India's education system is failing techies; my opinion
First off, the curriculum is outdated. We're still being taught programming languages and technologies that are no longer relevant in the industry. When I was in college, we spent so much time on C and C++ but barely touched on Python or JavaScript, which are in high demand right now. The industry moves fast, but our education system doesn't keep up.
Another big issue is the lack of practical experience. Most of our education is theory-based. We memorize algorithms and data structures but don't get enough hands-on experience to understand how to apply them in real-world scenarios. I remember cramming for exams and then forgetting everything a week later because I never actually used that knowledge in a practical setting.
The focus on rote learning is another problem. We're trained to score high marks in exams rather than to understand and innovate. This creates a mindset where students are more concerned about grades than actually learning something useful. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people with excellent academic records struggle to solve basic problems at work because they never learned to think critically.
Also, there's a huge gap between academia and industry. Professors often have little to no industry experience, so they can't provide insights into what skills are actually needed in the job market. When I started my first job, I felt like I was starting from scratch because so much of what I learned in college was irrelevant.
Lastly, there's the issue of soft skills. Our education system doesn't emphasize communication, teamwork, or problem-solving skills, which are crucial in the tech industry. I had to learn these on the job, and it was a steep learning curve.
So, in my opinion, yes, India's education system is failing tech professionals. We need a complete overhaul to make it more relevant, practical, and aligned with industry needs. Until that happens, we'll continue to see a gap between what students learn and what they need to succeed in their careers.
I believe the initial part of the education system is great. Indian education system gets really crappy at a graduate level where it’s “sheep in, sheep out” mechanism.. colleges are cash markets looking for mass admission and fees. Students are blindly going through outdated syllabus. Teachers are just doing their bit to ensure syllabus is covered. No soft skills, no logic, no actual brain usage for innovation.
Indian education system is good. At the entry level, the college must introduce people to basics. And sometimes even the archaic subjects. It is like building the foundation. It should give them a platform to do the thinking and learning. It does that well. Students do not benefit because there is no person to guide them. If we go by industry expectations, they would expect students to be able to deliver and start working from day 1.
Think of it like - an airforce pilot is not taught to fly in the most ast advanced jet. They teach at the most archaic plane. The air force then picks its candidates according to its assessment and trains them accordingly.
Agreed. But, nowadays you don't need a degree to get a tech job. You need skills!
So, I'd say, the entire colleges with CSE degrees could be redundant, but there are orgs which hire if you have a minimum degree(pathetic!)
So, we can possibly have overhaul like how Scaler school has come up. Their curriculum is pretty good.
Moreover, I'd say, we need more passionate engineers who aren't joining colleges to get a job at the end, but rather because it's fun to do that degree. I don't see that more and would love to!
Also, i don't think this post should be in Get Motivated. Who are we motivating with this post really? It's just a take/opinion you have
Agree with most of it but the first one. C and C++ are great. Purpose of a computer science degree is not to make you a web developer or a data scientist but to make you understand the fundamentals of computers. Higher level languages like js or python are great but there are a lot of abstraction layers in it. We had subjects like compiler design and data structures, C helps you understand those concepts. Relating to those concepts would be harder with higher level languages. Anyways I don't think language should be a barrier anyways for us engineers, if you know one language, you can pick up another in a few weeks, enough to get started at least.