The One Liner

Why Are Indian Students Choosing To Study Abroad?

Pavani Mantripragada

December 20, 2022. 1 minute Read

Why Are Indian Students Choosing To Study Abroad?

When I was in college, it was clear that I wanted to study abroad. It was an idea I fixed in my mind in my final year. 

Did you know? The most successful businesses in India are the EdTech businesses. Whether it is Byjus, Udemy, Unacademy, or others, EdTech has a significant capital market in India. That is what education is for most Indians. 

Kids started taking coaching for IIT-JEE from the sixth standard itself. There would be students around you who are in the eighth standard, but they have already completed eleventh standard books. You prepare for college right from the age of 11. As a result, Education in India is more goal-oriented than learning a particular subject out of curiosity. That’s the massive backlash from students. They teach you how to crack exams but need to ingrain the knowledge of the concept truly. You learn less to gain understanding and more to crack exams. And that is where many students struggle in India and fail to score well in their 12th board exams. All the students, whatever their branch of Engineering they might end up taking later in life, have it ingrained in them that Mitochondria is the cell’s powerhouse. But if you ask them why it is called such, they need help. 

That’s why education abroad has become a common choice for most Indians. There is less stress on cracking exams and more on what you have learned. 70% of the students who graduate from India’s colleges wish to get their post-graduation abroad. 

Let me tell you why the choice to study abroad is so popular.

The State of Education In India

The education sector in India is okay, but it is a business for people rather than a center of learning. The resources are scarce. More is required to fund invaluable research. There needs to be more than the funding that a Government school in India gets to create a system that will bring outcome-based learning. 

You only get ample open space when the funding is limited to specific topics. It is a closed area for only certain areas of research. For example, colleges receive the highest allocation for Cancer Research and Stem Cell Research. The world of medicine extends considerably beyond these, but the financing of those topics is less. You have a different budget for Gene Therapy research which has great applications. The funding for robotics needs to be more. In such a case, even the fields of study become restricted. In various other countries, the government funds their colleges significantly for research that promises excellent utility. That’s why they have more extraordinary facilities for research and development. Excellent facilities bring more significant results. That’s why most Indian students want to go abroad to study.

Technological Advancements

Countries abroad invest highly in new technologies. High-class equipment is available with them. Hence, they achieve better results. 

They have a significant amount of advancement in their technologies. Better testing procedures. Better Technology allows you to access more information. Better Technology will enable you to multitask and give more refined results. We do many processes manually here, which you can do mechanically abroad.

We have recently started collecting data through software, but in developed countries, they have been doing this for almost three decades. They have refined systems for data collection

The Value Of Knowledge

It’s nothing to be ashamed of, to be proud of your skills, and to hope you get paid in worth for those skills. 

India needs to pay for the skills in the right amount. The work done is high, but the pay is less. That’s why most students wish to pursue education abroad and find jobs there. 

Countries like the United States provide you with a salary that will satisfy you with your skillset. Many companies value India for their top management positions have for their skills, while you cannot offer the same value to them in India. 

Naturally, we all want a better salary. One waits in India for four years before one gets a promotion, but if you have the right skill and show promising results, you’ll be promoted quickly in other countries. 

Why Are Indian Students Choosing To Study Abroad?
Why Are Indian Students Choosing To Study Abroad?

The International Standard Of Education

Currently, the United Kingdom has the highest quality index in education. They have the best education quality. Their top schools even teach you to consider advancements in world technology. The United States pays attention to education regarding the industries or market needs. Hence, much attention is paid to the curriculum to make it effective by considering the opportunities outside schools and colleges. They have schools with great rankings worldwide and even have schools that have global acceptance. 

The problem with India is that whether a student is from IIT or a private college, they can end up in the same college abroad at some point. The scenario is that regardless of the college you received your under-graduation from, you are judged based on your curriculum vitae instead of grades. Indian Colleges evaluate you based on competitive exams and academic scores only.

The International Experience

Most of us wish to only stay on the same page. If we have a dream, we want to go global someday but is the knowledge from our schools and colleges enough for that?

I’d say no. India doesn’t give any international exposure. Our curriculum would only reflect what is going on in the world in your chosen field. For example, Education in India sticks to the kind of market India has and how to tackle that. But it would be best if India could learn how to tackle international marketing with the same accuracy, which is why small countries such as Taiwan and South Korea are doing so well with the latest Technology. 

We need to be made aware of what the international standards are. We are yet to teach them in our schools. The curriculum is changed once in five to six years, while technological advancements happen within two years. Hence, the catch-up needs to catch up.

The Style Of Teaching

One of my friends studying abroad said, “What I learned in India was what to write in exams and what to say in Vivas. I learned what the teachers gave in the PPTs. Here in the UK, I’ve learned a lot through practical experience. The teaching classroom hours are less than the hours I’ve spent self-learning to write projects. They further assess us based on projects I have written. So, they expect us to know details of what I have done.” 

Cracking a competitive exam makes teaching in India restricted. The effort teachers make to teach precisely the knowledge you’d need to excel is less than what they teach because the syllabus still needs to be completed. 

Teachers even give special attention to only those who seem to get good exam scores. And even they were further encouraged to do other activities they could barely perform.

Final Thoughts

While it is not to say that education in India is terrible, we have to start focusing on aspects that aren’t just teaching children to crack exams. In my four years of college, the most I have learned is how to write exam answers. Or how to label diagrams or what color of pens to write on the answer sheet. I’ve learned less about the subject and more about getting suitable grades. 

India has to adapt to global standards today. We need to upgrade our curriculum to suit the industry and its needs. India needs more funding for government schools. Only when they provide better funding will their standards grow.

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