The Crisis of Education in India
The discussion around the revised NCERT history books for schoolchildren raises an important question: what is the real purpose of education? While these textbooks may introduce new facts, it’s unlikely that students will retain them beyond the exam room. In fifteen years, many might struggle to spell names like Akbar or Aurangzeb. Moreover, the idea that textbooks can stir communal passions seems misplaced, as children today are already exposed to a wide range of influences outside the classroom.
Education, which spans eighteen years for those with graduate degrees, often fails to make a meaningful impact on students. This raises the question: why even focus on the content or philosophy of education if it doesn’t shape individuals in any significant way?
A Paradoxical Crisis in the Village
Over the past month, I’ve been working in my ancestral village on a dream project. What I’ve witnessed is a paradoxical crisis—an education system that has become hollowed out, where hope and despair coexist in equal measure. The situation is dire, and it’s not just about the curriculum; it’s about the entire structure of teaching and learning.
Teachers Who Can’t Teach
There’s no shortage of applicants for teaching roles—many hold advanced degrees such as MA, MSc, and B.Ed. However, subject knowledge is often lacking. In fact, the more prestigious the degree, the less likely it is that the candidate possesses the necessary competence. Despite offering competitive salaries based on the local cost of living, it’s nearly impossible to find someone who can explain basic concepts meant for 10-year-olds.
Many candidates arrive without even basic grooming or communication skills. While I’m willing to overlook these issues if they show even a little enthusiasm for the job, the reality is disheartening. One 26-year-old science graduate lamented, “Humein toh ye sikhaya hi nahin gaya” (Nobody taught us this). He was referring to VIBGYOR—the seven colors of the visible light spectrum.
I have had to reject dozens of applications each week. These are young people whose aspirations far exceed their abilities. This is the face of India’s “demographic dividend” disaster: a generation that is credentialed but not educated, credentialed but not skilled. Many lack critical thinking and practical skills.
Students Who Can’t Think
Socrates emphasized that an educated citizen should be capable of independent reasoning. In response to the political decay of Athenian democracy, he advocated for dialectic—the ability to think critically. Today, India faces a widespread absence of education, and the failure begins in the classroom.
Teaching, the profession responsible for nurturing the next generation of thinkers, has been reduced to a fallback option for the unemployable. The result is not just poor examination scores or declining international rankings, but an epistemological crisis: a population that has not been taught how to think. Most school classrooms in India are staffed by underqualified, underpaid, and often semi-literate teachers who are either unmotivated or actively undermining the development of young minds.
Why No One Has an Original Thought
A teacher’s role is to encourage students to engage in a rigorous dialectic of ideas, to distinguish truth from half-truth, to interrogate, analyze, and discover the foundational principles of truth, goodness, and beauty. India once had sage-teachers like Dronacharya, Vashishtha, and Chanakya, who understood that education at its best stirs the soul toward these foundations. At its worst, it deadens the intellect.
Today, the Indian schoolchild is often condemned to the latter. An old acquaintance once confided, “I did not write anything even remotely related to the question paper in the exam room but still have 80% marks in all the subjects.” This highlights a troubling trend where academic performance is not reflective of actual understanding.
Education as a Transaction
Nathan Pusey, the former president of Harvard University, warned that developing nations often emphasize the material benefits of universities over their philosophical goals. This warning is no longer abstract—it is evident in the young job applicant who cannot write a coherent sentence or form an original thought.
Education is not a luxury for the elite; it is the foundation of national character. Societies are shaped by what happens in their classrooms. But how can we move toward the philosophical goals of education—judgment, reason, moral clarity—when even basic literacy is not met?
A Silent Catastrophe
In India, a silent catastrophe is unfolding. Yet, there is little public outrage or reckoning. Education is seen as a transaction—degrees as passports to jobs. The actual learning, the life of the mind, seems irrelevant. If education were valued as a process of growth, we would see uprisings, not resignation.
There is no simple fix, but we must begin by demanding more from our teachers—not just in qualifications, but in the spirit of education. Without teachers for whom education is more than degree acquisition and teaching is more than a last resort for employment, no number of tablets, start-ups, or skill certifications will save us.
Amid eager schoolchildren waiting to be taught, I keep wondering: who will teach them, and what exactly will be taught? For now, I can only pray that they retain their spirit of inquiry for as long as they can hold on to it and not turn into zombies too soon.
