"Don't let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action." - Jim Rohn (American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker).

'Get up! Get up! Get up! Run to school. Study this, learn that. Come back! Again run run run. To tuition. Welcome back home. Finish your food fast and go to study. Now go to sleep. Wake up again early tomorrow.' No one knows when the day starts and when it ends. Sounds relatable? This is the routine of almost everyone in this country. All in some kind of a race for getting a 'nine to five job'. And in this race, some finish the race, some finish all hopes, and some even finish themselves. According to Albert Einstein, "Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think." But sadly this is not what the reality is. Rather the reality is something nightmarish.

During school days, a student's future is predicted in two phases; first, upto class tenth on the basis of the marks he or she scored and second, during the two years of higher secondary, on the basis of the stream he or she has gone for. If Science, then 'Oh! Bright future ahead', if Commerce, then 'Ok! It's good but you have to work hard', and if Arts, then 'Did you receive such a poor grade in your tenth standard?' Yes, shocking but reality. Family members, relatives, neighbors, and sometimes strangers are always there to demotivate the child. Better to say motivate the child through demotivation (according to them). It sometimes feels like the society has formed some kind of an imaginary chain, more of a ritual to push every child through this 'nightmarish' system without giving them a hint of reality. During the twelve years in school, teachers only force students to mug up theories and facts. Students are forced to learn formulae of mathematics although they have no real importance in the outside world. From the school days, groupism comes into action. Since primary school, when a child's innocent mind tries to make more friends, teachers and parents corrupt their mind with this 'groupism'. Everyone must have heard this phrase, 'Don't be friends with him or her. He or she is not good at studies'. If a child's mind is a blank canvas, then teachers and parents are there to paint it with all unnecessary or unrealistic mindsets. From there comes egotism, ignorance, comparison etcetera. According to Shri APJ Abdul Kalam sir, "Some of the brightest minds in the country can be found on the last benches of the classroom". Inside of a classroom the sitting position of a child does not decide his capability or his IQ. A student from the last bench can become a great personality in future. No one knows and it is useless to predict anything.

This society has turned into a judging society, where everyone is judging everyone on the basis of everything. Even the subjects taught in school are divided into two: most important ones and least important ones. In the epic Mahabharata, guru Dronacharya used to teach both the royal clans, that is, Pandavas and Kauravas, arts of warfare. Rather than bookish knowledge, he used to believe in skill development. He used to teach each child what they are interested in. Today, both Ramayana and Mahabharata are included in the school syllabus but somewhere they lost their true value. Rather than using them to build the students' mindset, they are just being used to help increase the gross marks in examinations. Outside of the school premises, caste system rules, and inside of the school premises, grade system rules. Moreover, comparing a child with another on grounds of literally every single thing leaves a deep scar on the child's psychology. Every child is unique in their own ways and their mental condition varies from each other. Repeating the statement 'you are good for nothing' never helps a child. Rather it brings down a child's self-confidence and self-esteem. Shri APJ Abdul Kalam sir also believed that, "Indian education framework needs to change completely". Was it just his thought or something that really needs to be implemented as early as possible? The schooling system in India has many loopholes. One can rightly state that 'almost everything is wrong with this education system'. A school has everything to crush a child's passion and turn him or her into a machine, the only difference being the ability to breathe. In western countries where teenagers are forced to earn their living just to make them prepared for the hardships of life, in India, teenagers still need to be spoon-fed.

Recently Bollywood gave the citizens a new term, nepotism. But is the word really new? Minister's son or family member becoming a minister, CEO's family member becoming a CEO etcetera. Aren't they a part of nepotism? In many cases, it can be noted that vacancies for a job role are being filled by many illegal terms and conditions. Until a few years back, the system was 'degree over skills' but now the system has become 'money over degree over skills'. When candidates are being shortlisted for an interview in a company, the first and foremost question asked is 'Are you studying or you got your degree?' A person with a degree can have no expertise in that field whereas a student pursuing a degree may have that expertise. Rejecting someone just on the basis of owning a stamped piece of paper can be the stupidest thing of the entire humankind. India is a country where skilled people hardly get a job and people with a degree get a job first and then acquire skills according to the offered job role. Recently in West Bengal, around 183 teachers were fired as they were illegally recruited. And this step was taken or was forced to be taken, after the protests of the deserving candidates and the media's attention. Better to say it was just a step taken in order to protect some people's political image. Some amongst the 183 candidates were the relatives of the ministers and others had given donations to get a job. Sadly, India is a country where illiterate ministers rule the country whereas literate people roam here and there for a job. Moreover, the majority of the population has a very narrow ideology. They have the tendency to bring those people down who try to break the chain and try something new for a change. 'What will people think' rules the people's ideology or mindset in this country. Hence, people who break the chain have to prove themselves to people who don't even play any role in their lives.

The curriculum followed in schools and colleges has many flaws in them. For example, school taught the formula, (a+b)²=a²+2ab+b², but never ever taught the real life use of this formula. Similarly, the whole syllabus consists of so many topics that are completely irrelevant from reality. But did anyone raise a question about it? Since the very childhood days, maximum of the students have to deal with authority parents at homes and authority teachers at school. Since childhood days a ritual has been followed that 'parents and teachers are always right' and those who went against it were labeled as 'uncultured' or 'don't know how to respect elders'. Here an argument occurs that 'not all parents and teachers are like this'. True. Parents and teachers have a far more experience of life but since the time and environment is changing day by day, some of their old experiences may not be as valid in the modern times. Helping a student choose his or her career is a good initiative and every parent and teacher should do it but first of all they have to broaden the students' mind. They have to let the child know that there is a world outside of the 'engineering or medical cycle'. One of the main reasons behind this country's unemployment is that people don't even have any knowledge about other life building jobs available in the market. Schools teach biology while keeping the mindset of being a doctor in future, neglecting botanists, zoologists, environmentalists etcetera. Geography is taught as a 'not-so-important' subject neglecting the idea of being a geologist. In the current status of India, those who chose to stay away from the rat race, formed their own small communities and are helping each other to prosper. In India, all the states have their own education boards and they provide education in an affordable range to help every student to study. But here is the biggest irony. State government schools have a pitiful truth. They neither have experienced teachers nor have a proper infrastructure. The central government schools have teachers and infrastructure but they also have reservation systems in them. Private schools have excellent teachers, best infrastructure, and no reservation system but their fees are far away from the reach of poor or underprivileged people. And there comes the government who does everything for these people till the media's cameras are on.

