When I visited my sister last time, I asked her this question – What is the purpose of education? She is a teacher, she was the best person to ask this question.
I felt pity on my nieces, so I asked this question. My nieces (one just 4.5 years other 10 years) go to school even in April! I went there to spend some time with them and they went to schools! This is their age to try new things – painting, playing different sports, learning some music. Let them find what they enjoy doing rather than forcing them to sit in the classroom in the summers.
My sister’s answer reminded me of Prof Mankad’s Macroeconomics class of my MBA. His exams used to be unique (not disclosing it though). His reasoning for such unique exam was- Information is accessible now a days; I want you to think, I want you to cultivate abilities to connect the dots of various subject matters you come across and develop ability to make decisions, opinion and inferences. These theories should not be crammed. You can make these graphs / search them any day / any time while you work. Practice of using these theories in making your opinions etc is what I want you to develop.
Surprisingly, many Google search terms “Exam paper of Professor Mankad” and “Exam paper of Prof Boman Moradian” have ended up on my blog post. Here I never wrote about what they ask in their exams. I feel strange some students search such things also!
So my sister – who teaches Science – answered – “I want students to see things for themselves, to experime
nt; science is something which will help them develop analytical skills”. My sister and Prof Mankas’s answers were not what I see the approach of marketing any school – B-School to Medical School to the Public school for K-12 levels. Our B-Schools & Tech-Schools talk about post education Salaries as benchmark for success! In fact, IVY league guys went to jails because of bigger crimes e.g. insider trading; and if not in jails they caused more troubles to an average human being than a pickpocket who also goes to jail for small crimes for troubling one average human being at a time.
Why should we educate kids? Don’t you think that the purpose of education be set first. At least we have been doing this for executing businesses well. At least ask the kid what he/she wants to do – after a certain age – instead of making everyone an Engineers or Doctor?
Related blogs – Showjumping, Race – never ending, Entanglement of an undergarment, Neeraj in Kabir’s style
Image source – Alka Arya’s article http://hillpost.in/2012/04/revised-rate-race/44257/
Here is what I found on LinkedIn – 
10 Comments
rummuser · May 10, 2014 at 12:55 pm
Education, if I had anything to do with it and to the best of my knowledge only two schools in India practice that, is to teach youngsters how to learn. Good teachers facilitate the learning process by encouraging the students to question, seek answers and get confirmation. The only thing that really needs to be taught are the three rs for survival. The two schools that I talk about come from the same stable and their students are some of the best human beings that I have ever known besides being academically brilliant. Those schools also teach them how to write and pass examinations. A minor skillset. The schools are run by the J Krishnamurthy foundation.
KRD Pravin · May 12, 2014 at 4:00 pm
What is “the three rs” of survival? and what are those “the three rs”?
rummuser · May 13, 2014 at 1:04 am
Reading Riting and Rithmetic. It was an American invention during their early settler days to inform the illiterate immigrants that these three were important basic skills. In proper English, they would be Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
Preeti · May 13, 2014 at 1:18 pm
True. JKF engaged in this way of teaching. One such project near Pune in India.
KRD Pravin · May 13, 2014 at 4:17 pm
Preeti, Ramana uncleji (Rummuser) is based in Pune 🙂 so if you have address of that school share with him or inform me I shall share with him.
rummuser · May 13, 2014 at 7:11 am
Nice addition of images. Improved the presentation.
Winning (@SmokeD_Ring_) · November 8, 2014 at 4:10 am
Lol. I also landed on this page while searching about professor Mankad but eventually enjoyed a lot esp the Problem of Top 5% and Did Keynes fail. I should have written the comments on respective blogs but I ended up on this.
Thanks for such wonderful insights and do say Hi to professor Mankad from my side when you meet him next.
Cheerio.
KRD Pravin · November 8, 2014 at 1:03 pm
Hi “Winning” your name sounds interesting 🙂 but winning where, which race you are running in 😉
I met Prof Mankad in Last week of Oct, I shall contact him soon. My bad, he is relocating and I am not moving to that city. I shall tell him that “Winning” – dont know which batch – says Hi to you. Better if I know more about you 🙂
Hope you liked the blog posts, especially when I write blogs on economics, I prefer sharing them with Prof Mankad first, request for his opinion. His opinion is quoted verbatim in this blog – http://business2buddha.com/2014/10/26/has-the-time-for-this-idea-come/
Actually I was one of the culprits of top 5% in school days. May in my MBA also [though I had no intentions for higher CP]. In MBA I used to speak a lot, however having 8+ years exp with 1/2 of that in a management consulting may result in knowing a lot of things. Wish my batchmates say I was not the typical top 5% culprits in MBA. Though in 12th I was one. I believe in Keynesian economics, however I feel every generation should have its own theory.
good to connect, joining you on twitter.
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