Education in India is as bad now as when I left 19 years ago. Thane Richard, a student at Brown University, was appalled by what he saw when he was an exchange student at one of India's premier colleges, St. Stephens College in Delhi. He describes his experience in an article in the Hindu.
"In one economic history class the professor would enter the room, take attendance, open his notebook, and begin reading. He would read his notes word for word while we, his students, copied these notes word for word until the bell sounded. Next class he would find the spot where the bell had interrupted him, like a storyteller reading to children and trying to recall where he had last put down the story. He would even pause slightly at the end of a long sentence to give us enough time to finish writing before he moved on.[...] I would sit in class and think to myself “Can you just photocopy your notebook and give me the notes so I can spend my time doing something less completely useless?” I refused to participate. Instead, I sat at my desk writing letters to friends."
I remember this sort of thing from my school days in India. I couldn't wait to escape to college in the United States. I bet the situation is no different in most developing countries. What a waste of human capital. I can't wait for MOOCs to fix education in these parts of the world. It's only a matter of time.
"In one economic history class the professor would enter the room, take attendance, open his notebook, and begin reading. He would read his notes word for word while we, his students, copied these notes word for word until the bell sounded. Next class he would find the spot where the bell had interrupted him, like a storyteller reading to children and trying to recall where he had last put down the story. He would even pause slightly at the end of a long sentence to give us enough time to finish writing before he moved on.[...] I would sit in class and think to myself “Can you just photocopy your notebook and give me the notes so I can spend my time doing something less completely useless?” I refused to participate. Instead, I sat at my desk writing letters to friends."
I remember this sort of thing from my school days in India. I couldn't wait to escape to college in the United States. I bet the situation is no different in most developing countries. What a waste of human capital. I can't wait for MOOCs to fix education in these parts of the world. It's only a matter of time.
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