A few weeks ago, Rajesh Jain in a post entitled ‘Rethinking Education‘ blogged about the various approaches towards changing the prevalent Education system in India, and about his own thoughts on what’s needed:

One approach is to work within the current system and see what best can be done. It assumes that the legacy that exists will be very hard to change — everyone has a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. Parents are not keen to take risks with their kids, the ones in the education business would prefer to stick to the status quo since they are already in the business, the government seems to be quite happy with the way things are, and the kids don’t have much of a choice anyways.  So, even as some of us believe that the current education system needs a dramatic revamp, it is not easy to figure out where to begin. (Perhaps, there isn’t an entrance at all for those not already in.)

The second approach, advocated by Atanu, is to create a parallel system from scratch — encompassing K-12 and beyond. This thinking starts with the belief that the current education system is fatally flawed and there is no way to apply band-aid. What is needed is a new system, a new standard. And there will be early adopters among parents and kids who will be drawn to this new system.

My personal vote goes for the second approach.  The world has changed a lot, especially in the past couple decades, and the simplicity that needs to be there in the education system has vanished. One hears of kids as young as two and three years going for coaching so they can get into the preferred school of their parents. IIT coaching now starts in the sixth standard. It is reaching ridiculous heights (or lows). And then look at  the quality of the product that comes out of this system.

This is a burning issue for many parents, and naturally, Rajesh’s post saw a flurry of comments in a short span.  Here’s what I wrote in response :

My view is that disruptive innovation has a place in many things, but not in something as well-rooted in society as our present education system… There is just too much at stake for parents.

… most people within the system are averse to change of any sort – that is typical human response to any new idea. However, with a new system, even if you get some folks to switch over, many others will not fearing what will happen to their children once the system’s runway ends.

Already, I hear many concerned and informed parents voicing their fears of how their children will eventually have to cope up with the “mainstream” once they graduate from their gurukuls or whatever liberal-minded school system they follow. That fear is what keeps many of them from sending their kids down the less-trodden path in the first place! And until a critical mass of people *do* choose the new route, the fear of the majority would always remain…

… I think a more agreeable option would be to make small but significant changes in the existing system (even if that takes more effort), so that more and more people eventually benefit from the changes.  As a parent of two, I would certainly welcome a move in that direction.

Rajesh sent me an email in reply, later that day, in which he mentioned that the best solution may well be a combination of the two approaches.  What do you think?