NED, Indus Valley and The Great Divide (Part 2)

At this point, I think I should give a little more background on Indus Valley, NED, and education at the university level in Karachi, specifically.     

Indus Valley is a fascinating institution. If it squeezes money out of its students, it repays them in double with the amount of experiences it has to offer them. While I was introduced to Physics and Chemistry (again, might I add; I thought I'd seen enough of Physics and Chemistry in school, apparently not) in my first week of First Year of engineering, Indus Valley students went on a tour of Karachi. Most people would laugh this off since Karachiites have seen practically everything there is to see in this city. But my friends got to take a boat ride through the mangrove forests that border our coastline! That was clearly just the beginning. So while my fellow classmates and I attended class after class on analyzing transistor circuits, and water sanitation (that was in Applied Chemistry, btw), on the other side of the city, my friends were organizing and hosting a party in their university, and later on, a play, and building life-size models. But don't get me wrong. Indus Valley students don't party their way through college. No friggin way. They work just as hard as we do. One of my classmates aptly described the students of Indus Valley once, when he went there to visit his friends. He said, 'It was like they were all sleepwalking, THAT'S how tired they were.'

NED is also a highly recognized college (and I'm not just saying that because I study there). I've written in my old posts about how I had trouble adapting to the environment because I'd done A levels when most people in this university have graduated from the Intermediate board. I observed the same difference between NED and The Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture that I've seen between Intermediate and A level schools, except on a higher level. I guess if you look at it that way, it really boils down to the disparity between the two educational systems we've currently got in Pakistan. The British Council's Cambridge International Examinations, and our own Matric/Intermediate Board. But I'll save that for another post. 

At NED, let me tell you, grades count a lot. And since we've got absolute grading, that means that if your goal is to be in the top three, you'll be fighting for every bonus mark your teacher dishes out. It is exhausting to fight the way crazy housewives would over a bolt of cloth in one of those Karachi Expo Center Lawn exhibitions just for a mark or two. But, by golly, fight they do. So, most of the time, it feels like everyone around me is studying their asses off, not because they want to make the world a better place by applying engineering to the problems we encounter in our daily lives, but only for marks and grades and the honour that comes from being in the top ten scoring students in class (again, there are exceptions). I think THIS is probably one of the biggest hurdles NED must overcome if it wants to turn out more practically-oriented engineers. 


Okay, so I'm not going to heap the blame entirely on my university. It can't help if it's students are like that. And, after all, students have complete control over the way they study and WHY they study. It's just really hard to not get caught up in the grades race when everyone around you acts like their life depends on scoring 25/25 in their term marks. Which is why exams are always on my mind (sadly, that doesn't stop me from putting off everything a day before it's due).

Another factor. Professors. We've got great teachers in my university, and the method of teaching varies, obviously, from one to another. But there's a gaping lack of creativity and originality in their lectures (there are exceptions; we had a really fun Electronics teacher this year!) that can't help but make you daydream about life beyond engineering, and what your school friends might be doing on the other side.

All in all, this is where I was coming from when I met up with my friends that day. No wonder I felt like the most boring person on the planet. It made me realize that I've got to take more care of myself, or the alternative would be turning into an uncultured computer junkie with major communication problems. 

I dunno how I managed to squeeze philosophy into this post because it was headed somewhere else in my mind. But, truly...truly diversity is good for you. :)