The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what education truly is. We assess the value of education in the same manner as we assess the value of land or of shares in the stock-exchange market. We want to provide only such education as would enable the student to earn more. We hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated. The girls, we say, do not have to earn; so why should they be educated? As long as such ideas persist there is no hope of our ever knowing the true value of education. (M. K. Gandhi True Education on the NCTE site)

Commonsense without education is welcome but education without commonsense is a disaster, we are all very well aware of this. Exams season is on, with the onset of summer it’s not just the mercury that’s soaring but the heart beat which is racing too. AIEEE, EAMCET, KCET,BITS are to name a few for the plus twos to get through whilst for those who are looking for studying outside the country it is SAT,TOEFL etc which add to the existing pressure. But, everything has a price and hard work never goes unrewarded. Today’s student seems to be very well aware of this.

Bombarded with hordes of information from all sources like the internet, media, educational institutions, counselors and above all well-educated parents present generation is certainly well equipped than ever before. Whilst this (rigorous academics) is one school of thought (or fact?!) there are nonconformists who are very much against the rote learning. They do not believe in ‘dumping’ the students with information but discovering their inherent talents and giving them avenues. But there is a hitch here. Students (and their parents who do not want to tax their children at the same time believe their progeny have outstanding qualities) who do not wish to enter this “competitive” race must have an exceptional talent, perseverance and guidance that will launch them onto a bright future. This gave avenue to IGCSE and IB curriculum in India to the existing SSC, CBSE & ICSE. We find many schools coming up in a big way with excellent infrastructure (not just ‘vertical’ growth but good amenities like football field, swimming pools, and well-equipped labs) with right combination of study & play. More and more parents are going for this. But our traditional education market dint lose its faithful customers who continue to believe in medicine, engineering and IT (latest addition in the bandwagon)

Is it only in India that we have a system like this? How different is the India from its other Asian siblings in terms of education? How different is Indian education from that of Singapore or Indonesia? Let’s take a look these three basic education (schooling) systems.

Education in Indonesia is the responsibility of the Ministry of National Education of Indonesia (Departemen Pendidikan Nasional Republik Indonesia/Depdiknas). In Indonesia, every citizen has to have nine years of education, six years at elementary level and three in middle school.A formal education is divided again into three levels, primary, secondary and tertiary education.

From birth until the age of 5, Indonesian children do not generally have access to formal education. From the age of 5 to 6 or 7, they attend kindergarten .This education is not compulsory for Indonesian citizens, as the aim of this is to prepare them for primary school.
Children ages 7-12 Elementary School. This level of education is compulsory for all Indonesian citizens, based on the national constitution
Middle School,is part of primary education in Indonesia. Students attend Middle School for three years from the age of 13-15. After three years of schooling and graduation, students may move on to High School or College, or cease formal education

Based on the national constitution, Indonesian citizens do not have to attend high school as the citizens only require nine years of education

Tertiary education -After graduation from High school or college, students may attend a university

Dutch influence is clearly seen in the Indonesian education system as British in India.(Incidentally Gandhiji is said to have described the traditional educational system as a beautiful tree that was destroyed during British rule)

Indian Education System comprises stages called Nursery,Primary,Secondary,Higher Secondary,Graduation & Post Graduation. Some students go in different stream after Secondary for 3 Years Technical education called Polytechnics

There are broadly four stages of school education in India, namely primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary(or high school). Overall, schooling lasts 12 years, following the “10+2 pattern”. However, there are considerable differences between the various states in terms of the organizational patterns within these first 10 years of schooling.
  
Formal education in Singapore begins at primary schools, starting from Primary 1 through Primary 6, which is similar to First Grade through Sixth Grade in the American system. Children who pass the Primary Six Leaving Examination (PSLE) at the end of Primary 6 will progress to secondary schools.
Students who pass the GCE ‘O’ Level examination at the end of Secondary 4 or 5 will then have to compete for admission to either a Junior College (2 years), a Polytechnic (3 or 4 years) or a Pre-University Centre (3 years). Finally, students who pass the GCE(General Certificate of Education) ‘A’ Level examination at the end of Junior College Year 2 or Pre-University Year 3, and students with excellent results at the end of Polytechnic Year 3/4 will then have to compete for admission to a local university, either National University of Singapore (NUS) or Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Coming to the technical aspect of education in all the three the systems, they focus on the improvement of the cognitive aspect of the human brain. The aim is to provide a generation of hard workers, which focuses more on productivity rather than creativity and developing open minds.
Intelligence, actually, has many types. Gardner divides intelligence into eight types, i.e.
· logical
· linguistic
· spatial
· musical
· kinesthetic
· naturalist
· intrapersonal
· interpersonal
Thus, our systems (like in many developing Asian countries) only deal with improving logical intelligence. Singapore applied this system simply because Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore’s first Prime Minister) wanted productive people more than creative persons.
On the other hand, the education system in many western countries such as in the US, Australia, and the European Union provides the students the opportunities to improve many types of their intelligence (many Indian students who moved to theses place for higher studies are living testimonies to this). The students are encouraged to be creative, free-thinking, more tolerant and open-minded persons. This system allows many advances in both technology and society in many developed countries not just the western countries but also in Japan, China, and Korea although in these countries academic feudalism may still be seen.
Even today’s moral sciences in educational system is lacking in morality education. Creating a generation with a high morality and social responsibility is not just by teaching and memorizing in the schools. Good marks are useless without good morality education either in the family or school. Every house reverberates with parent’s dictum -‘study hard and make money’. Is money the ultimatum? Is this the motto of the millennia to come? Aren’t there any other dimensions in life that give fulfillment and add true value to life? Life begets life; let us enjoy various hues of life without limiting ourselves just to the survival aspect. Let education educate us this way….
(Footnote: Statistics from wikipediahttp://www.sgbox.com/singaporeeducation.html,)