The 3 Myths of the Indian Education System | Vinay Menon | TEDxThiruvananthapuram

how many of you walk day morning and decided that you're going to learn something new today raise your right hand please raise your right hand if you decided to learn something new now so your other right hand this this other that's that's quite a few okay that's a lot I'm guessing the rest of you came here for the coffee it's it's good coffee so it's I don't blame you so but there are my manners let me introduce myself my name is Vinay Menon I am stand-up comedian and I teach English to engineering students so most of you might complain about having a poorly paying job I have to I used to be a software engineer but then I recovered but that's just the natural progression right that's like an evolution of an Indian right now like you have that chart of the evolutionary stages of an Indian it will be like Australopithecus Homo erectus software engineer Homo sapiens this so but yeah the question which I asked you is what I usually ask my students as well when I go to a class on an average I have a class length of around 60 when I ask this question how many of you woke up today to learn something new the maximum I've gotten so far is five five students who raised their hands and in all naive optimism said I am here to learn something new now we are doing something really wrong aren't we if people who are coming to an institution of learning treat learning as a sort of foreign concept which got me to ask this one question what is the point of the education system in India it's something which I have been asking all throughout and now that I am part of this I ask this once again now you could be pragmatic and you could give the most boring response and say that it's to get a job and getting educated so I can get a job oh that's great what happens if you get a job or if I get a job I'll have financial security I'll get a good spouse I'll have genetically perfect children I'll put them into the education system and the process continues so in short the education system is to propagate our species not very attractive when I say it like that is it so but then this is another word which I keep hearing when people speak of education holistic I keep seeing that in brochures for schools and colleges education should be holistic well at least those schools and colleges which have a thesaurus use this way but then what else is education good for and I got an answer a lot of people say this it is to create the best minds in their respective fields so and I think that's not far from the truth I had an opportunity to speak to dr. John C James he is the former vice chancellor of mahatma ghandi honesty she said and I quote the best in India will always be the best in the world when it comes to education now that's something we can be really proud about this means students teachers educators facilitators you name it but then think about it the best in India the people who achieve things you have Nobel laureates you have athletes even in education they are the best despite the education system and not because of it so that's why I come back to the original question thank you that's I come back to the original question what is the point of the education system in India so I don't know the answer to this question it's it has bugged me for a while but then I can give you many of you might have asked the same question as well so I can give you a fresh perspective which is why I named this talk three myths of the Indian education system why three because it felt like an auspicious number but these three myths are supposed to are there so that I can change your perspective on a few things and maybe together we can all figure out what is the point of the education system in India so to understand the Indian education system we must go way back to its origins way back to the early 1800s back in England when the Industrial Revolution was in full swing and the East India Company had just started their business in India now they were having the same problem a lot of married couples do communication so at that point they did not know how to communicate with the Indians like because our culture is so vast and there are so many languages and so many customs so they turned to this one man thomas babington macaulay now my Kalle they told him to go to India figure out what's going on there and to create an education system so we can teach the Indians now he was not too happy to come to India because back then they did not have Airlines or attractive stewardesses in fact I believe this photo was taken as Macaulay was being told he had to go to India this does not look happy does he yes also my collar did come to India and he wrote after that he went and he circulated a memorandum which was called the minute to Indian education and in it he wrote and I quote it is I believe no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanskrit language is less valuable than the most paltry abridgements found in you preparatory schools in England slight superiority complex in case you didn't notice it's very subtle it's you have to look out for it so but then there was a lot of debate about this few people opposed this view but then in the end my colleague got his way and we had the English Education Act of 1835 this was implemented primarily so that we can bridge the gap between the British and the Indians education was meant to be in English while primary education and it was supposed to facilitate one of McCawley what he said was education should be utilitarian you can be all altruistic and say I am learning for the sake of learning but that's not what my colleague wanted he wanted education to have a purpose and he said it should be utilitarian and back then the East India Company needed clocks they needed people to sit at a desk do as they're told without getting too creative sounds familiar does it not so this brings us to the first myth I'd like to disprove the Almighty syllabus so I have a confession to make I am NOT good with mathematics I am NOT it's I had a lot of friends who are unfortunately good with mathematics but then in mathematics every class I sat through we had teachers who came and told us you're going to need this in your real life ladies and gentlemen let me introduce to you calculus I had no idea which aspect of my real life required integration and differentiation so but that's the thing I studied integration differentiation in school in college and I did not know the practical use of it until one month ago when I was researching for this one talk so as I was due I went to the place the holy place of all answers Google and I was trying to figure out the practical use of differentiation all I had to do was type in what is the practical and the first autofill was what is the practical use of differentiation this they introduced me to two frightening reality is one Google is getting exceedingly well at reading my mind and two this is a question a lot of people ask why am i studying differentiation why am i studying integration what is the point of this so but that's the thing with our syllabus unless a teacher tells you you are not going to find out what it's used for ask any student whether they fully understand why they are studying what they are studying they really don't know in most of them at least unless like I said or and this is a day and age when you can access anything on the Internet as clearly shown but then yes I am NOT don't get me wrong I do believe that memorizing a few things is important because that's what our education system is about right