Many Indians are proud of the IT Revolution because of various services companies in India that employ few lakh people which makes us look like we are the “Intellectual Hub of the World”. But the sad part is, many of those people working in such IT companies are having very limited knowledge about the current technology & trends in IT field.

The reason is here:

1) IT Services company doesn’t have to be creative and need to just do the work the customer provides. About 90% of the projects are regular work for most of the employees.
2) Employees spend more time in office doing their regular work and hence their urge to learn new things is almost nil. Because of this, learning stops after few years they begin their career in IT field.
3) Even if formal training is provided by the company to the employees at regular intervals, they are of not of much use as the ‘training is forced’ and not a natural process.
4) Major IT companies block many good websites as they think that they will reduce productivity of the employees & waste Internet bandwidth. Such rules will deter the “natural learning process” of employees.
5) Many IT companies encourages their employees to become managers rather than technical specialist as the career path in that organization is for the people who manage more people rather than technology.

There are exceptions in everything. But exceptions are still exceptions. Similarly, some of you may be exceptions in IT Services company doing a good job, learning a new thing every day, being creative, inventing new things, taking risk, etc. But still, you are all exceptions. Most of them are like “Frog in a well”.

In this article below, Prof. R Ananthan, Founder of The Physics Society, reveals the reason for him to start the society by honestly analyzing the present Education System.

The need to start “The Physics Society”

A question that arises quite naturally is the need for this kind of a Society. Aren’t there many colleges of repute in the city? Aren’t there many centers of research in the city? What new has the Society got to offer?

These questions surely require an honest response. But one must understand that an honest response may sometimes, more often than not, be a bitter pill to swallow. And this is one of the more often kind.

The Physics Society does not believe in mincing of words while expressing its views. A few of the observations and thoughts on the present-day education system in our country are presented below:

1. It is a known fact that our Educational System is purely examination-oriented. There is nothing wrong in getting trained for an examination, but unfortunately, it turns out that our examination system has been established in such a way that students find it extremely easy to pass creditably, even without understanding concepts! This statement is bound to bring about different, mostly opposing, opinions. But the Society remains convinced, after much thought and after- thought that such an examination does not foster creativity in our students.

2. In a highly memory-based examination system, learning, unfortunately, is not given the required priority. The primary focus is on obtaining the maximum securable marks, degrees and medals. Moreover, education has become a means of livelihood. As a result, students read because they ‘have to’ and not because they ‘want to’. The joy of learning is naturally lost!

3. Such an unsound examination system has serious repercussions for the society, for it is this very same system that delivers our teachers. It is a known fact that quality teachers are rare finds, these days.

4. Another important aspect is that it is only ‘coaching’ that is expected out of those few good teachers and not ‘teaching’. All that is required from a teacher is a way to train the students ‘successfully’ pass examinations with ‘flying colors’.

For those who continue to insist that all is well with this system, a few questions await their answers.

Every year, we produce lakhs of graduates and post-graduates and, at least a few thousand doctorates. Then why, in 58 years of independent India, have we not produced a Nobel Laureate? Almost every year we see an American or a German or a Japanese wins the Nobel Prize, but not a single Indian has made it so far. Well, we are a nation more bothered about winning an Oscar for a film rather than the Nobel. Not that it is wrong to bother about winning the Oscar, but is it not more important to be bothered about winning the Nobel Prize? One is reminded of a senior Cabinet Minister consoling a filmmaker for having lost out on the Oscar. What about our scientists? Well, scientists don’t get votes!

Why is there a mad rush for professional courses, while there are very few takers for pure sciences and humanities? Why does there exist such hype over Engineering and Medical admissions, while not many seem to bother about arts and sciences. In fact, a few colleges have even stopped offering courses in the pure sciences. Is it that arts and sciences are, in any way, inferior?

Why do talented youngsters not take up the teaching profession, if it is as ‘noble’ as it is claimed to be? One obvious reason is the discouraging pay scale that is dwarfed by those offered by software giants.

This article is from the website: http://www.physicssociety.com/?page_id=2