Well, teachers and parents are not the only ones to be blamed. Teenagers today spend more time on the internet than in textbooks. That too they use it as their mode of entertainment. Making short dance videos for fun, pranking people for fun, roaming around aimlessly in the streets in groups etcetera. And after all this, when there is a 'Fail' on the report card, they blame their teachers and the education system. In some cases or in some recent viral videos, we have seen students attacking and assaulting teachers. Is this what our rich culture taught us? Moreover, the mass media is another leading cause of distraction for the students. Instead of showing achievements of the people, all they cover are crime stories, bollywood stories, stories of corruption, and sometimes they telecast the upcoming episode of a TV series. Indians making the country proud by representing the country in foreign competitions and winning for the country but hardly anyone knows about it. Another problem is with the cognitive biases of each student. Human mind is something that always looks for confirmation before making any decision. A child wanting to try something new always wants support but when it doesn't get the needed support, it backs up.

According to recent reports over 13,000 students choose suicide as a better option in the year 2021, with an approximate of 35 students per day. The suicide rate has faced a hike of 4.5% from the year 2020 with 12,526 deaths. Moreover in an analysis by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) since the year 1995, the year 2021 is ranked to have the highest number of student suicide. An approximate of 2,00,000 student suicide cases have been reported in the past twenty-five years. There was a time when exams were taken so that students can test their weaknesses. But now exams are being taken to predict a child's future. Not cracking NEET or JEE is marked as the child's failure and it remains for lifetime. And dropouts are treated no less than a slave as the society has already forbidden them from trying something new. According to the recent data presented by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) the rate of unemployment in this country rose to 8.3% by December 2022 which is the highest in the past sixteen months. According to a website IndexMundi (https://www.indexmundi.com), till January 2020, India held the 86th rank in the world in terms of unemployment. Well, numbers do speak a lot.

So, what is the solution to tackle the situation? Well, there are many measures the government can initiate in order to overcome all the loopholes present in the current education system. Every child is unique in their own ways. And schools should support them in every possible way. Giving them a chance to shine rather than suppressing them will be the best way to solve this issue to a certain extent. From textbooks to teaching to ways of taking an examination, everything is outdated and should be changed as soon as possible. Learning should not be kept limited to books. Rather they should be interactive, full of fun videos, to attract the attention of the students. At the beginning of middle school, every student including their parents should go for career counseling so that they can better understand their passion and also have a broader knowledge about the career opportunities after school. A country's economy doesn't depend solely on doctors, engineers, or government officials. Rather it depends on every single earning individual. From a doctor, engineer, officer to a small scale business owner, a writer, a delivery person: everyone contributes their own share to the country's economy. Every job should be treated equally. There should be no division of 'Science', 'Commerce', and 'Arts'. Students should have the freedom to choose their subjects accordingly. If a student is interested in sports then schools should provide proper training accordingly. A reason behind the country's unemployment is the lack of the required skills in the candidates. There are many applications or websites where students can gain a lot of skills like digital marketing, graphic designing, content writing, copywriting etcetera in exchange for some money. Schools and colleges should renew their syllabus and make them more career friendly. Instead of just mugging up theories, they should teach those skills from as early as class sixth only. On-field learning should be given more preference than classroom learning. With a gradually changing world, it is very important to change the ideology of people.

Parents and teachers should stop these blame games. In parent-teacher meetings, instead of listing the child's flaws, they should discuss how to help the child. If a child scores poor marks in an examination then the fault can be the lack of self study of the student. Parents and teachers should come together to make the child understand the importance of it. Physical punishments and mental tortures can take a turn towards the worse. A child's mind is quite simple and innocent and putting unnecessary pressure on it can make the child highly suicidal. Entrepreneurship should be a part of the school curriculum. The 'Start-up' culture is already appreciated in the West. It should also be appreciated in developing countries like India. The fact of 'failure' should also be introduced to the child. Failure should be viewed as a chance to work upon weaknesses not as a 'not being able to do something'. As quoted by the famous American industrialist, Henry Ford, "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently." If a child fails at some point it doesn't mean that he/she will have to quit. It means that she/he can take their own time to come up with a strategy to overcome the obstacle. Moreover, it is a child's responsibility too to get the knowledge from different sources that the schools fail to teach. Many online sources are there for help. Instead of having some 'Netflix and chill', they can learn from the various documentaries available there. This will not only help them to learn something new but will also give them a view of the world outside of the 'engineering - medical' cycle. In short, it can be seen that there are so many things to do. Now the only wait is for the implementation of these ideas.

Wrapping up, it can be said that a whole lot of things are there to be changed in this timeworn education system. Not only students but parents and teachers also should work on increasing their knowledge about new and career opportunities. Government should bring a change in the curriculum and make it more career friendly. In modern times, the world is just one click away. Just one click and open a page of whole new information from every corner of the world. Like the western countries, India is also full of creative minds. The only things they need are a new opportunity, a new path, a little support, a little enthusiasm, and a little courage to let themselves shine and make the country proud.

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