There has always been a debate on educational reforms in our country, by making it more student friendly, but our current educational policies have failed to analyze the mindset of youth that, what “THEY” exactly want from the system. Today our schools spend more time separating successful and unsuccessful students rather than teaching them. Education has become more sort of a psychological burden with a shadow of uncertainity on the minds of youth rather than an enjoyable & learning experience. There is an undue stress of entrance exams, carrer prospects, jobs and worry of future attached with education among youth. Education has today been confined to, eyeing for ‘High Pay Packages’ in MNCs rather than curiousity to learn something. People are studying to ‘Earn’ not to ‘Learn’. And even after dreaming for fat pay jobs, the million dollar question which arises is….Where are the Jobs? Are our universities’s courses structured well enough to generate employment? We all want great jobs but our university courses are designed in a way that they don’t provide enough practical exposure and field work required for jobs. Our course structures are so theoretical, outdated and textbook oriented that they don’t generate enough opportunities. Therefore, an intense revision of the syllabus and a culture of innovation that will feed more startups needs to be promoted. There are long needing reforms in regulatory bodies like UGC, AICTE and MCI as well as to ammend the current educational policy which is solely based on rote learning and cramming. Today, there is no specific teaching of moral values, life skills, creative, asthetic and performing skills, social service & well being among youth and that is why they are coping with high stress levels, depression, addiction, mood swings, loneliness and poor mental health. So, we really need to pause a little and ponder that how this ‘Rat Race’ of merely acquiring a valid college degree as a justification of proving onself, can be checked. There should be a debate on the multi-disciplinary approach of education and the need of introducing various new subjects/key fields according to the interest of students. There should be discussion about the new evaluation methods in colleges, reforming traditional theoretical course structures, marking & accreditation of students on holistic and broader parameters for promoting sustained, inclusive, multi-dimensional and equitable growth.
