Come, study in India!

NO! This is not the post that I’ve been talking about since a while. This was my speech for Public Speaking (Final Practical Exam) at college. I’m publishing it here so I pretend that I actually updated my blog and feel a hollow sense of validation about it.

(The new REAL post, that you probably came here for, is just another couple of days away.)

Good morning sir, my fellow students, the batch representative, the very enthusiastic first-benchers, the even more enthusiastic last benchers and those occupying the space in between (or rather, the sms-experts). Seriously, very good morning. Not because I feel exceptionally good about anything today, but because that’s what I was taught in school. Up till standard 3. In the consequent years, I would see the teacher entering, staring at the class, until everyone greeted her monotonously. Which is almost as irritating as “Agla station, Vasai Road”. I haven’t been able to decipher, till date, how that could make someone feel good about the day! So I believe these special ‘good-morning’ references have to be made, when you’re giving out a speech. Just like in math, how x has to have his girlfriend y with him in every possible problem. However pointless it might seem.

Anyway, I’m here to talk about our education system. That system which believes cursive writing practice is more important than explaining how it is genuine feelings that really matter and not a sluggish “good morning”. That same system which emphasizes more on deriving how e equals the square of mc rather than bothering to identify and encourage an individual’s expertise in a field. And that very system which forces us to believe that there’s no difference between MTV Roadies auditions and placement interviews. Minus the abuses, of course.

And seriously, what an unbeatably accurate process of judging a student’s brilliance! Somebody slogs day-in-day-out for 6 months, mugs up textbooks of sizes that would give the Guinness Book of World Records an inferiority complex, goes to an examination centre, tries to fit all that he has memorized on sheets of paper and steps out of the hall with his nose upright. He does that for 18 years of his schooling life and takes home a high calibre degree and a heavy paycheck. What he knows about the world or real life, is better left unsaid. Ask him his views on God and he would reply, “God is real; unless declared as an integer.”

Why not create robots then? They would be lesser expensive than how much you must’ve spent on educational institutes till now, if you realize. Or at least you would be less knocked out on hearing something like, “Dude, check out the Gaussian Curves on that babe!” from him.

The point I’m raising here is how our education system has shifted from imparting REAL education to merely generating good looking mark sheets. It is not one man’s fault, though. Definitely NOT. Everyone, including us students, is responsible for such an eroded education system. We have been getting carried off blind-foldedly by the system handlers and trying hard to stay in the race stupidly. Can we not become stubborn and demand for an ideal education-pattern from the system, just like we do to bring that Playstation home?  A little solider, though. Why have been there absolutely no strikes on this alarming issue, EVER? It would just be like mass-bunking, on a grander scale. And for the good.

But no! We’re okay with the assignments and late night coffees, aren’t we? We’re really okay about how an aspiring software developer is judged on his knowledge of the carbon-carbon double bonds and the work-energy principle, are we not? Understand, and realize that it is ONLY us students who can bring about a revolution, if there would be any. Or else, be prepared to get caught in the wrong job.

Until there’s a change brought about, I won’t ever let my schooling interfere with my education. What you prefer is your pick. Thank you. Have a studious day.

Certain quotes and punchlines are courtesy Mark Twain, Ashish Shakya and an unknown person. And Chetan Bhagat also. Well, not really. But I don’t want my twitter timeline to be spammed. So, thought I should give him some credit too.