Bihar Cheating: Macaulay type of schooling responsible for degrading Indian education

By Dr Kallol Guha

Cheating in the examination in various cities of Bihar is being projected as a breaking news during the last couple of days. This subject was debated in one of the main stream media and debaters were the usual "leaders" of political parties. What is interesting to watch is the politicians claiming that the problem appeared during their opponents administration and that efficient policing is what they think is the solution. Cheating in exam is nothing new. It always existed both during pre and post-independence period.

During the middle ages when India's contribution to the world GDP was above 23%, India reportedly had as many as fifteen thousand institutes of higher technical education that attracted overseas students. Then from 1800 AD- Macaulay type education system was introduced to "Delink Indian from India" that fits the need of colonial masters which is continuing to this day.

News item being reported today is just a byproduct of that education system. Any civilized society with sense of culture would admit that contents and system of education in a given nation shapes and conditions human resource which in turn determines the role of a nation in the world. Cheating in the test is just a symptom. The disease is the low grade, uncultured, semi-illiterate leadership to whom the country and the nation is a means of amassing personal fortune.

(The writer is the President & CEO of Saint James School of Medicine in Illinois)