In Summa

Basically, over these last four months, I have been posting blog posts every now and then, and I wanted to put one post just to sum it all up; to tie up all the lose ends, and connect the dots for you.

Basically, I wanted to sum up these four posts:

1) Possibility of over-education

2) Eureka Moment

3) Education in India – Too Competitive

4) Changes, with a capital “C” for education in India

The possibility of over-education ties into my eureka moment because of we don’t want our children to go into the world as educated drones. Over-education is way to prolific. These two tie into the competitiveness of education in India. This over-education leads to the high levels of competition amongst the students. These three points tie into the final Law and Education, because the legal system in India is attempting to ameliorate the competitive situation in India.

Overall, the Teach India initiative has inspired me to help this change in India, and to push it as much as I can.

I think, ALL Indians should ‘Answer the call!’ of Teach India, and help educate our youth!

India has the greatest number of universities?

“India has made a huge progress in terms of increasing primary education attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population.^[1] India’s improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic rise of India.^[2] Much of the progress in education has been credited to various private institutions.^[3] The private education market in India is estimated to be worth $40 billion in 2008 and will increase to $68 billion by 2012.^[3] However, India continues to face challenges. Despite growing investment in education, 40% of the population is illiterate and only 15% of the students reach high school.^[4] As of 2008, India’s post-secondary high schools offer only enough seats for 7% of India’s college-age population, 25% of teaching positions nationwide are vacant, and 57% of college professors lack either a master’s or PhD degree.^[5] As of 2007, there are 1522 degree-granting engineering colleges in India with an annual student intake of 582,000^[6], plus 1,244 polytechnics with an annual intake of 265,000. However, these institutions face shortage of faculty and concerns have been raised over the quality of education.^[7]”

From this we can see that obviously India is facing an extremely large problem. Out of all the millions of students attending secondary school all over India, there is only place for 7% of them in the universities/colleges. Futhermore, only 75% of the teaching positions in India institutes are occupied, and out of those seats occupied, only 43% of the professors have a masters, or PhD degree under their belt. This obviously translates to an extremely grave situation for the India education system.

According to Ask.com, India has the highest number of universities in the world, with a staggering 8,407! Click here to see the article. In second place, comes the United States with 5,758 universities. That means India has 46% more universities than the United States, and YET India does not have enough places to seat all the youth who are graduating from secondary school. This is extremely troubling, because if this doesn’t change soon, all the graduates from secondary school will have to wait to get placement in universities (when I say wait, I mean wait prolonged periods of time such as one year, maybe even two), and we’ll get stuck in the same rut as before — children won’t being going to school because it won’t be worth it. The reason will be why go to school when you can’t get into college? Whatever the outlook, this situation needs to be rectified immediately.

According to one of my readers who left a comment on my blog, even more educational institutes are popping up all over the place: “Education is truly indispensible in today’s economy centric world, and the new vistas that modern education is opening up are quite enthralling. With a scope to forge a promising career in fields like Sound Engineering, Gemmology or Radio Jockeying, a number of institutes are popping up all around the country to guide aspirants of these vocations. One of the premiere institutes that has come up in pune is SeamEdu, India’s first and only creativersity, with eminent founders like educationist Dr. Arun Nigavekar. To get an overview of newage career options, you can log on [here to see details] ” – Vishakha.

Additionally, as if the lack of universities in India, and the lack of professors having degrees, the deep-rooted traditions are also posing a problem. The value of education for a common man is zero, because he does not see tangible benefits resulting from it. Traditionally, women are not supposed to go to school; they are supposed to stay at home and make food, and take care of the children etc… Because of this deep-seated tradition, only 30% of the schools in Bihar, India have women’s bathrooms. The rest do not have female bathrooms. Again, schools in Bihar have an even worse problem — 70% of teachers are actually absent all the time. So this problem of a lack of universities is exacerbated by the lack of commitment from the teachers, and by the deep-seated traditions that have been India for the past 2,000 years.

