Its only recently that I understood the American way of education. My friend Issac wrote GRE and went to the USA for his masters 3 years ago. A one hour voice chat session with him proved to be very informative.
In India we have a free education system. All government education establishments provide free education. Even many private institutions are funded by the government. The students gets to study for free.
But in the US education is not free. An MS course would cost you anything between 20 lakhs to 40 lakhs based on the course and institution. But quite a lot of students gets to study without paying any fees from their pockets.
The education system there is funded in a superb way. Students have lots of work options. They can work for various departments, they can assist their professors, even they can teach some subjects to their juniors. All of these are not difficult jobs. But they are provided as a means for the government to provide the student with a chance to pay for his education on his own. Also most of the universities are research places. Many companies outsource their research to these institutions and all that money goes into helping these students.
The beauty of this concept is that, students there value education more that we do here. We get it for free, and for them they have to earn it. When you earn something its a lot different from getting something for free. Also, paying for ones own education is an empowering act.
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September 28th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
This is the real “self financing” system,isnt it?
September 28th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
From the students point of view, this is the real “self financing system”. and I believe this is very much possible in India, cos we can use all that unused student work force for the country.
September 28th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Who said indian education is free? Where does the donations and fees to the schools go? And if you are talking about the govt. inst….where is the education there! I thought they were taught to strike
September 28th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
India with so many students and undergraduates has immense potential for undergraduate research. Think of all the time we spend learning crap with no real use in the real world.
The ancient system of Indian education had too much stress on rote learning and its a pity we are unwilling to part with old ways. Infact, we curse the system, study, pass the so called “btech” and when the time comes we ourselves would resist the change because we dont want to let go of this metal of being a graduate. To hell with the questions of “what have a really learned”.
This also reminds me of an incident when I was in Std 7. We were taught science by a scientist formerly working for the state govt who was out of job temporarily owing to the political instability at that time. He was teaching about eggs and its structure(yolk albumen etc). I had a doubt and barely had I stood up saying that I disagree with him, he threw a duster at me and screamed “mai kya apni degree fad ke phekh du!” (Should I tear and throw away all my degrees!!)
September 29th, 2008 at 12:11 am
certainly true…
when one starts paying out of his/her pocket for studies, one really understands the value of education. once they understand its value, the number of strikes, bandhs and problems created by student unions will reduce and the attendance in lecture hall may increase hopefully
September 29th, 2008 at 1:32 am
bump^
If i could re-live my miserable education, i’d do it this way.
September 29th, 2008 at 9:23 am
last month, on my way to Bangalore, I spoke to a boy, who was going to Blore, to join Engineering college. He asked me about my job, and opportunities in the field etc.. I told him, if u learn some php, html and css, plus little photoshop, you can get good money from web designing projects online … he went up to his dad and told his dad ..
His dad’s expression was simple he looked at me , and looked at his son .. with his eyes he told me ” dont spoil my son, study = 100% study ” and to his boy, “dont talk to people like him”
and then he started off a discussion with other passengers on how internet ruins students .. *&*(^&%
September 29th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I believe - a lot of us are already doing this. Though not with the ease with which - it is being done in America.
That is the reason we have evening colleges and distance education.
The only downside to our educational system is that - it gives no space for the students to think and do things on their own. They are treated more like robots who have come to replicate what is written in the books…
October 1st, 2008 at 11:52 am
Finally i found some ppl .who thinks like me .. im one of the victim of this particular educational system ..
its like buring in hell .. there are some robots who feel ease of this system .. but they never learn any thing..
October 2nd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
This co-op system is in canada etc …. Some top universities like uni. of waterloo places students in Google like companies and its 6month study-6 for work basis..