Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar loves to talk about education and his observation that the presents system of education has generated literate junk is not likely to go down well with educationists. Human Resources mangers on the other hand might back him because the general complaint from industry is that students coming out of colleges are not ready for the job and, more often than not, have to be re-trained. There is merit in the observation made by the minister although the terms used by him seem a little harsh. After all, many students finally make it big in the world. The more important question is, if the system is not capable of creating well-informed and ready-for-the-job graduates what is being done about it? The answer to this question could be lengthy, but as long as greater emphasis is placed on learning by rote as against application and problem solving, those coming out of colleges will have their heads filled with nothing of importance.
