Colleges: What they teach and what we need

Kathy Sierra wrote a wonderful analysis about the missing piece in the current college education in US, particularly about maths/science/engineering college education. Without any question, this is also true about education system in India and all over the world. Infact, I believe the Education system is much worse in India, if we compare the attributes on the following picture.

Link: Why does engineering/math/science education in the US suck?. The following image from the original post summarizes her views.

And what do we do to try and improve things? We just do MORE of what's wrong. We redouble our efforts. We drill and test students even harder in facts and rote memorization. We work and test them even harder on using the tools for communication (e.g. code) rather than the tools for thought (e.g. intuition, visualization, etc.)

Our educational institutions--at every level--need drastic changes or we're all screwed. The generation of students we're turning out today need skills nobody really cared about 50, 40, even 20 years ago. Where we used to prepare students for a "job for life", now we must prepare students to be jobless. We must prepare them to think fast, learn faster, and unlearn even faster ("yes, that drug was the appropriate way to treat the XYZ disease, but that was so last week. THIS week we now realize it'll kill you.")

In India, the moment a child is born parents decide to make him a Computer Science graduate and decides that he/she must study in one of the IITs. Or he must become a doctor. So the tuneup starts right from there. Every choice they make in the next years will be based on this goal. Children normally never have a chance to think otherwise. They got to become what their parents are thinking. And the examination system in India by virtue of Entrance exams, students are forced to follow a certain way of learning to beat the exams. Students go on strike if there is a change in the pattern of the examination.  Why does pattern matter, when you learnt the concepts? Did they master the entrance exams or did they master the concepts?

Comments

This is a great post... I share your feelings buddy.. :)

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