Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child!

Ever wondered what direction India’s education system is heading towards?

It would be good if all Indian parents hear Raghu Raman’s TEDx talk at IIT BHU published on 26^th June 2015 in YouTube. The talk is titled “Order in Chaos”! In one part Raghu categorically states “sweat in peace, sweat in peace, so that you don’t have to bleed in war”. Raghu talks eloquently about our young armed forces – a crop of courageous, brave, intelligent, self-less, die-hard, never compromising men. Compare this to the modern day graduates and under graduates (XII – Standard POF; pass or fail)…do they ever struggle in their 12, 15 or 16 years of their academic career these days?

As parents, we need to take a good percentage of blame for the evolution in upbringing that has slowly creeped in. With the new norm of nuclear families, DIOK – double income one kid we have become over protective to the point of stifling our children’s growth. We want them to have the best of every comfort so that they can live our dreams. Do we ever take a moment and reflect on the child’s likes and strengths and then propel them in a direction of their choice? Hardly! This doesn't in any way mean that all parents are uniformly alike, there are exceptions…and we only wish there were more such kind of parents around as a guide or a mentor. Then there families with no regular sources of income. Not knowing when or where the next family meal would come from, educating their young is never a priority.

In the same breadth, students too must stop blaming their parents for not having done enough. J K Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series in her graduation day speech at Harvard Business School has said this so nicely: “There has to be an expiry date to the blame you pile on your parents.” Wake up boys and girls, stop complaining about the decision your parents took on your behalf and instead, train yourselves hard to face the tough competitive world we live in today. There is no short cut to success!

A quick look at the metamorphosis in educating our young in the last 50 years. Back in my days in 60’s, 70’s and very early 80’s, each academic year used to be broken into three terms and it was made clear at the beginning what portions in each subject would be covered in each term. There was no question in not knowing what was in store during that one academic year. At the end of each week of class studies and associated home studies including homework, we used to have something called as unit test and this used to happen with clockwork regularity, every Friday. Performance in this unit tests would carry a weight-age in each of the three terms scorecard. It just meant that in order for a child to be promoted to the next higher standard, the scoring in the weekly unit tests and the three terms mattered. This was also a very good guide for the teachers to understand which child or student was falling back and what kind of support they required from the teachers. The parent-teachers meet would also be focussed on the score card – it served as a good measuring yardstick to check on the performance and rope in the parents when necessary. Besides the weekly unit tests, there would be surprise tests also – I suspect, teachers used this to get some free time to catch up on their own mounting paper work, not forgetting the time they had to spend on correcting test papers and homework. While they had their hands full, they never hesitated to give a free, frank and honest feedback to the parents regarding an erring child or a student lagging behind the average in the classroom. Some teachers were a terror; there was no hesitation to punish the wrong doers, but to be fair to them, we seldom saw a bias. In general, principals had no patience for complaints coming his or her way from any of their teachers. It would mean a solid rap on the knuckles of both hands or a kneel-down punishment just outside the classroom so that all other students of the school would get to see…you either felt publicly humiliated and became a rebel or learnt to rein in your ego and make corrections to never repeat your mistake.

Fast forward this to the modern day…it is a common sight to see parents lead their children to the front entrance of the schools. Had the principal been a bit lenient, these parents would lead their wards to their classrooms as well, and may be stay back for additional time until the school bell rang. A teachers role as an educator is indeed stressful these days as one cannot scold a child, let alone spank! The teachers cannot take the children to task if they do not complete their homework or project work. The unit tests, term and final exams at the end of each academic year are realms of the past. The grading system that has replaced the score card just does not say anything about the what the child / student has learned or what he / she has not learnt! To make it more liberal, we have done away with making students repeat the academic year for poor performance. With all the so called private schools and colleges charging exorbitant fees, the management I guess feels obligated to the parents donations and the first signs of complaint about a tough no-nonsense teacher, the principal gets rid of these educationists. It is a vicious circle, as all teachers are scared stiff about what they can or can’t do. An easy way out is to tolerate under-performance and just learn to look the other way, while it is time to promote them.

By the way, did I mention that in India, teachers in private schools and the government law enforcers are the most poorly paid? It would be incorrect to make a sweeping generalization, because there are still good and honest teachers around who take their work very seriously and perhaps we can apply the Pareto’s principle to state with some degree of confidence that 20% of our teachers make a positive mark in their student’s lives and we owe the country’s progress to these 20% of the teacher’s population.

The question is, if all are in agreement with the deteriorated education standards and have kind off accepted it as a way of life, then who is complaining? No marks for guessing this correctly!! It is the employment industry; and I am not specifying any one type…it includes just about all! Having spent the last 15 years in the ITES industry in various capacities, I can say this for sure that the quality of graduates who walk in to these organizations is a far cry from what these companies would like to hire, especially now. Could the situation have been different? I would say one hundred percent! It now makes sense to state what Raghu Raman has said in his TEDx talk: “Sweat in peace, sweat in peace, so that you don’t have to bleed in war!” His TEDx talk can be viewed from the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ-IBRGfJyY

Can we go back to our educational institutions and provide them with the right platform and freedom to educate our GenY so that they learn that nothing in life is a cake-walk. Studying and training hard, so hard that employment opportunities would be for their taking and not the other way around. Consider this, for every 100 graduates who walk in for an employment opportunity roughly 5 to 7% succeed and they succeed not because they are way above the rest, but because somewhere someone in these organizations took a decision that these are trainable folks. Companies spend a good 2 to 6 months training these new hires to help them reach a level from where they perhaps can be on their own, albeit with small ongoing support and encouragement. While the organizations can take comfort from the fact they are indirectly helping GenY  and brand this as a CSR activity, our successive governments must become aware that the “Chalega” or “Casual” approach to everything, starting from educational institutions is a retrograde step. A close analogy could be found in our airports in India. From the time a person enters the main terminal of any airport in India, he or she is subjected to 4 or 5 levels of security checks before finally being cleared to board the aeroplane. It is because the first security check at the entry takes it cool thinking that there are four ahead of me and If I miss anything, heavens are not going to fall down – let the others also take their job seriously! This is a sure shot way to mediocrity and pretty much, our education system has also followed on these footsteps. Is it a surprise then that none of India's 700 universities and 35,539 colleges has made it to the top 100 list?

The final question: By being over protective have we made the GenY too soft and sensitive to travel the turbulent roads in work life? I would once again say a one hundred percent! From the day of joining, the question on top of their mind is, “What’s in it for me?” The work environment has to be to their liking, as they come in with big expectations. Not finding those immediately leads to disappointment. God forbid, if one of the monthly feedback discussions goes a bit hard because of under-performance! It wouldn't surprise many in the organization, if this person did not return to work the following morning. Grow up boys and girls – a positive attitude, a willingness to learn new skills and a thirst for knowledge are the fundamentals that will help you flourish in your chosen field.

While we are pushing for “Make in India”, if we do not “Make it right, in India” the hopes of our politicians can at best remain a pipe dream to push growth to double digit figures. Brahmagupta or Aryabhata may have introduced “Zero” in mathematics or the concept of nothingness, on a different context, there is a danger in us being branded as a country of Zeros and not Hero’s!!