memorizing it's not about understanding it's about how good you remember things well then that has its disadvantages well just memorizing and not fully understanding so for this I have to tell you about a bit about my college so I teach in an engineering college and engineering is a four-year undergraduate degree so there's a rule in our College which goes that if you have caught using your cell phone if a student is caught using the cell phone within the college building it will be confiscated from them and kept in the principal's office and it will only be handed out to them when they graduate pretty harsh I know it's but not that it frequently happens but it's the rule so I went to Wikipedia and got this list of Android updates and read the popular mobile phone OS so let me give a hypothetical scenario let's assume in 2009 a student started his or her engineering degree and for in 2009 the Android version 1.6 was released as highlighted so unfortunately this person got their mobile phone news caught in class because to all students out there V teachers know you're using overwhelm the moment you turn our backs to the class it's something we know so it will be kept in the principal's office until 2013 an android kitkat is out version 4.4 now if you are teaching your students based on a syllabus which is all about retention of information without fully appreciating understanding and absorbing it they're going to be as outdated as that mobile phone sitting in the principal's office yeah so and also having a syllabus based kind of thing revolving around that has its issues as well what is being taught which brings us to our second myth art is not important so again let me set up a hypothetical scenario let's go back thousands of years back to the era of Stone Age of cavemen and two mothers are meeting to Stone Age mothers are meeting and they're talking about the subject which most mothers are interested in their children so one mother asked the other so what does your son do oh my son he's a hunter and he usually hunts deer but this month he got a promotion next month on was he's going to start hunting elephant and I'm such a proud mother so what does your mom son do oh my son he is completely useless he says he wants to be an artist does nothing but sit in the cave and draw on the walls all day I mean it's not like this is going to become a defining moment in human civilization the complete waste of time so whether we like to appreciate it or not art is an integral part of what makes us human but remember what I told you what my colleague said education should be utilitarian and the use with the east near company had of the Indians back then was similar to the use which they had back in England the Industrial Revolution was in full swing they needed people in factories which is why the syllabus and the education system got focused on what is known as the STEM subjects that science technology engineering and mathematics everything else got pushed to the side I mean they didn't require a poet running around in factories so because of this we have a clear hierarchy when it comes to education it starts with stem followed closely in second by humanities those are your languages history geography economics etc and way in the bottom you have art now art is a field which we don't teach our kids because you don't fully understand it we don't fully understand creativity now I'd like to consider myself an artist lot of real artists out there are cringing right now but I like to consider myself an artist and from my experience I can tell you what creativity is it's not about what most people think it is it's not about chaos and instability and drugs well I asked about the drugs apparently it's illegal so it's about making a mistake and then learning from it and making another mistake and then learning from that and so on and so forth until maybe if you get it right without any formal education in arts the kids won't have anywhere to go in fact I have a student I have a student who in order to impress a girl in his class learned a song in the shortest duration of time that is how creative kids can get depending on rewards of course so but that's the thing it's like I said creativity is not an important part in our education system so kids don't know whether they are creative they don't know what creativity is they don't know what they can be creative in and of course they are not allowed to make mistakes in our education system brings us to myth number three discipline requires punishment so now let me tell you about this man Wendell Johnson now Wendell Johnson Wendell Johnson was a psychologist and he conducted in back in 1939 in u.s. he conducted a study which was later called the monster study what he did was he took 22 orphans and he divided them into two groups of 11 each one group he gave them positive reinforcement in speech therapy he gave them compliments he praised them and rewarded them for having made effort the other group the other 11 he gave them negative reinforcement he belittled them he made fun of them the group which got negative reinforcement not only did not improve on their speech impediments they started developing new speech impediments some which lasted their entire lives hence the term wants to study so this is the thing this is how our education system treats our kids they are not allowed to make a mistake and therefore they are afraid too when I walked in here and I asked you a question whether you are how many of you are ready to learn most of you started squirming in your seats and looking next to the side as in like this was not part of the brochure what's he talking about because you are afraid to make a mistake same with my kids they are afraid to make mistakes because I have to go back to the philosophy of Socrates Socrates was a man who said that we should always question everything inwardly and outwardly and for his trouble he was imprisoned and executed because authority doesn't like too many questions refer East India Company so Socrates were someone who said that we should always question everything and I agree I do not believe that there is such a thing known as a silly question there are silly intentions yes but there is no such thing as a silly question which brings me back to my original question what is the point of the education system in India again like I said I don't know the answer maybe I could have helped you come closer to the answer but now I told you what it doesn't do it doesn't help our children in order to change the education system there's going to be a lot of effort from all of us someone else is not going to do it we eat it's up to us I know what you are going to say it's a lot of effort it's a lot of you know things which you have to put from our side but isn't that what we expect from our kids isn't that what we extra mile kids in an education system which is actively holding them at bay because I don't know about you I would like to live in a future a future that I walk into a class and I ask them so how many of you woke up today morning I decided to learn something new and instead of five hands going up I'd like to have at least six hands going up thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 2,898,558

Rating: 4.9154854 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, India, Education, Comedy, Early education, Education reform, Higher education, Personal education

Id: 9Q7Zl3OI4us

Length: 17min 8sec (1028 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 06 2017

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Education is Western concept