India May Have Been A Pioneer In Education But It’s Tragedy That It’s Been Losing Groun In This Traditional Field

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By Dr. Sawraj Singh

It is no exaggeration to state that India was the pioneer in the field of education. Many facts will support this assertion. The world’s first university was established in Takshila and a world-known university was also established in Nalanda. Students came from all over the world to attend these universities. Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang) and Faxian were both students who came from China to study in India. No history book on India can be complete without citing them. We can also judge the level of these universities from the level of the teachers who taught in these. Let us take the example of Panini. He has made tremendous contributions in the fields of grammar and phonetics. Panini raised the level of grammar to such an extent that it became part of the Vedas (Vedang). Similarly, his observations in the field of phonetics are still unparalleled even today when we have access to very advanced scientific technology such as CT scan and MRI scans to see how words are spoken.

It is so tragic and pathetic that India is losing in the field of education. None of the Indian universities could make it into the top 200 ranked universities of the world. Now, the Times Higher Education Asia University Ranking 2015 has been published, which contains the rankings of the top 100 Asian universities. India has lost and continues to lose as compared to the previous list. Ironically, China, whose students once used to come to India for studying in the Indian universities, is now much ahead of India. In terms of total number of ranked universities, China just reached the top spot by beating Japan. Chinese universities also made it into the top 100 universities of the world. Among the top 100 Asian universities, China leads with 21; Japan has 19; and South Korea has 13. Nine Indian universities made it into the list. In last year’s rankings, there were ten Indian universities in the list.

Not only India lost in the total number, but all of its ranked universities shifted to lower rankings. The highest ranking Indian university was the Indian Institute of Science (IIS), Bangalore. It was placed at the 37th rank. Last year’s top ranking Indian university, Punjab University, Chandigarh, lost six slots and ranked 38th. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi also lost six slots and moved from 59th to 65th rank. IIT Kharagpur lost 24 slots and moved from 45th to 69th rank. IIT Madras slipped from 76th to 78th rank. Aligarh Muslim University slipped from 80th to 90th rank. Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi slipped from 86th to 96th rank. IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, and Jadavpur University all made it into last year’s list of Top 100 Asian Universities, but could not make it this year. None of the Indian universities could make it into the top 10 Asian universities.

I feel that the biggest cause of India’s decline in the field of education is the domination of western consumerist culture and erosion of our culture and values. Education has almost become completely commercialized. We have lost respect for education, which was an essential part of our traditional culture. Punjab, which is leading India in the fields of adopting western consumerist culture and losing its culture, traditions and values, can be taken as an example of what has gone wrong. There is an unprecedented growth in the number of English-medium schools and technical universities. However, all of these are not started for teaching students, but are mostly factories for producing material for human export. The only purpose for most of them is to enable one to obtain a Visa for the foreign countries. The whole new educational system in Punjab is geared up for migration. IELTS and other such tests are extremely popular in Punjab. You see courses advertised everywhere in Punjab which will help you migrate to Canada, Australia, England, New Zealand, and America. Most of the students who join Dental and Nursing colleges have only one objective: to migrate to a foreign country. While English schools are mushrooming all over Punjab, the extremely poor command and understanding of English language in Punjab is becoming obvious. Recently, English teachers flunked a test given by the Education Minister Daljeet Singh Cheema. On the average, each teacher committed at least 60 errors in a 150 word report that they were directed to write on their students’ performance.

Canada seems to be the most popular and desirable country for Punjabi youth. Let us look at how much Punjab’s education will help them in Canada. Most of the Punjabi youth will join menial jobs such as truck drivers, taxi drivers, cleaning and janitorial jobs, farm labor, working in gas stations (Petrol pumps), and low-paying jobs in fast food chains—where some will be making and delivering pizzas. Most of these jobs are very low paying and they actually pay much less than the minimum wages. To make quick money, the Punjabi youth are lured into one of the highest-paying jobs: drug and human trafficking. These two professions in Canada have been almost completely monopolized by Punjabis. We can see that a vast majority of Punjabi youth will not get a chance to put to practice the education that they received in Punjab. Perhaps, if we impart training in drug dealing and how to help cross borders, this will be more relevant to them.

Domination of western consumerism (particularly among Punjabis) has left the youth with one notion, that the only purpose of life is to make the biggest amount of money in the shortest amount of time possible and then enjoy it. Many private universities are also coming into existence based upon this principle. They also want to make maximum money in minimum time. Surveys of human resource personnel of prominent Indian companies were shocking because it was found that between 47% to 85% of Indian college graduates and post-graduates lack basic skills and are unemployable. For example, for analyst jobs, 84% graduates lacked cognitive ability and 90% lacked the required proficiency in English communication. Even in the state or semi-state universities, western consumerist culture is prevalent. Students want to show off their expensive cars or motorcycles, rather than excel in studies. Another interesting observation in Punjab is that many parents send their daughters to the universities so that they can get an NRI husband for them. Many of these girls do not mind leaving their studies unfinished once they succeed in their goal.

Many private universities are beyond the reach of the lower and lower middle classes. They cannot afford to pay the tuition fees. This phenomenon keeps many deserving and dedicated students from getting a degree from these universities while the undeserving students from the upper and upper middle classes can literally buy their degrees. This situation brings the overall standards of education down. Another interesting finding in Asia is that contrary to the popular belief in India that English language helps to raise standards, a big majority of top universities in Asia (China, Japan, and South Korea) do not have English as a medium of instruction, as opposed to India. Dominance of English language is actually an indication of the loss of culture and values rather than higher educational standards.

The subservience of the Indian educational system to western masters started at the very inception of the modern educational system in India. T.B. Macaulay, head of the committee setup by the East India Company to lay the foundation of the modern educational system in India, said in his own words that the purpose of the Indian education system was to inject feelings of subservience and slavery to the West and inferiority complex toward the indigenous culture. His concept can be observed from an excerpt from his speech on Indian education:

“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 what may be found in the most paltry abridgement used at preparatory schools in England” (Minute on Indian Education of February 1835).

That original concept is very much alive and well even today. In the era of globalization, this concept has become more consolidated and more widespread than even what Macaulay could have imagined.

Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].