1. The document discusses issues with India's education system, including a lack of support for students from disadvantaged economic backgrounds and intense academic pressure that has led some students to commit suicide. 2. It provides examples of students who achieved success despite disabilities or economic hardships, but notes many others will not be able to realize their dreams due to lack of access to higher education. 3. The author criticizes the government and education system for being uncaring and failing to establish new universities, integrate practical skills into curricula, and support deserving students with scholarships. This is crushing the dreams of many children and leaving the country with unemployable graduates.

1. 1
India’s uncaring School Education System suffers from
terminal disintegration
Shantanu Basu
In his immortal Peter Pan and Wendy, Sir James Barrie described Peter Pan in
glowing terms, "All children, except one, grow up." What Barrie probably implied
was that the child in us lives through life even as we move into adulthood. The
dreams of a child are tempered with the wisdom and experience of passing years,
yet the dreams remain, irrespective of their achievement, often expressed wistfully,
but never with funereal regret.
Over the last few weeks, the print media has been highlighting cases of kids that
have made it big in competitive exams, notwithstanding their severest physical and
economic disabilities. Their interviews speak of the pain they endured from being
cancer patients to forsaking engineering in favor of commerce that was more
affordable to their parents. Sadly, many of these kids whose parents cannot afford
higher education will live with their dreams, perhaps never to realize them.
Particularly poignant is the tale of the student that forsook engineering because his
watchman father (earning a pitiable Rs. 8000 per month) could not afford it.
Instead, he tookup commerce because his elder brother who is a CA student would
coach him gratis. It is the greatest tribute to the commoner parents that what he did
not receive in life they ensured their kids would have it. Can we even visualize the
deprivation this family went through to realize their children’s dreams? Do they
not deserve civil society and government’s commendation and support? To the
contrary, media also reports kids committing suicide in coaching centers and IITs
not being able to bear inhuman academic pressure. Not all sperms are allowed to
succeed by our uncaring education system.
The above instances speak volumes of the GOI’s HRD Ministry over the decades.
When was the last new state funded university set up? Why it is that Delhi
University reportedly has 5000-6000 vacancies of faculty at induction and other
levels? Why is it that a FB friend of mine whose daughter obtained 95.5% in the
recent CBSE Class XII exam locked herself into her room for the full day? Why
must sperms enroll in IIT-JEE coaching classes? These are questions that must be
actively considered by all parents, irrespective of their economic standing.
In the ultimate analysis, the experiences of a child live lifelong, yearning for
realization, but frustrated by an uncaring educational system and rank indifference

2. 2
of successive governments. My son went through his entire education in India’s
top schools and universities, yet fondly remembers only the three years of high
school he took in the US. Why is this so?
As parents, we have, over 15-17 years of our kids’ education lived with learning by
rote, blanked out concepts and the rank inability of our kids to distinguish between
white and black, right and wrong. It is not without reason that while we are
prodigious producers of graduates, nearly cent per cent are unemployable.
Therefore, why is business management not integrated with natural science
curricula, journalism, management, publishing, editing and content writing into
English, History and Political Science, English into Law, etc.? These would not
only make course interesting but impart employability skills to our graduates. How
can governments remain insensitive to the need for creating a new generation of
teachers via dedicated universities for them and better career prospects?
Ninety nine per cent cut offs for the Arts (as in Stephen’s for English this year in
contrast to 98.5% for Economics) rival, as my witty friend Sumeet Mehta says, the
claims of Harpic and Dettol to massacre bacteria and viruses. How much longer
will middle class India tolerate this utter nonsense? Why can PM Modi not step in
and direct the establishment of discipline-specific universities from several lakh
crore of education cess moneys available with the government? Why can GOI not
use a part of this cess, say Rs. 1000 crore/annum to institute scholarships for these
deserving kids?
An uncaring, indeed cruel and meaningless education system that kills a child’s
dreams is nothing short of criminal. For these kids whose childhood dreams would
make a happy nation, a nation that would fuel its industry and service with job-
ready recruits, nay with disappointed and frustrated youngsters with low
productivity. Indeed "All children, except one, grow up." Thhe kid that does not
grow up is wat the child wanted to be in the first place. I am happy my son has just
finished his travails with the Indian education system. I just hope he finds an
employer willing to engage his services. I would strongly advise him to opt for a
foreign education for his kids, as and when that happens, and if he can afford it.
Shouldn’t you parents just stand up right now and seek a better deal for your kids?
Why allow a child’s dreams to be crushed?