It is an age old question about the role of a proper guidance in education. While everyone agrees that the educator is of paramount importance but no one can really answer what should be the proper education technique. Different individual/states/countries have different structure of academia. I have the privilege of being associated with reputed institutions of both India and Europe, and could try to make out some observations about the pros and cons of both.

Although the difference in the education styles starts to show up from the childhood education itself, I will be restricting myself in describing the system which occurs beyond high school. In India, after high school (12th/+2) we enrol in colleges of different streams, go through the gruelling competitions to enrol in our dream colleges in which many defer their university education by an year or two. Then we start our 3 or 4 years bachelors and may go on to Masters which is typically of 2 years.

In a typical European setup, after high school, people apply either to universities or ‘preparatory colleges’, which have a role to prepare you for the university education, This is especially for those people who have doubts regarding the stream they want to choose or may not have the required credentials for applying in the college of their choices. No, there is never an entrance exam, only applications through resumes and motivations, and sometimes, an interview. It helps that the no. of application is typically a manageable no., and even in the best of the colleges, the acceptance to rejection ratio hits a minimum of about 1:15. Once in a university, the course is typically of 3 years for an bachelor, but an additional 1st year may be shaped in the same way as the ‘preparatory colleges’ to help an individual decide his stream. After bachelors, the master studies are typically of 2 years like India.

There is a contrasting difference in the style of study within the bachelors setting. The grading varies between absolute percentage wise grading or a CGPA among different institutions just like India. But the bachelor education is typically in the national language. This is a direct continuation of primary education which also happens in the native language. The evaluation is a continuous process, with equal weightage given to periodic assignments like homework/projects/paper presentation and the final exams. This helps in distributing the pressure across the whole semester, and also ensures continuous learning. In our country, atleast in engineering schools, this is lacking in many subjects, and students typically do a ‘nite-out’ before the exams to prepare for the whole semester worth of coursework.

The western system is very merciful towards students. The exams are not so tough. Periodic homework means you can easily get passing marks. Even if you fail there are re-exams and most of the exams are open book, where you are allowed to carry your classroom notes. In many settings, the exams are replaced by a paper presentation. While in my graduate and post graduate education at IIT Kanpur, I was part of a couple of courses with the same evaluation scheme, majority of courses still followed the exam pattern.

But the most contrasting style is in the daily education. Compared to IIT, a typical course here covers about 60-70% of the material. The contents and the examples are pretty basic. But a large focus is given to the questions, “Why should we study it?” or “Where can it be used?” This question is very often answered by the professors in a satisfactory way.

So now the question, Is the western education better than Indian? This is a difficult one to answer. Listing the good points and the bad, on a statistical average, the good points exceed the bad in the western education than in India. In the language of computers, Indian education produces better hardware with not so good software. We have better calculation and analytical power, but many times we lack the bigger picture. We would be excellent industry employees, programmers, engineers but the creativity and the motivation is somewhat less than the people here.

Although I donot approve of the easy level of education in Europe. It is a little too focused on releasing the pressures of education. Having seen the consequences of extreme educational pressures, I do believe that education should have a decent focus on reducing stress, but also the fact that ‘the best iron goes through the toughest fire’ should be true. After all. Indians are recognised worldwide for their intellect and superior education performance.

My way of education will be a middle way, keeping the level of education tough, but still taking measures to distribute the learning to the entire semester. Stressing on basic as well as advances levels, the bigger picture should always be given. This is not an easy task, typically mastered by people who are good researchers in their respective field. I feel that this happens in some departments of IIT, with the Computer Science department worth a mention. But in others, the education is typically presenting the information in terms of some concepts, and then evaluation the students on how well they remembered the concept, rather than how well they understood it. In the courses I take here in Europe, I have rarely seen exam or homework questions directly asking to reproduce a proof or to work out a lengthy and difficult example presented in class.

But the biggest feeling I get is to take pride in our Indian education. Of course the glitches are there, but may improve. A big factor is of course motivation and the learning itself, rather than Grades and Marks. But we Indians, more often than not, find motivation within ourselves at the right time, even more so in recent times, and I believe that the next generation always surpasses the previous. The current generation has to play an active role in this, sharing their experiences, their success and their failures, to guide the next generation in a better way to shape them up for the requirements of the real world.