Goa's education system needs to favour analytical thinking

The value of a good education is evinced in the quality of human beings it produces. It is not a matter of who attains the highest marks in class or whether you have achieved a distinction or a first class in climbing the rungs of academic success.

Educational institutes should aim to produce well-rounded individuals who have the ability to comprehend, analyse and question information put before them. Apart from this, they must be able to discern right from wrong, and have the courage to at least attempt to correct injustices.

Self-awareness plays a significant role in how we function as members of a society. and colleges in Goa are unfortunately churning out some extremely entitled young people.

The overall success of educational institutes or Goa’s educational system is based on the number of individuals that have degrees bestowed on them. How many of these are even worth the paper they are printed on?

The secondary school education of the past, evaluated in today’s scenario, seems equivalent to our bachelor’s degrees.

A first class was a tremendous accomplishment and a distinction a near impossibility. Today, distinctions are meaningless, thanks to the inflation of marks. There is no way to distinguish a student who is able to reason and think critically from one who has a fantastic memory.

A first class was a tremendous accomplishment and a distinction a near impossibility. Today distinctions are meaningless, thanks to the inflation of marks. There is no way to distinguish a student who is able to reason and think critically from one who has a fantastic memory.

A student who writes verbatim from the reference book is likely to obtain the same marks as one who has applied an analytical thought process, assimilating information from multiple reference . That is about 10 pages of an essay against 3 pages, the requirement being about 3 pages.

There have been students who have answered a 100-words question with 400 to 600 words because they could not present the information in a concise manner. This is something that would involve a thorough understanding of the material.

The inflation of marks at all levels and promoting students irrespective of performance at the school level have severely stunted intellectual growth. There are only a lucky few who have their and teachers challenge them to apply their minds or are naturally blessed with the ability to learn and improve themselves.

Goa’s education system believes the more useless work included as part of the process, the better it is for the students. Makes one wonder how much of any sort of thinking went into developing what I witnessed in 2011. And it’s worse now.

There were plenty of assignments to go with each paper. The first year had about seven papers. Part of me wondered if I was back at school. There was a completely useless paper that taught the students nothing practical.

Also, for some reason there were a multitude of intra and inter-collegiate . With so many extracurricular activities, the library usually resembled a desert, empty of students. There were books that had not been touched for years and had become mould ridden.

With the workload increasing senselessly, these young people had even less time to devote to formulating their own essays. Taking notes in class was a near alien concept with some professors verbally dictating information.

Where the assignments were concerned, some brilliant scholars had begun outsourcing them.

It isn’t surprising then that Goa University has postgraduates that cannot speak the language they have purportedly spent two years studying. There are graduates who struggle to write cover letters and other formal letters. A gold medallist from Goa University couldn’t form paragraphs when she interned at a local daily.

It isn’t surprising then that Goa University has postgraduates that cannot speak the language they have purportedly spent two years studying. There are graduates who struggle to write cover letters and other formal letters. A gold medallist from couldn’t form paragraphs when she interned at a local daily.

Now, if these students know far less than those who focussed exclusively on learning did, is this new methodology really working? The inflation of marks misleads students into believing they are above average when they haven’t learnt basic grammar well.

The end result is a superficially educated society with plenty of extremely entitled people.