Where have all the good people gone?

The more people I interview, the more I’m convinced that college degrees are merely being bought with time or money or both! Now don’t get me wrong! Of course there are some fantastic institutes that produce some of the greatest minds in the world, but those are a minority! What about the rest? There are about 17000 degree colleges in India (not including 6500 vocational institutions). If you made an optimistic assumption that there are about 2000 good schools, they constitute only 12% of all institutes in India!

Of course, there could be other factors such as the reputation of my company that influences the kind of candidates I meet! Even if that weren’t the case I cannot arrive at any conclusions with just one data point! However, when I talk to people from various organizations – big or small, reputed or just starting up – it’s all the same story! And it’s not as if the expectations are very high! Most software organizations just look for basic analytical skills (that is usually judged by some basic mathematical questions) and a basic understanding of programming! In many organizations, the latter is of lesser importance as they are willing to invest the time and effort to train fresh graduates.

So how come a graduate fresh from an engineering college cannot answer simple mathematical problems – the toughest of which might involve applying the Pythagoras theorem! Half the people I met don’t even attempt the problem! However, try asking them to state the Pythagoras theorem and most of them would be able to write down the formula for calculating the length of the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle.

One possible answer presented itself as I was watching TV last night! CNN IBN was carrying this report on how students from a bunch of really good private schools fared in a scientifically designed diagnostic test that tried to assess the extent of the student’s understanding of the subject. “What is the chemical composition of steam?” – This is a simple question most children in Class V should be able to answer since it’s a part of their curriculum. However, of the 4,235 students across 600 schools in India, only 15.6 per cent gave the right answer to the question – H2O! A majority (69%) said steam is a ‘mixture and doesn’t have a chemical formula’! The other answers ranged from ‘Don’t know’ to ‘it’s out of course’!! Another shocker – only 22% of class I students could correctly identify a square out of a set of shapes shown to them! (you can read the complete article here)

Most problems have simple solutions – the difficulty is in implementing them! While it is easy for me to say we should move away from our ‘marks-focused’ way of education in favour of a more ‘understanding of concepts’ centered approach, implementing it would be a challenge. But given the potential benefits of our so called ‘knowledge ecosystem’ growing at an accelerated pace, it is a no-brainer that we must invest in measures will fuel that growth! However, out vote-bank politics is ensuring that quotas are given more importance than the quality of our education!

Where have all the good people gone?