While this lack of higher institutions is definitely a problem, we have a much bigger problem on our hand namely dealing with the overall standard of education being provided. For the most part, I feel that the education levels are way too low across the board, to seriously compete with the levels that are seen all around the world. The level of education provided to our youth needs to get a little better before we start growing the number of schools to accommodate all the youth seeking an education. This links back to my “Eureka Moment” blog post where I said we do not want educated drones. This still stands true. Our curriculum needs to rise to higher standards, and has to foster a sense of thinking-outside-the-box for the youth.

The TeachIndia initiative is doing this, but true change has to come from the top, down. The government — namely the Education Ministry — has to decide to make radical and solid changes. Only then will the change have a positive impact. TeachIndia is only ancillary, and true change can only come from the top, however the TeachIndia initiative is still a inspiration and motivator to the entire education system all over India.

In order for change to actually be effective, the government needs to make sure that the standards are enforced in all the schools – this isn’t too much of a problem, because 80% of the schools all over India are run by the government. It’s the other 20% of schools that might pose a problem. This 20% are private schools, quite a few of which are illegally operated. Studies showed that 27% of India’s children attended private schools because it was figured that they provided a superior education to the more-expensive government schools. However, there is a counter-argument that states the private schools are in fact not as good as the government schools and are the same price, if not more expensive. I am inclined to believe that government schools, on average, are slightly worse than private schools. It stands to reason; salaries are better in the private system, hence better teachers are attracted to those jobs. I know for a fact that some of the best schools in India, are in fact private ones, but on the flip side, some of the best universities are government owned/operated. The point is that government schools need to improve, and illegal private schools need to be shut down. Currently, private schools are making all the money, while the government schools are going for a toss! This needs to change – if it changes, education can reach a higher standard (because of the imposed and enforced government regulations). This alleviates the problem of having illegal private schools.

On a good note, the government is planning on opening several more universities, and expanding the current ones to accommodate more youth. If this is successfully achieved, India can become a hotbed for potential employers to pick up educated employees (this is turn will send the Indian economy through the roof, and into the stratosphere!)

A new mister for Human Resource Development was appointed this year – Mr. Kapil Sibal. I suspect his appointment was a direct result of the problems in education coming to prominence via campaigns such as Teach India. His agenda aims to establish a common Indian education board to do away with all the options facing India parents. This will help increase the value for high school education. Additionally he proposes a bill so that individuals and not-for-profit organizations may set up educational institutions. The changes are radical and I suspect that they will shake up the rigid education system seen in India today, to concentrate on collaboration and synergy. Evidence of this change can be highlighted by the number of new institutions in India.

Under Kapil Sibal, some serious changes will be enacted to allow the greater number of youth to complete a college education, despite all the several setbacks.

The Law and Education

Currently, the educational situation in India only allows trusts, societies, or corporations to set up schools, and educational institutions. Educational institutions can’t be set up by any individuals, or by non-profit corporations. Which I think is ridiculous; why can’t we adopt the same structure that America has? That works just fine. Schools are set up for profit, and not-for-profit all over the U.S., so why can’t we do it in India as well?

I think its ridiculous, like a sick joke.

Here’s the article, posted by the Business Standard:

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The government is planning to permit corporate houses to set up higher educational institutions — like multi-disciplinary universities and colleges — by floating a separate not-for-profit entity under Section 25 of the Companies Act 1956.

A not-for-profit entity is one that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders. It, instead, reinvests these in the institute. Many private universities in India have been set up under Section 25 of the Companies Act. However, deemed universities are not covered by the Act.

“We have received requests demanding this route. The government is exploring the possibility, as it could be allowed under Section 25 of the Companies Act,” confirmed Sunil Kumar, joint secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), on the sidelines of the Ficci summit on higher education. MHRD officials, too, acknowledged that the Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal was keen on the entry of companies through this route.

At present, educational institutions in India can be set up only by trusts, societies or companies, and it is not possible for non-profit companies, like industry associations, under Section 25 of the Companies Act, to set up institutions and get recognition from the University Grants Commission. In the primary and secondary education space, however, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) allowed companies registered under the Act to start private unaided schools last year.

