Sunday Posts

The unacknowledged symptom of middle-class midlife when personal arguments and political choices converge into a farce. So was last week for me! For me, with a 9 year old, it is that time when the conversation about school choice starts. The British middle class wisdom - State (schools) till 8! - knocks on the door. The juggling of post codes, entrance examinations and school ratings overwhelm dinner table conversations. The conversation about happy children looks quaint, and the intense race for 'future' starts.  My protestation that the Secondary school is still a good two years away is pointless. I live within an enclave of Indian professionals, striving suburban middle-classmen who grew up in scarcity and embraced oneupmanship as a positive virtue: I am starting the race for future way too late.  But, indeed, there is some truth in the obsession about schools, and that hits home as I google the local state schools. The story I see is consistent, ranging...

Politicians love vocational education. They throw money at it, imagining this to be an harbinger of opportunity and catcher of votes. Wouldn't it be wonderful to train up all those young people on dole and get them to work? And, indeed, they preach as they practice - the developing world governments are told about their skills problems and told to take up loans (making themselves more indebted) to offer vocational education, the panacea of all ills! However, my contention is that vocational education, in the current form, does more harm than good. This is because vocational education as practiced is based on an elitist perception both about the vocation and the education that it needs. The people who plan for plumbers' education often haven't spent a day in their life plumbing, and they believe plumbing is for those poor souls who couldn't do anything smart as them; for them, plumbing education is really about reading up a few pages of DIY guide as they would have...