Education in India: In need of reform?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2019
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In India experts and parents increasingly question whether the country's education system is fit for purpose.
With huge emphasis placed on college entrance exams and academic degrees - like engineering, medicine or law - Rahul Tandon explores what consequences that has on children's overall development. He visits an unorthodox school that uses Harry Potter to develop critical thinking, and he asks whether the economy would be better served by encouraging vocational training.
(Picture: Students seen coming out of the examination centre at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan School in New Delhi, India; Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Rahul Tandon and I'm outside a very busy school in Kolkudah. |
| 0:05.6 | Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:08.6 | Today we'll be finding out why getting 90% in your exams here may not get you into a good college. |
| 0:15.5 | That is, very frightening. |
| 0:17.9 | A lot of pressure, yeah. |
| 0:19.7 | Like you have to be good in studies. Nothing else matters Like, you have to be good in studies. |
| 0:21.7 | Nothing else matters, but you have to be good in studies. |
| 0:24.1 | And why good exam results don't necessarily create good employees. |
| 0:28.7 | You wonder how they got those marks because they can't articulate anything. |
| 0:32.7 | The logic is not right. |
| 0:34.0 | The basics are not right. |
| 0:35.3 | That's all coming up on Business Daily here on the BBC. |
| 0:41.7 | I'm outside one of Kolkata's most famous girls' schools, modern high. The bell has just rung, |
| 0:48.7 | and it's time for the pupils to go home. They're all coming out with huge smiles on their faces. But being a student |
| 0:55.6 | in India is not a laughing matter as to get into a good college, you need to get marks in the high |
| 1:01.3 | 90s in your exams. Let's speak to some of the girls here. A lot of pressure, yeah. Where does that |
| 1:08.3 | pressure come from? Just everywhere, I guess. |
| 1:11.9 | You have to be good in studies. |
| 1:13.6 | Nothing else matters, but you have to be good in studies. |
| 1:16.0 | That's difficult, isn't it? |
| 1:17.0 | When you need 97-98% to go into a college, isn't that frightening? |
| 1:21.0 | That is. |
... |
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