Some higher education institutions have taken this route in the technical education space to escape policing by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) — the body that regulates technical education in the country. For instance, many management schools have gone the Indian School of Business (ISB) way, opting for a one-year management programme (against the conventional two-year courses), and have registered themselves under Section 25 of the Act.

The Mumbai Business School (MBS), which began operations in suburban Mumbai a few months ago, is a case in point. The school is registered under the Act as a private entity. Its promoters include A Mahendran, managing director, Godrej Sara Lee, and Santosh Desai, CEO, Future Brands.

This measure, industry observers reason, could provide more power to non-government organisations (NGOs) to enter into mainstream education rather than merely being supplementary-aiding centres. NGOs have been viewed as ‘aids’ to the formal education sector. Very few of them have received recognition as schools or colleges.

Educational institutions in India, which are set up by trusts or societies come under the purview of the Charity Commissioner, who is appointed by a state government. Section 25 of the Act, on the other hand, comes under the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), thus reinforcing the control of the Centre and not the state over the manner in which the institutions are run and financed.

However, in both the structures — non-profit or society and trust — profits cannot be taken out of the institution and have to be reinvested. Institutions registered under the Act have to use their profits, if any, in promoting the institutions. The Act also prohibits the payment of any dividend to its members. The association may enjoy all the privileges of charitable trusts, but are scrutinised by the Income-Tax Department and not Charity Commissioner, unlike limited companies.

MHRD says it is still studying the way out for students if an institution set up under the Act winds up and its assets are to be transferred to another similar institution. “As of today, if an institution set up by a society winds up, its operation and properties are transferred to another institution. But in this case, we are still studying what route a non-profit entity could acquire if it faces a similar issue,” added an HRD official.

Experts add, this arrangement will allow standards for centrally-administered institutes to be cleared by one central authority rather than different standards for different states.

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I think that if we managed to allow schools to be set up by whoever we wished, and made them adhere to the standards of the new education bill (stated in my previous post), then our schooling system would work perfectly, like any normal system should. Right now, I think it’s ridiculous, that only a select group can set up schools.

We need to open our education system, in order to foster rapid progress.

Remember, educated drones are not desirable.

Changes, with a capital “C” for education in India

The new minister for Human Resource, Mr. Kapil Sibal, was appointed on May 22, 2009. He is the driving force behind several radical changes being proposed to the education system all over India.

As I have said in all of my previous posts, we need radical changes to our education system, in order to halt the onwards-march of the drones, we call our educated youth! In reference to our ‘youth,’ we are referring to the small percentage of Indian children who actually receive some sort of formal education, from an academic institution.

Currently, the Human Resources Department Ministry, has tied up with the Law Ministry, and are jointly pushing their bill proposing radical new changes. There are two main new changes that the Law/HRD Ministries are proposing:

1) Mandate schools to admit at least 25% of all admissions, from the local neighborhood. The geocentric zones defining ‘local neighbourhood’ are defined as follows; for primary classes falls within a 1 Km zone, and after grade 5, a 3 Km zone.

“According to the first proposal, schools all over India, aided or un-aided, will have to admit at least 25 percent students from the ‘neighbourhood’, which is defined as per age: within 1 km for primary classes and 3 km after Class V.” – Source: Indian Express; Radical proposals in new education bill.

If this can be successfully accomplished, it will allow local students to study at local schools, and will eliminate the need for students to travel distances of more than 2 kilometers just to get to school. The only limiting factor is the amount of seats available at these schools.

2) Establishing a norm, or standard curriculum for all schools across India. These standards must be met within 5 years, if the school are to survive the “accreditation process” that ensues after the 5 year time-frame. This leads to a standardized curriculum eliminating discrepancies, where students give ICSE, and CBSE exams, and achieve a solid grouping or scores, instead of scores being scattered across the ‘possible points’ graph. This also serves to abolish social divisions, where the middle class, lower class, and upper class, can take any standardized exam they wish (ICSE, CBSE, SSC, and the IB/IGCSE).

“The other big proposal in the bill is establishing a norm or a standard for schools….this bill lays down a standard for schools that the state must meet in five years and will remove traditional or informal schools from the ambit of what would be recognised as schools.” – Source: Indian Express; Radical proposals in new education bill.

