Friday 30 January 2009

IIT and school education

Sometimes, I think having educated middleclass parents is a curse. I find children in village schools far better tahn those in the urban schools. These schoools(I speak of Hyderabad since I live there) have names like " XXX concept school", "YYY academy" etc
The schools are located on main roads in commercial localities. They are housed in blocks of apartments with small rooms. Of course there is no play ground!
They do not have any games, no music, no art, no playtime, no books to read... in fact nothing that give an education. Not even chatting or fighting with classmates.
These schools charge exorbitant fees and teach the children to "do maths". The children are kept inside these "chambers" from 8 am to 6 or 7pm. doing nothing but memorise definitions and memorise problems. Of course they score 99% in their 10th board exams.
Parents are mighty pleased. They are coached for that holy exam IIT JEE or for the almost equally holy EAMCET exam from class VIII or even class VII till class X and tehn handed over to a similar institution for their inter I and II years(class XI & XII). They work more tahn 14 hours a day 7 days a week. Parents are impressed and are sure their child will egt in to IIT.
Most do not get into IIT and many not even to any decent state engineering or medical colleges. They are therefore told they are useless fit for nothing .
They come to colleges like mine to study for a BSc and THAT explains my previous post.

Thursday 29 January 2009

higher education in India

Sometimes, when I see the students taht come to my classes, I wonder whether we were all like that in our college days.
Most of my students have less enthusiasm for learning than a 80 year old person. They all have a dull apathetic attitude to college--- not just my class(may be I am a boring lecturer) but to everything around tehm. Some of them dont even have enthusiasm to go and watch a movie.
It is scary to see 19 year ols like that.
The fault lies with their parents.

Saturday 10 January 2009

Can you believe ...teh US ambassador says India must not make accusations against Pak state without proof!!!!! Can you believe the cheek!!!!!!
Do they think noone in India has heard of Iraq?

Ceiling fan

 I read somewhere that as a solution for student suicides, IISc has decided to remove fans from hostel rooms. No fan, no suicide. This shoul...