Posted by I had mentioned in an earlier blog that I am attending a refresher course in management skills from a renowned management institute located in North India Marketing Management and life lessons….. My daughter is the biggest critic of my decision and terms me as crazy. Well, anyone who hears that someone who has spent 30 years plus in Human Resource Management (HRM) is attending classes in HRM at the age of 56 is bound to agree with my daughter. In fact, after having attended the classes for two months even I am in a dilemma; Am I learning or unlearning or maybe unlearning to learn or learning to unlearn.
But, for me it is good fun attending classes with no worry of the marks. I have the freedom to learn just what interests me. The classes offer me a great opportunity to observe the behaviour of the professors and the students as an outsider.
I am surprised to find that the sole purpose of the institute is to prepare youth for a job in the corporate world. I always thought that the aim of education was to ignite the minds, to empower the students to question the status quo and make them realise their potential which will ultimately help them in finding their purpose of life. Every 10th line spoken by every professor stresses on how the previous nine lines will help the student in finding their feet in the corporate world. As if that world is full of sharks who are waiting to crush the new entrants in their jaws. Apparently the only way out for the freshers is to arm themselves with some corporate jargons.
Unfortunately, every student irrespective of the age and the background appears to be focused on just getting a job. I always thought that it is not the institute or the degree you hold which gets you the job. It is the not the lineage but what you have in you, the material you are made of which helps in finding the right path.
A subject like management should not be limiting the options. It should act as a stimulant which activates the imagination and opens the horizons. How can classroom teaching be so much in variance with the real world? At least the institution I am going to certainly is a true example of this. Instead of helping the students in creating a vision most institutes are forcing them to wear the blinkers. Horses and humans certainly have different needs.
The institute is focussed on training the students to fit into the available space instead of giving them the confidence of creating their own space. I do not blame the institute solely for this flawed approach. In a nation where status is defined by the appointment and the salary package and not by the knowledge/ intelligence most institutes will resort to such an approach.
The management institutes are just churning out ‘job hungry’ graduates instead of creating leaders. Every University topper is content being a follower. Maybe that is the reasons we have generally illiterate political leadership, and the educated class is happy to serve them. Yes, jobs are required to sustain but the purpose of life lies much beyond.
It is high time the management institutes like the one I am a student of get their act right. The aim should not be to manage the students, fit in as many classes as possible and conduct tests. The focus should be more on stimulating the minds and producing self-propelled leaders. I am convinced that what my school and the profession taught me about management is way superior to anything this institute is capable of teaching.
Is our education system encouraging or killing creativity/ innovation????
I can totally relate to this as I was a victim to this. But, we can’t protest or bring about a change in our system of education because the management in most of these institutions are ruthless and strict. All they care about is minting money. They don’t care about producing intelligent and creative students by equipping them with proper knowledge and skills. These educational institutions are profit oriented and just serve as a business opportunity. Business to kill the nation in the long run, if you ask me. Great post btw! 🙂
Job is the mool mantra of any Mgmt institute these days especially in a country like ours. May be things are slightly different in the other parts of the world. Your observations are right sir but this is how it is. Neither the students nor the professors are interested in learning or teaching. It’s module / capsule based and learn to earn is part of the process. Regards
Yaaa..may be the IIMs are different..
Have a lovely day..🙏🙏
I Appreciate your thought on management of education systems… most of the education systems are owned by the people who are responsible to change the present education system and they wont change it….example.. lot of engineering colleges are owned by politicians who should be responsible to maintain at least the basic standards…but it is just a joke to expect from them…there are lot of other factors too …YBR
True .
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts..
Regards..
My pleasure…YBR
My pleasure..YBR
I guess this post somehow relates to a quote you have shared about living and existing. Many don’t know that the lives they lead are simply patterns that have been repeated time and again, hence proven to be safe. Safety nets need to be taken away if life is to be experienced with an edge of curiosity, excitement, and meaning. Thanks for sharing this! Wish you luck in your future endeavors. 🙂
Thank you so much Terveen for reading and leaving your thoughts…you are right the safety needs need to be taken away..
Stay blessed 🙏😇
Right on. Thy will be done. Do as though wilt… and so on and so forth spoken by different peoples. Noone is being hurt and hope it shall reap rewards for you and/or the family, if a benefit be had, then, why the hell not do it? Not hurting anything. Your daughter sounds opinionated and outspoken. Right on for her too. We live our lives having to answer to ourselves in the end. The comical thing about learning you spoke of reminds me of a quote by Chuang Tzu, translated by Thomas Cleary in a book titled, “The Essential Tao”. It makes my brain feel like scrambled eggs, but makes so much sense.
Right..Dawn..I believe in learning…trying quite a few things like NLP, German language and this course on Management…life is going good…just loving it ….Daughters are like that…’outspoken’ with their fathers…but they are blessings of God to a man…
God bless you 🙏🌹🙏
It’s unfortunate that there is that stigma in education. I recently got my MBA in the US and it seems that isn’t the case there, it was much more focused on innovation, communication, and growth. I work at a community college and the mindset that you are talking about is very much catered to the “help me get a job” mindset. I think it depends on the audience.
Good on you for going back to school! Never stop improving.
Thank you so much John for your input.
Stay blessed always 🙏🙏🙏