INTERVIEW ‘Our Education System Is Only Focused On Exams. Knowledge Is Not A Priority.’ The chairman of Madurai-based Aravind Eye Care hospitals has some advice for the government ARINDAM MUKHERJEE INTERVIEWS P. NALPERUMALSAMY COMMENTS PRINT MORE SHARING SERVICES SHARE ON PINTEREST_SHARE SHARE ON EMAIL TEXT SIZE Special Issue: India’s Top Professional Colleges 2012 Madurai-based Aravind Eye Care hospitals are known all over the world for their philanthropic work in the fiercely commercial world of healthcare. They hold the world record of conducting over 4 million eye surgeries, a majority of them done at cheap cost, or free of charge. Chairman P. Nalperumalsamy, a Padmashri, has been the leading light of this institution for long, so much so in 2010, Time magazine named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In a relaxed interview with Arindam Mukherjee, the 73-year-old group patriarch stresses that the government needs to tighten control over private sector educational institutions while simultaneously strengthening public sector colleges. Excerpts: What is wrong with the education system we follow today in the country? The general education system is focused only on examinations rather than training students for the future and really testing their knowledge. Because of this, students are forced to take tests that show only their retention powers, not their actual capacity or knowledge. So engineers today cannot do actual work in technology and doctors do not go to people who need their services. Is the problem with the system or the approach towards education as a whole? Today, students are completely professionally-oriented and they take examinations for the same rather than to gain knowledge, or do research in the subject. In our colleges, we have infrastructure and good faculty, but there is no motivation to do research. Even in the field of medicine, no one is motivated to do research because everything is so examination and job-oriented. But that is also a requirement of today’s times. Yes, but not at the cost of real learning. India’s education system looks at commercial gains only and students are trained to look at their monetary future. The curriculum is also built around clearing an exam and getting into particular professions. Learning is not a priority. So who is at fault for this mess? Those regulating and those making policies are equally responsible. If the system has deteriorated to this level where learning has been substituted by a race to clear an examination, regulators and policymakers are to blame for not acting on time to correct this anomaly. It’s also not enough to have rules and regulations, it is important how they are implemented. Government bodies are not controlling institutions. That should become a priority. Also, for good institutions that are promoting real learning, there should be no interference. Is the present practice of allowing the private sector indiscriminately into education the right approach? Most educational engineering and medical colleges owned by the government are not equipped in terms of infrastructure and faculty and their quality has been suffering. The better government institutions cannot accommodate the vast number of students who are seeking to get into them. So the need for the private sector comes in. They are filling the gap. But private sector institutions also charge very high fees. Yes, many of the private institutions take advantage of the situation and charge high fees. There are very good students in rural areas but they can’t afford good education today. In some states, the government does regulate fees, including your state (Tamil Nadu). Yes, but instead of concentrating on just the private sector institutions, the government should strengthen and improve the quality of the government educational institutions. Once that is done, quality education will become affordable and everyone would be willing to join th
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 11:40:42 +0000
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