This bill, if enacted, will dictate radical changes on education in India, by giving every child the right to an education, by abolishing all the standards needed for admission into state schools. This will also abolish demographic censoring, and give all the youth a fair shot at gaining admissions to the schools they want, and deserve.

Currently, students have to take exams in order to be shortlisted for administration. The final hurdle that seal the deal for any short-listed potential future student, is the ability to produce a birth certificate. If an individual can pass the “aptitude/admissions” test, and can produce a birth certificate, the student is admitted to the institution. This is a problem, because rural kids haven’t ever received formal educations, and while they might be able to pass the admissions test, they are unable to produce a birth certificate, as they were not born in state hospitals. The were most likely born in their own house.

I considered these bills to be the “equal opportunity” bills that the United States debated over 30 years ago.

Teach India cannot work with a stagnant board; it has to work in an environment surrounded by change, if it is to change anything.

I will let you know more, as I discover it.

Education in India – Too Competitive?

One of the issues that are currently plaguing the education system in India, is the competition between students.

Currently, education in India is more about competition and not about cooperation. This fosters an individualistic mindset in the students who pass through the system. This makes the youth think about themselves, thereby making them obedient workhorses, since companies offer them good a significant amount of money. This is detrimental to Indian society as a whole, because there are no ‘leaders’ coming from these schools. This high level of competition is due to the fact that the academic cutoffs are extremely high. As I said in my previous posts, the educational cut-offs are ridiculously high. As I also previously mentioned, this is having an adverse effect on the children, diagnosed by the climbing suicide rates amongst teenagers.

There are far too many students in the India schools, too few competitive colleges, and the assignments are progressively getting more and more difficult.  All these three circumstances are leading to greater and greater levels of competition between students, which is detrimental to a child’s psychology.

These children who have had a sense of competition hammered into them since 1st grade, become global citizens, and even then continue to compete with other colleagues.  This can have negative effects on the employer, because having an employee not working well with other team members can lead to a loss of profits.  Furthermore, these children are so incredibly competitive, that won’t hesitate to watch a colleague fail their educational pursuits. What’s worse is the fact that not only will these children happily watch colleagues fail, they will also do as much as possible to ensure failure for their colleague. This is completely immoral, and is not what the education system is supposed to teach our children.

These children who are lacking in their moral compass then feel that it is already to ‘play dirty’, and not abide by the rules. Their motto for life is literally, ‘The ends justify the means’. This is exactly the point, the end DO NOT justify the means, if the means are immoral. These are the people who pollute and litter Indian streets, and these are the people who bribe our police officers, thereby perpetuating corruption at all levels of the government.

What the education system has instilled since the start is that ‘Winning is beating the opponent’. The point is that the children view each other as opponents, which is detrimental to the group cohesiveness. This is effectively a ‘temporary win’ for the victor, however it is an overall loss, because now there is no team work.

The lack of cooperation leads to almost no synergy in groups, or teams in the work or school environment. This lack of synergy is also something that needs to be improved.

Synergy

(Noun)

the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or     other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their             separate effects : the synergy between artist and record company.

This lack of synergy between children will not help India sustain academic levels to economic boom due to which expat populations may increase, and may later on leads to India making very little progress to actually improving. When I say ‘improving’ I mean abolishing corruption, cleaning up the country, and giving more people more money (thereby making the economy larger).

I feel that the competition in India could be tearing the youth, and potential productivity into tiny shreds. This sense of competition has to change, because I feel it has reached unhealthy levels.

At the end of the day, however, it is extremely easy to point at the problem, but it is impossibly difficult to ameliorate, or even cure the problem all-together.

Synergy is also the heart and soul of Teach India.

My ‘ Eureka’ Moment

This post will be a short one; it’s about my ‘Eureka’ moment, referred to in the previous post. The previous post can be found here.

My fundamental Eureka moment is this; India’s youth need to think outside the box, as it is essential today. They can no longer afford to adhere to the rules set forth in printed texts. This approach simply will not cut it in today’s ever-changing world. If our youth do not adapt and grow with the ever-growing world, they will fall behind, and risk being passed over.

