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Orginally posted by dp_jain


This system just help to develope presentation and marketing skills. That's it. That's why Canada is able to sale its immigaration policy successfuly.

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You call it JUST? Something that prompts millions of people around the world to stand and queue for years to be able to come over to Canada is JUST? It is like saying that a really efficient CEO of big organisation who does not keep a single paper on his desk because he is able to dispose them off by quick decision making, JUST signs the papers and cheques and only talk to guests, does not do anything (Likeactually making the budgets, or writing the account books or stand on the shopfloor to produce something - he JUST signs some papers) ? My god, such people run the whole organisation and grow it to be able to give employement to thousands of people who learned 2+2 when they were in SKG

I do not agree with the concept many Indians have about schooling in Canada. In my view there is a difference between education and schooling (or academic studies). What we are taught in schools in India is pure theory - let's be frank, how many of us actually understand the practical and real aspects of that theory that we are taught?

Four years ago, my son came to me and put forward a question:

'you want to decorate your house and doing up your living room and bedroom, want to use diffused lighting. Give suggestions how you would do it '

Well I had studied in theory everything in light in physics in my school days, and infact got very good marks on that topic, but it took me more than an hour just to think what kind of advice should I give him. this involved types of bulbs, types of shades, top lighting, bottom lighting, surface of walls, finishing of ceiling, colour of walls (how they will absorb or reflect light), fabric of furniture etc. etc. etc. What I mean to say is, such a question make me THINK and apply logic, which I could do with my experience from age, but in my school with my academic studies, I would have neither been asked to do, nor i could have the capacity to rack my brains for such things.

Similary, two years ago, my daughter came to me with a project to build a bridge with McDonalds straws and metal pins. It was very easy to make a bridge - but what was tricky was HOW MUCH WEIGHT WILL THAT BRIDGE HOLD. There had to be a balance between the materials used, length of the bridge, its height and then finally strength to hold weight. It took us four days to do one - and imagine, the bridge she made with her friend in school turned out to be better than what we (my wife and I ) build for her with our logic. We seemed to know theory better than her, but could we translate into practical world - not well enough!!

Today, my son is doing a History project and his topic is Abraham Lincoln. He is researching almost all things available for that guy, his growth, his ideologies, how it affected the citizens, his words and what that meant etc. etc. Did we do such things for Ashok, or Chandragupta Maurya, or Aurangzeb, or even Mahatma Gandhi?? The education he will get from the project will help him a lot in shaping his own life and thinking - rather than just 'ratoing' what Ashok did, or in which years did Mughal rule and fought wars - without ever understanding the inner aspects of those wars, their contribution to the society and how they changed or formed a nation.

Yes, initially I was shocked when I saw my daughter doing simple addition in Math class in grade 5/6/7. But the confidence that I have seen in my kids from educational point of view as well as social interactions in far better than what they could have got in Indian style of schooling. Today, being in high school, they might not know the exact theory of various things, but they have the confidence to talk to an engineer, or a businessman or an artist and discuss various aspects of their professions, and believe me, at times, even be able to give great suggestions based on their practical experiences. Such education, though not impossible, but is very difficult to find in kids schooling in India.

There can be manu such examples where I feel and can prove why Canadian education is better but I hope the above shoud suffice. Infact, my wife has been a teacher for sometime now, and not only I , but she herself is amazed how much she is learning in primary school which she as topper of her univeristy did not know - what are the various aspects of grammer, how different sound are made, what these sounds convey, what is erosion and how it affects us practically at home or in environment, how to treat a child in his growing years given his own family background etc. etc. That is education - in India we have academic learning - important, but not necessarily better.

And as I said earlier - the final result is - these guys here are able to build a nation where we want to come and live, not the other way around, even with the best of brains in South Asia. Even the guys from IITs and IIMs want to come here and live, and they rarely send their kids to study in India, from where they themselves had studied and became good enough to be doing something great in North America.

Chandresh