Education in India
I had a discussion with a friend from India yesterday, and we ended up comparing post-secondary education in India and Canada. I knew IIT was the top school in India for engineering and computer science, but I didn't realize they have 5 campus's and they are each separately rated. So it is possible to attend the lowest rated of the IIT campus's (which is still prestigous).
Also, I wasn't aware of the difference between the top rated and bottom rated schools in India. I did my computer science at Laurentian University, which is not considered a top rated school in Canada. Still, my program compared favourably with the programs at higher rated schools (based on courses available, quality of instruction, etc.). In fact, the personal interaction with the professors in a smaller school is a definite plus. However my friend told me some of the lower rated schools in India teach computer science but don't actually have computers.
He also said that the schools in India have less strong ties to the Alumni than schools in Canada (perhaps a "tie" with my previous schools means giving them the right to beg for money, but I digress). However he also used an interesting expression, "cooperate to dominate", which is a good way of summarizing the power of an alumni network.
Incidently, he was impressed at the amount of free play time children in Canada get, since he knows it is important for developing the mind.
By the way, I hope I haven't presented a negative picture of education in India. The fact is the schools that don't have computers could end up with computers in a short period of time, and would end up churning out quite acceptable programmers. The programmers I've known who have been trained in India have comparable programming skills to those programmers trained in North America. Cultural issues are probably more significant than actual programming skills.
Also, I wasn't aware of the difference between the top rated and bottom rated schools in India. I did my computer science at Laurentian University, which is not considered a top rated school in Canada. Still, my program compared favourably with the programs at higher rated schools (based on courses available, quality of instruction, etc.). In fact, the personal interaction with the professors in a smaller school is a definite plus. However my friend told me some of the lower rated schools in India teach computer science but don't actually have computers.
He also said that the schools in India have less strong ties to the Alumni than schools in Canada (perhaps a "tie" with my previous schools means giving them the right to beg for money, but I digress). However he also used an interesting expression, "cooperate to dominate", which is a good way of summarizing the power of an alumni network.
Incidently, he was impressed at the amount of free play time children in Canada get, since he knows it is important for developing the mind.
By the way, I hope I haven't presented a negative picture of education in India. The fact is the schools that don't have computers could end up with computers in a short period of time, and would end up churning out quite acceptable programmers. The programmers I've known who have been trained in India have comparable programming skills to those programmers trained in North America. Cultural issues are probably more significant than actual programming skills.
posted by Shawn Abigail at 9:17 a.m.
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