Average Indian’s Empty, Materialistic and Obsession with STEM Education— I

If you have lived in India long enough these are the following dialogues which are commonly sung in most Indian households “Watch Mr Sharma’s son, he has completed his bachelor’s in computer science and is now working as a Software engineer in Google in California”.” Wow! Look at Mr Gupta’s daughter, she is doctor after her MBBS”. News articles that are excited when a random “Indian heritage” has become a CEO of Technlogy firm.

Here are some of the questions I have for these singers: —

Don’t you realise that Mr Sharma’s and Mr Gupta’s have the aptitude required for their respective professions?

Do you think that everyone who follow the same path are likely to reap the benefits?

Do you think that ethics are a priority in these jobs?

I am pretty sure that these questions are something which these blind singers don’t understand. Ever since the Indian independence from the British Empire in 1947, the only path for an average Indian was to gain a degree in STEM. This initially began with the construction of institutions like Indian Institute of Science (IISc) (Natural Science and Engineering) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)(Engineering) followed by National Insitute of Technology (NIT)(Engineering) throughout the nation just like the Technische Universität (TU) (Academia) followed by Fachhochschule (FH) (Industrial) in Germany and Austria with the hope that we can build the nation from its ashes. In the case of Medical Education, it was All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) religious and private institutions

A lot has changed ever since the liberalisation of the Indian economy in the 90’s by the former economic minister Dr Manmohan Singh, a lot of companies have set up their IT departments here with the focus of providing a service which is pertained to software which has led to a greater demand in those days which has led to a rapid growth of private institutions by businessmen whose primary objectives were to profit over quality training of engineers. Around this time, Indians in the Silicon Valley who were graduates of IITs which became a source of inspiration for an average Indian to strife harder to secure an admission in these prestigious public institutions in the country which has led to selection criteria based in this one exam known as the Indian Insitute of Technology Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE) and this was gaining some amount of popularity among STEM aspirants which has led to mushrooming of tuition centre which are specialised in training students to compete in these exams which has become lucrative as the overheads were very small unlike other businesses and these teachers could be granted above average salaries which has played a key role in the growth of these industries. This has led to increased competition leading to AIEEE which required your entrance scores and marks obtained from your final year of your high school (12th grade) which later became JEE-Main that solely focussed on the entrance examination that lasted for 3 hours based on Math, Chemistry and Physics.

As of today, the coaching industry is worth $6.5 billion as the fees for 2-year coaching program range from $2000-$4000 per student and one classroom would house around 60 students which has led to 1.1 million test takers for the JEE Mains (eligible to apply to NITs) of which the 250,000 of them were eligible to write the JEE Advanced which finally selected only 10,000 of them. These exams are now held twice a year unlike earlier which was held only once.

Now, here is the outcome: —

Unemployment of engineers is at its rock bottom.

Increasing suicide rates among aspirants

Shortage in areas like construction

Unemployment has crept into premier institutes

Remember the net worth of $6.5 Billion of these coaching centres, now compare this with a research organisation like Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) of $1.6 Billion which has revolutionised the space travel by reducing the cost of space travel which are headed and operated by scientists, technicians and engineers who haven’t graduated from these prestigious institutions.

So, what do these elite graduates do with their degrees? They have three paths which involves a lucrative career in Financial Services, a career in technology in Silicon Valley and build a startup which is more likely to fail but hey, the tag of being a graduate comes with its perks of easier access to venture funds which in turn creates jobs for people. So…this is to tell you the truth that STEM is just in the name not part of the game but rather it is the bling which is keeps the game going.

Stay tuned for the next episode.