Think of it in terms of teaching the same curriculum but drive the students to explore beyond the fixed curriculum itself. As I went through undergrad, I had the same syllabus as someone who had graduated 10 years prior and the emphasis continued to be on graduating rather than learning.

I along with 240 of my classmates in different trades went from subject to subject and class to class without a coherent understanding of what we wanted to do with what we learned. Lack of continuity and support for expanding upon things learned were major hurdles as none of the professors were willing to discuss expansionary ideas (they could have been dumb, i admit) but nonetheless, they were more concerned about whether I had turned in the last paper on time and marking them.

Most of my peers suddenly became experts and visionaries once they arrived in the US or UK!! – How was this possible? The simple reason is that they are challenged to come up with ideas that are based on what they had learned in the classroom setting, something we ignore in most undergraduate/graduate learning programs in India. Teaching someone a class with an eye on helping the student explore the subject or taking an exam are two different skills, the latter being the easiest.

The point is underscored nicely here – A friend of mine who recently successfully completed a CFA program with absolutely no background in accounting & finance when asked how he did it answered – Indians are very adept at taking exams and this was just another EXAM! He admits that he did not understand the theory of most of what he studied – he could mechanically solve most of the problems but that was it. Disclaimer: He continues to strive to learn the theory and thought behind the subjects and his effort is laudable – something the indian education system needs to inculcate.

I think accusing our schools of being inadequate and outdated may be a bit harsh. Our school systems were built to educate our children with relatively limited resources and this is true even now. To expect the system to ramp up all of a sudden is a big ask.

An invisible problem that has occurred has been the mediocrity creeping into the teaching talent in our schools. With the boom in IT many of the best minds are now in professional jobs instead of traditional teaching jobs and this is specially true for women. Lets face it our kids are being taught by teachers far less motivated than those who taught us.

Industry needs to stop pointing fingers and instead start thinking of what can be done to sort this out. Among other things, we have to start by paying more for our kids’ tuition.

The success of college drop-outs like Gates or Jobs doesn’t necessarily indicate that college education in the US is worthless

My point was not to say that college education is worthless. It was to say that education is an ongoing process. Its silly to argue that Jobs,Gates are uneducated, Or thomas edison was uneducated. These folks are highly educated. Their aggregate knowledge will be greater than a proffessor.
The point is a once you as an individual has realized that there is something you ougthto to learn, then plug those holes in your knowledge…Dont blame college educational system or something else for that.
The second point was for society not to buy too much into degreed vs non degreed folks.
knowledge is knowledge regardless of how its earned.
Granted certain skills are easier learned in a college. Topology being an example.
But a dedicated person can find courses(i sat through a college course without registering and the teacher did not care) or learn it on his own.
On the other hand take the new language C#, It doesnt require college. Microsoft and oreillys web site are good enough.
I did not like GuruCharan Das’s India Unbound(sorry a lot of you guys are fans) But i will use his example. I like his articles though, He wrote on his website that he went for a classics and philosophical education rather than business, and yet he was able to use it to his advantage.
My observation in dealing with Indians is that its not the formal educational system rather the informal educational system(ie society) that creates problems in how people use their education…..

Alas, the base that college education provides in India is very often flimsy or non-existent… My day job has given me enough data points re this…

The success of college drop-outs like Gates or Jobs doesn’t necessarily indicate that college education in the US is worthless… it’s like saying that coaching is worthless because Bradman didn’t have coaching… these worthies are one-of-a-kind, or as they say in Latin, sui generis..

I remember at USC, 10 years back, they opened a new class called ‘ERP’. At the time it seemed nonsense, and very loosely defined. But one half of the class dealt with the business process that needs to be looked at for deploying an ERP solution and more importantly, the second half of the class dealt with SAP as an ERP system. Just the fact that we had ‘worked’ with SAP made our MBA resumes heavier. Looking back, I think it was a very important class that was introduced in my first year there, and am glad I took it.

Similarly, colleges in India could start, with of course a lot of help from the industry, topical subjects to enable graduating students to make an impact right out of school.