Are we producing zombies in our classrooms?

While we were still basking in the joy of winning a national level innovation contest at IIT Kharagpur for school students, the parent of one of the students in the winning team came to meet me after a regular PTM.

'How about my son's handwriting!! Also, he always falters in long answer questions. How will he score 10 out of 10 in board exams with this kind of presentation?' said he, checking his ward's class-IX Report Card. I was taken aback by his reaction. A question of such kind was not in my mind from a father whose child happened to design an Automatic Pothole filling cart using Sensors and Arduino Processor.

So I said recklessly, 'What do you need 10 out of 10 for?' He answered me with a question again, 'Will this innovation award guarantee my child a seat in that same league institution who conducted this contest??'. 'No, but neither does a 10/10 report card', I retorted. He persisted, 'I know, but going forward there are colleges who consider inter board marks. Besides what good is he without an excellent score card!!' I let it go unanswered.

Few days later, I read an article about a girl from Agastya International Foundation in Kuppam. When her father, who works as a labourer, came home with blisters on his hand she saw a problem there and set out to solve it by designing customized gloves for him.

I felt so reassured. All our children need is the right ambience and right guidance. They can do miracles. But then, back to that parent's question at PTM. He cannot be wrong too. How genuine is that parent's concern!! Although 'performance in exams' and 'application of knowledge to problem solving in real life' are not mutually exclusive, there is very little intersection between them in our country.

A good college not only needs youngsters who are diligent and perseverant, but also those who are inquisitive, passionate and have that spark of creativity in them. So does our society.

Let's consider the engineering stream. The selection processes for IITs and other premium colleges are bent towards choosing students who are hardworking and perseverant. Coaching and cramming are a pre-requisite for our entrance trials. The unrelenting students survive the ordeal and reach their destiny. But the more creative children who did not or could not slog for long hours because they were busy observing and experimenting with real life issues are guillotined ruthlessly at the entrance tests.

While the government is investing huge sums on ATAL labs and INSPIRE meets to promote innovation and well-rounded education, for the students who choose this path, it is even more difficult to tread till the end. One cannot expect a child to be both creative as well as assiduous, especially in some topic which doesn't evoke his or her interest. From my first-hand experience with children, I understand how difficult it is for an otherwise ingenious child to meet the blueprint of an entrance test. May be, that is why many western universities have a way of honouring creative students by taking exceptions.

Even if we disregard the role of these top-level institutions in facilitating the talented children to reach the last lap, is the industry which is the ultimate consumer of young talent watching?

We hear a lot of whining by the industry leaders on declining quality of the talent pool. When only children who take the conventional well-trodden paths compromising their inquisitive ideas are finally rewarded by the industry, why will others risk any other path.

The prestigious technological institutions have done more harm than good to students by way of indirectly inducing the unofficial 'techno' and 'stem' syllabi in schools from sixth grade onwards, thereby stunting the natural cognitive development of our young ones. If this system produced a thousand outstanding technocrats, it is also producing lakhs of left-over zombies too. Isn't it time they revisit their selection process and overhaul it??

Since I work at the source-end of the food chain, I clearly feel that the industry's cry for talent is not at all heard by the parents who are herding their wards to coaching factories. If the industry does not need such zombies, they should voice it loud enough that it reaches the misguided parent group.