WHAT capital are we building for ourselves???

Education in India is seen as one of the ways to upward social mobility. Education is the essence of life. The primitive man was no better than a wild animal but that same man has now become dignified and coherent to a great extent only due to education. Today, India claims to be the biggest supplier of human resource in the world but WHAT capital are we building for ourselves???
On the one hand we have IIMs & IITs that rank among the best institutes in the world and on the other hand there are number of schools in the country that don't even have the basic infrastructure. Moreover, the present Education system is not shaping youth with a significant Value system. They are preparing them as mere Job seekers, who think that their future lies in going abroad. Very few of the best brains like to stay and serve the country.
Good Education is one that makes you free, makes you experiment and makes you ask questions. Ultimately, it makes you realize what you are. But, on the contrary- youngsters in India do not have the freedom of selecting their career. They are forced to become engineers, doctors, MBA’s and IAS officers. It’s their family who decides their fate and forces them into a world which is far the opposite of what they dreamt of. And the outcome is –stress, lack of initiative, drive and self –reliance.
The ills of present educational institutes are no less. They don’t help child to become independent but just stress on completion of syllabus to pass exam. Education has turned into a business with private coaching centers mushrooming at every corner. To make the condition worse, there are reservations based on religion and caste. This system of reservation tells the backward class students that they don't need to work hard because they have a spoon fed seat in front of them. And many students who have scored more marks but belong to the upper class are not admitted because of fewer seats whereas the students belonging to backward classes are reserved.
In India, most of the institutions teach students everything. They make the syllabi so big that students even become inclined to leave the stream of education and service. They start considering other occupations. Institutions teach students everything but most of the students don’t learn most of the content. Why not let the students specialize in a particular field? The worst part of it is that they incline the students to mug up things, as the hierarchy of level of education increases. The students with practical knowledge lose marks just because they don’t like to mug up and the institutions want specific words mentioned in the text written in the books.
Today, education is not the career of choice, but it is the career of compromise. If you are a teacher, people sympathize with you. Education is one of the highest profit making ‘industries’ in the service sector, but its workers are paid much less.
Creativity and independent thinking is not encouraged. Mugging up and passing exams is becoming more important than learning concepts. This has to change.
What Indian Education System needs?
• Education which encourages innovation and creativity. Encouraging research activities. Giving more importance to practical learning rather than theoretical.
• Greater investments into education, public as well as private are required. We need world class infrastructure and best talents in all schools and universities of India. These resources should not remain limited to a handful of IIT’s or IIM’s.
• To curb corruption - this is cutting deep roots into Indian society and not sparing education industry.
• Selection of student should be merit based not caste or religion based.
• Curriculum should be more relevant to equip students to suit market demands.