Meaning of education to me...

From the very beginning of my graduation day, i was in a dilemma about the meaning of education. Education, to me is an enabler, and all other means to educate people are facilitators. i was baffled by the very basic question what i will be able to do hands-on after i got a BE degree. i didn't want to become a theory-mugging Babu like so many engineering graduates in India. To me if a software engineer is not able to write good programs of a running application, there is no meaning of his education. it does not matter how much theory one churns out, the way to practice that theory should be the motto of education...

As Swami Vivekananda said, "We may talk and reason all our lives, but we shall not understand a word of truth, until we experience it ourselves. You cannot hope to make a man a surgeon by simply giving him a few books. You cannot satisfy my curiosity to see a country by showing me a map; I must have actual experience. Maps can only create curiosity in us to get more perfect knowledge. Beyond that they have no value whatever... "

i am damn sure if someone looks into the IT industry, he will find lot of middle level managers and senior managers who just can't decipher a simple programming concept... They can be termed as Babus in the IT industry.. if an automobile engineer has to call a mechanic every time his car falters, his engineering degree does not serve the basic purpose...

Here in India we give more importance to marks... A student scoring 90% might not be an effective engineer...i know there are a number of engineers who would not have become engineers had they been guaranteed jobs in other industries...i know there are few people who want others to remain in dark and make profit out of their ignorance... under any circumstances they cannot be termed as good human beings...

thats the only reason probably i have embraced open source technologies to work on my software passion... because it gives freedom... i think FOSS is more about freedom than about free of cost...however, there are some limitations in the open source technologies as well... the limitation is that one has to overcome a steep learning curve to contribute a little to the learning society... and there is no hand-holding for a new comer... so far i have just used some of the open source technologies like Ubuntu, eclipse, android... but i have not been able to contribute any thing in terms of bug fixing of an open source project... however, i try to contribute to the learning society, in whatever little form it may be, through my technical blog...

i know i am an insignificant guy to change the way education is being practiced here in India...i know its not easy to become Jonathon Livingstone Seagull...  however, i want someone influential to think the way i have thought about education....