But, does a degree matter, especially in countries like India?

I’m Naveen, a graduate from NIT Durgapur, India with a degree of Computer Science & Engineering, batch of 2014–18. So, I just finished my graduation and where does that put me?

And so, it began in 2014, as I came rushingly along with my dad to get my admission. The experience was pretty good in the first few days. We all have similar feelings. It is only when we get into academics is that we realize what we really lack.

Coming from a solid background in Mathematics and Physics, I had no complain as things were so easy for me. But, the things were repetitive, we were taught the same things we learnt at school. Initially, it felt like, okay they’re just brushing things up. But gradually, we noticed that the academic syllabus not only lacked new things but it only consisted of what was taught in our +2. That felt really disappointing. What’s the point of learning things over and over again? We were taught ‘C’ language, that’s the only new thing, especially to people coming from South India, with a background of state syllabus. For North Indians, it wasn’t much helpful as they already knew the syntax and worked with the language before. As we reached the end of first year, we basically knew nothing new, except for ‘C’.

And it doesn’t end there. Following the academics, we were taught absolute basics and old engineering techniques, which are highly outdated in the modern day IT industry. Little did we know that even institutes with national recognition had outdated academics. That felt so disappointing.

We were asked to program unusual things in our laboratory (like a web-server in C, who even uses that today?) that give us no knowledge in the present era.

Modern era programming languages like Go, JavaScript, Ruby, Python, etc. were no part of the academics. To my astonishment, one of my professors didn’t even know what version control systems were. I admit that we were given good knowledge in programming data structures and algorithms, OOP concepts and database management. But, that doesn’t put us anywhere near how things go in countries like USA, Britain, Australia, etc. One of my friends from NY laughed at me saying that they were taught Go and had assignments on GitHub.

We seriously need to update our academics. Heck, even my father was taught the same things I was. Our academic syllabus and curriculum dates back to 50 years and there was no update. In this Information Age, especially in the technology sector, a year is more than just 365 days, there goes a lot of work and knowledge. Things we see today, completely change the next year. If I hadn’t had a commitment to expand my knowledge well beyond my academics into the industrial world, it’d have left me with nothing to offer than just theoretical knowledge.

So, where really does my well reputed college education put me? And does a degree really matter in India?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m an Indian and I’m proud of it. I’m not criticizing India. I, just, am sharing my views about the education system we have. Other countries do have a good education system. But, we are good in our own way, the culture, the diversity, etc. are all what make India incredible.

We should grab what is good from others and imbibe it into our culture.