I feel every aspect of our lives is ever-changing; the economy is always changing, business organizations are always changing, Human Resource practices are always changing, and the Indian workforce dynamic is also always changing. Similarly in India all around tech changes in classrooms increases the need to change online education, and keeps students focused on their core curriculum.

The world over, all standards are being normalized. The disparities between different workforce groups, and business organizations are getting smaller and smaller, despite the geographical distances. We see all the workforces for different companies merging into one large conglomeration; there are no longer any divides between different company’s workforces.

The very definition of life is changing, and we need to change our system as well if we are to keep up.

I feel that children should expand their horizons and think outside the box; they need to stray a little from the  power of the written word, and explore the confines of their own mind, as opposed to the confines of their textbooks. If our children can explore their own minds, and are allowed to shine, perhaps another Aryabhata (the inventor of the number ‘Zero’) will emerge from the mass. Currently, our education system suppresses each youth’s talents, and conforms them to the norms of the rest of the mass of children in the education system. The result; the Indian education system spews forth legions of drones, who are all almost completely identical. This has to stop.

We don’t want our children to march forward into the world, and become known as ‘the dead race’. We want to be an ‘advancing race’. We don’t want to become tools for big corporations to use. I feel our Indian youth should be the masters of their own destiny, not the recipients of other nation’s charity.

Our country needs to change, so that the forces of corruption, pollution, and population do not break the fabric and principles of Indian society, which has already happened to an extent.

Teach India teaches a student how to dream when he is young, so he can feel his or her idea, and then execute it.

Dream it, Feel it, Execute it.

The possibility of over-education?

Hello All,

Since my last post, there has been an issue that has been nagging away at me.

The issue that has been tormenting me so greatly, is this; “Is there a possibility that the Indian youth might actually be over-educated?” Let me elaborate. When I refer to over-education, I refer to a situation where the Indian youth are simply ‘book smart’, and hence, they are boom worms.

Are the teachers responsible for children being book worms? I don’t think so. I think the system is responsible. The system has set these high standards for students. And these high standards are not simply damaging to the students self-esteem, they are sometimes fatal! I kid you not.  In 2005, the Times of India periodical reported that suicide rates among teens had shot up drastically. The magazine claimed that these sky-rockecting suicide rates were linked to the high standards, and immense amount of pressure, that the education system had imposed on the students.

I can attest to this. For children in the India education system, when they apply to college, their ICSE (Indian Certificate School Examination) have to be perfect. When I say perfect, I mean perfect. If their scores are not in excess of 95%, the students do not even stand a remote chance of being admitted to a top-tier university. In fact, if your scores are below 90%, most top-level universities would not even review your application, they would simply cut you from the list. Added to this fact, if you did not successfully complete the required board exam for the university, you were not even considered for admissions. This is a big problem because there are so many different board exams in use all over India (ICSE, CBSE, etc..), since there is no ONE standardized test, like the SAT. The truth is that ALL Indian universities only look at your examination scores, before they even short-list you for admissions consideration.

India is an education-focused society. As a result, our offspring are over-educated, which I feel is wrong. Eighteen year olds should not be driven to suicide because of their exam scores. No teenager should have to contemplate suicide, ever.

I feel their is a fatal flaw in our system, and if it is not fixed soon, the teenage suicide rates might climb even higher than they already are. This should not be allowed to happen. The solution to this problem eludes me, but when I have my ‘Eureka’ moment, I shall be sure to enlighten you, my readers!

Teach India can help achieve this result if you teach a student when young to think outside the box. So, theoretically, if he sees someone attempting to bribe someone else he will stop it. At the same time, he can also teach his neighbors this same quality, hence stopping corruption to a certain extent. He will now have the power to say ‘no’ to adapting, and yes to creativity.

Problems in India Today? The need for change.

Has the standard of teachers in India dropped?

Has the intelligence quotient of the average Indian teacher nose-dived into the double-digit region? Is the future generation of Indian youth doomed to a substandard level of education?

