12.20.2011

What do these numbers mean?

Just read this report on how India fares better than the last in a 76 country study coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This when the only states participating from India were the top 2 states! Man, what a close shave with the last spot.

Though I am not a big fan of the school education system in India, I have some reservations about the basis of this study and also about what interpretation can we draw from the results. Without sounding boastful, I can say for sure that what has helped India make its mark in the world is large number of really smart people who were or were not schooled properly.

In a country like India which is in a peculiar state both in terms of where its society is in terms of Human Development Index and also in terms of its position in the world. So we have an education system which focuses on rote learning; but it is the products of this rote learning who are occupying a large chunk of the Silicon Valley and Wall Street - giving a whole new meaning to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

As many voices in the said report have said, there is more to it than India just being in the last place!

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