http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/2009/04/041209_6.html


Off late I've been finding a lot of new immigrants in the grocery stores in Canada, with their families shopping for their groceries. I find plenty of hope, joy at their new found home in Canada. Most of them on a casual chat will always say that they did this move for betterment of their children. The topic will always leer into better opportunities for their children education in contrast to India. They will always close with the statement that they are prepared to sacrifice their career in turn to give a better life for their children.


There is something happening in the highschool/university off late. This has received plenty of discussion in newsmedia. I thought about bringing this to CD fold to act as an eye opener.

The shift has been the students have learnt to manipulate the high school system to obtain high marks like 90% to enter University. With plenty of Asian students of Indian/Chinese origin setting the bar high students are finding every nook and corner to squeeze in the way to raise their grades. They get their high 90's enter University and then the problem starts.

They are inadequate in their preparation to deal with university level courses, as they switched a high level math course to photography as they could get a high 90. While in the university the very same course is a prerequisite to do well and the university doesnot have time or infrastructure to tutor them again.

The very same students who entered with a 90+ and a scholarship are now in 60 - level and are not able to maintain their scholarships. The students are now crying for help and are not able to do well in university. In the job situation they have to compete with a kid from India or China who has done his course there is and is willing to work at a pittance against a Canadian graduate who incidentally has nearly 60K as an OSAP loan.

The question which pops is whether the move was really worth it ?. Did we really give a better life to a kid who is going to be mauled in a cut throat job market like today?.

Think!.

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Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.

There is cut-throat competition in India too and the cut off marks very high, seat quotas - reservations, corruption, etc.

Companies will continue to outsource whatever they can as long it meets their objectives and saves them money.

Canada recognizes educational qualifications from other countries in a very few fields, so how can a kid educated in China or India come and compete here and why would they work for a pittance?

Every immigrant comes hoping for better future. Only time can tell whether it was worth it or not!

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The requirement for an Engineering student is Calculus, modern algebra, datamanagement and a few related subjects.

In India and China they have a standardised set of subjects which you need to study and then you get graded on it.

In Canada we find that let us say you need to do the above said courses say either data management or calculus or modern algebra for getting into Engineering. If the student does all the courses and is mediocre he or she does one course and gets an 75% and then takes a course in photography gets a 95% followed by another course in world religion and gets another 90%. But a regular student who would do all the three courses will get let us 75%, 80% and 85% now averages lesser than the guy who photography. When the two people apply for admission the guy with the higher percentage gets in. If you've would read the latest Mcleans you would find the difference between 89% and 90% is CAD $2000.

The guy who has done the second set of courses who has the prerequisites is not been able to get the admission due to his lower %, while the guy who got higher % but not the prerequisites is in the course.

How will a guy who has not learnt the abc will be able to survive the fast paced university courses?. That is what is happening and that is what is being reported by the university professors and librarians.

The second problem is that with lesser and lesser students going towards highly technology courses in Canada, the high tech sector of Canada necessarily needs to import talent from abroad. Case and point for example is a high tech electronics company bringing engineers from Bangalore, India on work permit as they are not able to find suitable engineers here. If you see these guys are coming here at salaries of 40K to 60K eventhough they would have paid another 20K for a local guy if he was available. The guy who comes from India on work permit does not go by the 40 hour work week, stays as a single guy in a company furnished accomodation works for 12 to 14 hours days and even on weekends. If you calculate is rate per hour at around 300 hours per month for a salary of 40 K per year will work to $ 10 per hour.Do you want your son or daughter who has done his or her Bachelors in Electronics Engineering in University of Waterloo or McMaster after spending 8000 per year for fees and another 10,000 for accomodation(travel and other incidentals not covered) at 18K per annum you end up at 72 K loan on OSAP which your kid has to pay up. Would you like your kid after getting this sort of education with financial stress to work at $10 per hour or will your kid will be able to pay for this in the next 10 years at that wage rate?. He or she should be investing in their real estate purchase and not toiling at sweat shop wages after that ordeal.

If you look around you'll find this trend with Desi families. Please observe and make up your mind. If you can kindly make a list of all your friends and what their children are studying you'll know the truth.

The families with highly educated parents will put their kids through high school and the typical kid would say that they want to get into Medicine. They will end up doing either Chemistry, Biochemistry or related science subjects. Then they try for medicine and find that their high 85% is not good enough and then they compromise find a call center or a financial job or even end up as an insurance adjustor at salaries at 40K.

Let us look at another family which has come from India from a village up north and the families first trip outside the village is Toronto. They end up toiling in factories or driving trucks. The kids the guy will end up driving a fork lift or the girls will end up being a dental assistant or physiotherapist. The guy will make about 18.50 per hour with overtime, while the girl will start with 22 per hour and make 26 per hour over a period of time. The average income of the boy is around 60K pa while the girl will be 70K +. Both the kids are high school pass with a Humber or Seneca college.

Your kid with a B.S is making 40K and can loose his job anytime by an Indian or Chinese import(who would done their whole B.E at around Rs.2 Lakhs which is CAD 5K), while your child has costed you CAD 72K and the loan interest is ticking like a taxi meter.

The other family which came from a village in North India without any knowledge of English or any skills and did not spend any significant monies is making 60K to 70K and they cannot be replaced by an import from China or India.

You please decide for yourself based on my explanation haven't we gotten into a vicious cycle. We create incompetent University students who should be driving our technology companies by innovation?.

This is what is being addressed in this post!.

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Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.