My name is Pranav Jain, and I’m a senior at the Marshall School of Business, at the University of Southern California. I have a great personal interest in the current situation of education in India. I was born in Mumbai, India, and have seen first-hand the problems that plague our country. In my eyes, there are three problems that hold our great country back from achieving its true potential:

1. Corruption
2. Population
3. Pollution

Corruption

The corruption in India is rife. Every sector of the government is greatly corrupted. In fact, corruption has been such a long-standing problem in India that it has become a social norm to deal with corrupt officials and politicians, and has become a way of life! Big businesses in India even claim that payoffs and bribes are the cost of doing business. I feel that this is ridiculous – we as a people should not have to deal with corruption. We should be able to move our country forward without the problem of corruption rearing it’s ugly head. This problem is due to the lack of education. The population does not understand that corruption does not benefit anyone – it holds the country back from developing.

Population

As a resident of Mumbai — one of the most densely populated cities on Earth — I have seen the vast expanse of shanty-towns that stretch for miles and miles literally for as far as the eye can see.  The belief among these shack-dwellers is this ‘the more kids I have, the more hands I will have to help me work, and therefore the more money I will make to support myself and my family.’ Unfortunately what these people do not realize is that these children need to be fed, educated, and clothed, and all this costs money.

Money that they do not have.

So the result of this is that families get larger, and larger, and these shanty-towns get bigger, and bigger, and eventually the area becomes over-populated. Consequently, the capacity of the land, and the infrastructure, to support such a large population is greatly surpassed. This problem, again, is due to a lack of education.

A better option for these people is to stay in their villages, instead of boarding a train to a city, with dreams of greatness. They should, instead, attend some sort of school to understand and appreciate the value of planning.

Furthermore, the Government of India gives these slum-dwellers apartments to live in. However, the slum-dwellers with government-allocated housing, are extremely content with living in the slums so they choose to rent out their government-allocated apartment (which the government turns a blind eye to), and continue living in the slums. The government turns a blind eye because police officials are paid bribes to ignore this act. A slum is essentially a breeding ground rife with voters, ready to vote for the political party who feeds them the most. I have seen these rallies with my own eyes. Large lorries enter the slums carrying vast amounts of food, and spirits. The politicians distribute this food to the slum-dwellers, and in return the slum-dwellers rally and vote for their party. These rallies have an adverse effect on the rest of the working class in Mumbai. Trains are delayed. The streets are gridlocked with people rallying for a cause they don’t a believe in. A cause started by one man to serve his own agenda.

So, I believe education will help teach these people not to be ignorant to change, and to open their eyes to the true depraved intent of these politicians.

The slum-dwellers continue life living in the slums, with a handsome amount of extra rent income coming in. The problem is that they are not educated to realize that money isn’t everything. The total disregard for the life of a common man, is a problem in India society. The life of a common man is poor. We need to give people hope that the situation can change. We need to change the system that benefits from keeping these people who do not know better, in poverty.

Pollution

India is a dirty country. Anyone who visits India can see, and millions of tourists who visit annually do see this, that this is not a lie. The trash dumpsters in neighborhoods are overflowing with refuse. And what’s worse is the fact that the local state governments are not doing anything to counteract the spreading filth. But the question is why? The governments get  enough money to improve the situation. The reason is the officials who get paid to carry out these duties pocket the majority of the money, leaving the absolute bare minimum level of funds available to do a half-assed job. In short, the pollution is due to the corruption. And the corruption is due to the lack of education.

Furthermore, the pollution is also caused by the lack of education. Keeping India clean benefits everyone – the average health levels of the population will increase. As a result, health-care costs will go down, which means the government will have more funds available to improve the Indian infrastructure. It’s a win-win situation. But it all depends on the level of education.

So, education is at the root of all of India’s problems. If we do not improve the level and quality of education, India could fall behind the world curve of average education levels, as detailed in this article.

The mentality in India today is to adjust to the current situation. People try and fit themselves in small gaps leading to which, people not really understanding what they actually DO deserve from their government. We should stand up and talk about the problem. Organize around it, and make people who are responsible, pay for their mistakes. A part of the challenge is, to change this ‘kindly adjust’ mentality in our youth. We need to change to make things less acceptable, and demand more.

