness will not last. The stress will only get pushed away from class 10th to the rest of our lives!!
So, again, we can ignore the whole world around. But lets not ignore ourselves. Lets slog smart. India needs another 50 years of dedicated hard work [as an end in itself] for the behemoth to be shaken into an auto-pilot of continued vibrant action. The India shining is just the promise not the main story. We can still lose the plot, if we get complacent of ourselves and other aspiring countries.
Maths was just a starting point for discussion. We definitely need to hold our fortress there. But need to get far better is communication and far far better in commonsense and smart habits. The seeds of the same have to sown in the families and at the schools [and not pushed to the higher education courses].
Bhubaneswar
January 24, 2011
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