Few points made above are correct but are independent of each other.

Is coaching essential…yes, no doubt, its a competetive world, school teaching is not enough…besides in limited time that the school has, they are not able to provide complete subject knowledge. Hence coaching centre fill those gap.

But I object to the school teachers taking tutions at home for their own tought students, basically “blackmailing” parents and students to undertake tutions from them only, for material gains, i.e. earn more money. In this process the education gets compromised, as the teacher has to pass the “tutored” student as they have taken their private tution, even if the student does not deserve it. I can continue to reel out the dis-advantages to school teachers taking tutions, but we all understand the fact with reagrds to the home tutions.
This does not mean that the teacher is not good, but the teacher should be barred from taking the tutions of their own students.

secondly, yes the schools are becoming money spinning machines, but the sporting talent cannot be nurtured at schools, their are seperate schools for them, lets face it, there is more competetion in sports than in academics and you need to be really exceptional in the field to make a decent living.

Yes the teachers needs to be trained, but their is something called self training also, for eg. in corporate world if i want to “jump”, I will go for MBA and other career enhancing courses at my own will and money…same, perhaps, apply to teaching field also..we cannot always blame the system…

I donot agree that we are too far away..in fact we are known in the world right now for our brain power (software skill, analytical skills, sound theoritical knowledge, etc..), which has earned a lot of long due repect for Indians. It is basically our education system, which emphasises on the sound theory and presence of very very keen competetion in the society, bringing the best in every student, making them fighting smart…in every situation…

why is the school bag so heavy, revision…why is that every student has to go for a tuition to see that they pass or get good grades…why has it become essential ? Is it the inefficiency of the schools or the system…why can’t the syllubus be much more comprehensive than what it is today.

I guess overall the education system is only considered as a business unit than bringing our talent. Let’s take examples of the teachers, you pay teachers 5k-10k ? they never get trained on the new technology, they never get trained …does this happen with the corporate world ? Education if it can be corporatised or create structures which can challenge the deficiencies today can be a different experience to the child. Consider it as a consumer market where the child is the consumer and the seller is the school. Do I really get what I pay for as of today ? Schools are just minting money, lets take an example : 30k-40k average per admission every year i.e. 40k * 300 students = 1.2 crs. The money gets invested into assets such as buses, building etc. School has also become a retail sqft game, the more the campus, the more the students and more the money. But have they invested on training, have they invested on a good library for children, facilities, ensure to nurture creativity in children ????

We are still too far away from what we need to create. If you want to see an India superpower in the next 10 years, we need to invest and nurture basics…

cheers !!