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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Indian Kids Vs Kyrgyzstan Kids?


I am sure many of you must have read the recent report about Indian Kids that created quite a furor. If I were to ask, I would place my bet on the mass sentiment that there is something amiss in the report. A large number of Indians are working in the top-notch corporate companies across the globe. In past few years few of our people have been given the topmost responsibilities in Ivy League universities; Indians are always regarded as the brainy and hardworking individuals. Then how come this report places our kids second last amongst 73 nations that took part in the annual Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)?

It is difficult to say about the selection bias as about half a million kids were included from 73 countries for this specific exercise. Indian Government had selected students from Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh and they stood second last in the horde. Many of us might have never heard the mention of Kyrgyzstan before; it’s a small, underdeveloped and mountainous country with a population of about 5.3 million (that is about 1/120 than that of India) that thrives mainly because of agriculture. Being an Indian myself, this report doesn’t really makes its way in my cerebral tank.

Today’s TOI (Times Of India) reports that a sharp decline in reading and mathematical ability has been found to have raised to demonic proportions in Indian kids. I agree without a second thought; but then this is not the problem of one province. Kids across the globe are finding it difficult to actually read from the books, courtesy the computer. In India we, as parents, teachers and responsible citizens, pay a lot of stress to make sure that our kids get enrolled in the best of the schools. The curriculum followed in our schools is no less than that of their counterparts situated at the other side of the sea. Our kids keep on innovating machineries, creating designs and developing frameworks. Indians have always been the favorites for employment in any industry that requires moderate knowledge of English language. Still 72nd rank out of 73 must create fracas in our thought process. I must say I am shaken severely.

What happened to the land of AryaBhatt and Sushruta? Or can there be a possibility of errors in the overall process? Anyone smelling something fishy or I am the only one? My gut instincts are really not able to imbibe the fact that we stood just ahead of a underprivileged country with population less than half of Indian capital. It’s the eventual time for the policymakers, education promoters and parents to start thinking out-of-the-box. How else can one justify the ever escalating costs involved in educating our children?

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