It is expected that in next 15 years, 150 million people will enter the Indian workforce population, and it is our responsibility to make sure that they are not obedient workhorses, but instead leaders, who will be able to move our country forward.

In July of 2009, the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, visited India. She had a sit-down interview with Arnab (a talkshow host). Aamir Khan, a great advocate for improved education in India, sat alongside her, and was also interviewed by Arnab. Short footage of their interview can be found here. (For the entire interview, please refer to the end of this post.)

According to Khan, “we should give top priority to teaching. It is still not a priority,” Khan claims. The real question is this: WHY is it not a top priority? Khan believes that the reason for this is the fact that teachers are not paid very much. He claims that people do not aspire to be teachers. Instead they aim to become scientists and doctors. In fact he claims that due to the underpaying of teachers, substandard individuals apply to teaching jobs. “By and large in India the people getting into education is because they can’t find a place anywhere else to fit in” – Khan.

Do not misunderstand me. There are excellent teachers as well. However, since these teachers are not paid enough, they give extra tuitions on top of their regular classes (to make more money). These tuitions are where the real teaching takes place. The problem is that most children don’t have the extra money to pay these tuition fees, hence they do not receive the extra instruction they need, and as a result, they fail out of school. So, they aren’t motivated enough because they feel constrained by their lack of financial resources. This perpetuates the cycle of under-education.

Not only is the level of teachers substandard, but education is not widely available to the youth of India. Taking myself as an example, I have come from the same system as these children. Coming to the U.S. allowed me to learn and critically analyze what I was being taught, and to develop my thoughts. This is something our youth today doesn’t have the opportunity to do. Clinton validates this claim in her interview, “Talent is distributed equally, but opportunity is limited.” Additionally, the limited availability of education is not due to the intelligence level of the average Indian child. Again, Clinton puts forward her ideas in the interview – “I believe every child can learn.”

In India there are no provisions for handicapped children. They have special schools. These children are dumped in the special schools, and no attention is paid to them. There are only a few schools in major Indian cities that actually give these kids the care and attention they require to grow into healthy, and confident individuals. I believe that no-one has the right to take someone, and put them somewhere else. Instead, schools in India should develop handicap accessible facilities, and give these kids a fair shot at living a normal life.

Changing the structure of Indian schools is imperative. The education system now only channels very narrowly the creative energy of these students due to which, they lose confidence and this coupled with a lack of parents involvement creates a generational resistance to education.

Mr. Khan seems to insinuate that too much emphasis is placed on the report cards, and not enough on children exploring the boundaries of their own mind. I would agree with him.

TeachIndia is an initiative that Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Khan, and myself all believe in. They are an organization that helps improve the level of teaching, helps more kids to learn, and help children who have absolutely nothing in life – they embody the word ‘poverty’.

Teach India was started in 2008, and allocates newly graduated college students to teach children ages 8-9 for a period of two years. The movement quickly became a big deal, and in the first few days, received over 100,000 applications to the program. The applicants came from all walks of life — scientists, college students, housewives, and they all have one thing in common – their desire to teach the needy. (It will be interesting to see how many volunteers are consistent with their convictions.) These volunteers help the students to establish the foundation they need for higher learning, as well as giving them a fresh outlook on life. At the same time, the volunteers also gain from the sheer benefit of teaching someone, and giving back to another individual. This program will help raise the concern for change.

I believe their cause is noble and just, and that such social entrepreneurship is the way forward for India. TeachIndia was founded in 2008 by Aamir Khan and The Times of India (in partnership).  The idea behind the whole program was to link individuals with NGOs to give the underprivileged, uneducated, and impoverished youth of India a chance to be educated.

P.S. Footage of the entire interview with Arnab, Hillary Clinton, and Aamir Khan, can be found at the following links.

Hiliary Clinton – U.S. Scretary of State, in India talking about the TeachIndia Program.

Education serving to change our world. (All parts of the video shown below).

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5