While the capacity of the youth has helped the country to reach new heights, it is constantly being curbed by the prevalent system. For instance, after developing a fair interest in programming a student takes up science stream for his higher secondary education. Now apart for any Indian, the above sentence would seem quite juxtaposed. Why take science stream if you want to study programming? Here lies the unnoticed problem of our education system.

Here we try to make our students jack of all trade but master of none. Even the examination process to get into an undergraduate programme of any college is quite orthodox and far from logical. Why one need to understand various laws of physics to get into computer science or information technology? Why one needs to learn various reactions of chemistry to get into mechanical or any related field? It is quite disheartening that such questions are never raised. Repercussions of this are very alarming. Every year lakhs of students study irrelevant subjects or to be more accurate cram them into their memory, go through depression, lose lakhs of money and valuable time, instil a false sense of competition, ruin their health and fall severely at the end of it. In the process, they also lose respect from parents, society and self. The focus of the system is on all-round development of the students and the curricula span to basics all the spheres of scientific understanding, from maths (or biology) to literature, from physics to chemistry and from computer science to sports. However, the bitter truth is that under the enormous pressure of grades and syllabus this understanding seldom takes place. In the highly competitive world, it is equally important to streamline our subjects to the field of interest however it takes years to commence. As if that wasn’t enough, even in the first year we are taught basics of all related fields of engineering or medicine which isn’t only useless but detrimental. It is, for this reason, cumulative of three years of time and resources are wasted into improper education.

This indicates the strong need of change in our system to be prevalent and modern. The seed of proper professional education should start immediately after completion of secondary education with proper counselling and entry to the undergraduate programmes should be based on the merit of that particular field of interest. Not only this the standard of education is also raised from time and again.

“Our university system is, in many parts, in a state of disrepair…In almost half the districts in the country, higher education enrolments are abysmally low, almost two-third of our universities and 90 % of our colleges are rated as below average on quality parameters… I am concerned that in many states university appointments, including that of vice-chancellors, have been politicised and have become subject to caste and communal considerations, there are complaints of favouritism and corruption.”

— Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007

What other countries have tried and adopted is meaningful learning or learning through reasoning. Instead of written exams in every possible sphere (even in sports!), practical knowledge through projects and activities should be promoted. This inculcates the sense of creation and innovation in their growing stages and forms the foundation of an innovative and developing mind. This will also reduce a lot of pressure building on early ages of education and help them to give more time to the sports and artistic activity instead of being captivated in tuition for hours. This will be in the true sense the holistic development of students in their field of interest.