Degree or Knowledge?
Asking questions:
To be honest, this question has been haunting me for last 10–15 years of my life. Why do I need to study what I do not want to study? As a kid, I was always interested in Physics and History. May be, that might have been the center point of building up the personality I possess today. I used to ask questions. Honestly, till this very day, I never ever understand a word of it, when someone tries to explain me something complex. I tend to drift off, but, if the lecturer, orator or the person who is explaining the concept, has, by any chance, managed to trigger my curiosity, I would go back, deep dive on my own and come back with some answers and some questions.
As the great Stephen Hawking famously said,
“One must ask Big Questions.”
But, with our current educational system in India, do we really get pushed to ask questions? Do students get the freedom to choose what they want to study? To be specific, I am not discussing the part where we choose the subject of our graduation. I am discussing the time where we evolve as a student, as a person, the age of School, when we are absorbing the world around us.
It makes me sad when I see parents or society forcing the career upon children rather than knowledge. The usual tendency is to choose a subject, which has scope in future, not the subject which one wants to pursue. Actually, do the students ever have that breathing period in our educational system, where they can actually take a step back and just love the world around them, try to visualize it from their perspective and decide what is the most beautiful part of it, what makes them curious and find the courage to pursue their curiosity.
J.R.R Tolkien says:
“Courage is found in most unlikely places.”
But, do we give our children the chance to wander the unlikely places? Certainly No.
Well, these are the questions I have been asking. Now, let’s try to discuss the solution by finding where the problem lies.
Finding problem:
The whole ecosystem of our modern educational system has been laid down in the British era, where they used to train slaves only per the requirement of being good enough to do the job of a clerk or to summarize someone who can be just good enough to take order and do the job rather question it. And the sad part is, even after independence, our politicians never dared to change this system.
Once considered the hub of education, Bharat (India, although, I prefer the word ‘Bharat’), it just lost its mojo of producing top scholars during Mughal Era and British Era. Post 1947, there have been some developments, yet, there is a long way to go. Our society is still colonized in most of the ways. Parents focus on speaking in English to their children rather than emphasizing on knowledge.
One of the major side effects of this colonization can be evidently seen in North India as compared to South India, where ‘English’ is forced upon students. School and educational bodies have slowly turned into mechanical bodies where students are subjected to lots of homework and exposed to peer pressure of proving good enough to get applause of society. And to make the matter worst, evolution of Social Media has been most disturbing. In the world of 4Gs and 5Gs, children never get the precious time to appreciate or wonder about the world around them. The imagination of a fantasy world where ‘Nature’ is the center is fading away.
To live life to the fullest, one must learn to sit back and love Nature and its wonders.
So, how to change this scenario after having realized what could be one of the major causes of the above-mentioned problem?
Discussing Solution:
“Degree should take a back-stage, Knowledge should prevail.”
It might sound a bit confusing right now, but I will be doing my best to deep dive in to this proposed solution.
Let’s take this imaginary scenario into account:
“Suppose, you are running a company which develops Software. To begin with, you will go ahead and recruit Software Developers. Basic criteria to qualify is to know how to write a program in C or C++. Since, you are a high paying organization, you will set up a recruitment process where you will invite candidature across industry pool. Given, the cut throat competition, you will set up a filtering criterion. Only 1st tier or 2nd tier college graduates can apply for the job. And, you may end up getting a candidate who is qualified for the job. Congratulations!”
Now, let’s roll back to the point where we were setting up filtering criterion for this high paying job.
Q. What is the job?
A. To implement business logic as programs.
Q. Can a non-graduate, who has not attended college but is pretty good enough with C or C++, do the job?
A. Mmm…, Certainly Yes!
Then, why do you need top tier graduates?
Summary:
In current times, where internet is highly accessible, anyone who is willing to learn and master C or C++ programming, can log into online courses like Udemy, Course-Era, etc. and teach themselves. And the big part is, one does not need to attend a four-year college program with lakhs of rupees as educational fee to do this. Courses are available starting from INR 700 or so onward.
I strongly believe, onus is up to the job creators and providers now to change this social hindrance to evolve beyond degrees and embrace the knowledge. Value the Knowledge. Accept the knowledge.
Not everyone gets opportunity to attend a top tier college. Life is unpredictable. There are ups and downs, but it certainly does not mean it is the end of the road. Even after not qualifying or even not having enough resources to graduate from a top tier college, it does not mean, one does not have the potential to excel at a certain job or do good for the society overall.
Let’s pledge to work together to grow as a society where Knowledge is welcomed and may be then, we will be able to discuss “Knowledge or Wisdom?” (someday, in part 2 of this article)
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
― Albert Einstein