Education - Learning.. correction- ROTE-learning!

Day in and day out, for the last 20 years - the syllabus for Computer Science for my University had remained unchanged. NO, this is not a joke - for a stream like Computer Science where technologies become the toast of the town and then equally efficiently labelled as obsolete, students of Computer Science and Engineering have been reading the same books, answering the same questions in the answers, memorizing instead of learning and reproducing like a robot - their understanding nil and their brain functioning like some volatile memory..the moment the exams are over and done with, pooh! There goes your subject and there goes the understanding, if any, of it..

The photograph that I have inserted into this blog - is of a book explaining microprocessors and microcontrollers. This particular book, obtained from an old book market has passed through the hands of countless students - at times of sessionals, unit tests and ofcourse - the dreaded University Exams. Time and time again,I find me asking one question to myself - Is there really any use to studying like this? When I say studying, it's just for the namesake, because there is no understanding/conceptual basis involved in whatever I am learning, and the main prerogative at this period of time is to obtain good marks in the examination. However did things go so downhill? Learning and studying at the school where I studied till the Xth grade was so much fun.. it was delightful- with teachers doting over you, the homely atmosphere, the relevance of what we were learning deeply instilled within..

But not anymore..

Wont elaborate on the factors, they are too many.. they say a bad workman always blames his tools.. but here, the tools - the environment, the total mindset has to be blamed, and that does not exclude me and my viewpoint towards the local education system, fully aware that an Engineering degree from Nagpur University does not hold ANY value outside my city.. or for that matter, even inside it..

Yes, you are not mistaken - this IS an exam post.. and this is the same question that comes to my mind every semester of the last 3 years of my Engineering course.. with just 1 more year left with me, I just hope I can make things right and really do something worthy so that I can justify the 'Er.' in front of my name as and when I can get it..