Achche Din of Education?

No practical way to implement stuff taught in textbooks?

A particular region, state or a nation gets the tag of ‘developed’ only when it can boast of two primary factors:
(i) Education
(ii) Wealth
Sometimes, this tag is also forced upon by the politicians despite not being worth it. Whenever we come across a developed part of a particular nation or state, it should have above mentioned factors across most of its part. We should keep in mind that the western and European countries are not known only for their wealth but also for their best in class universities.
When we analyze Gujarat as a developed state in the light of above factors, we can boast of the wealth largely due to its abundant business opportunities. But the same cannot be said while talking about its education. It falls below the water levels in today’s step wells.
Students holding a Bachelor of Commerce degree are not even able to fill in a pay-in slip to at a bank counter. Most computer graduates cannot manage to write software without copying from a distant source. A student with Bachelor of Arts cannot speak a small paragraph without making a heap of grammatical blunders. Project Based Learning has given rise only to photocopying business (popularly known as Xerox). The bubble of some professional courses has burst. The number of M.B.A. colleges has come down as drastically as the number of seats the Congress won in this General Election.
The hollowness of degrees is seen when the graduates venture outside Gujarat flashing their rainbow coloured degrees with high hopes of admission into P.G. courses or jobs in prestigious companies. They get the shock of their lives when they are told that their diligently earned degrees hold no value outside the state. Degrees are reduced to mere coloured sheets of paper. Most institutes regard Gujarati students skill-less which is true to a large extent. Hence, aware (not necessarily capable) parents send their kids in other states right after 12th standard. A graduate from the Saurashtra region is looked down upon even when he moves to Gujarat University or other institutes across central or eastern Gujarat.
The other shock is received when graduates who has no capacity or means to go out starts looking for jobs in their cities and towns. Most engineers are offered below Rs. 10,000 pay which they have to happily accept as there is psychological pressure on them to earn after obtaining a degree from an expensive college.
Education, right from K.G. to P.G., demands overhaul of the system. The state government has introduced ‘Pragna’ project in primary schools which is a welcome step. It is based on acquiring knowledge by practical means. Students do not have to carry bags to schools (NO BAGS! What a relief!). Let us hope, these kids grow up to be less of a talking parrots.