Education, simplified.

Ideas are bulletproof – the protagonist from the acclaimed film ‘V for Vendetta’ makes quite a statement here, and rightly so. As human beings, our progress has been driven by ideas. Telephones, air planes, computers, infrastructure, science, art, commerce, all these were merely ideas at one point of time. A figment of constructive imagination that shaped the world we live in today.

We live in an absurdly amazing world which has boundless fodder for a curious mind to feed upon, if only we decide to. Over the ages, we have developed this system called education which enables us, and instructs us to feed upon this fodder.

Education is most definitely an answer to most of India’s pressing problems; it is a solution which hits the right areas, and promises betterment right from the grass-root levels. Unfortunately, this system has devolved in this enigmatic nation of ours.

Forget the fact that basic education is still not accessible to the masses, due to an array of reasons which can be documented on another day. Let us have a look at the education system that is prevalent in India. Take a metropolitan city – Mumbai. We see children and adolescents routinely going to institutions and returning home all enlightened and educated.  Look closely, and the cracks appear.

The average school going 10-year old boy packs a bag heavy enough even for a polar bear to carry around. His schedule is busier than or as busy as his fully developed adult father, riddled with school, tons of expensive classes, and extra-curricular activities which he will be forced to leave once he reaches 10th standard. The streets used to be replete with young souls playing cricket, football and a multitude of little interesting games – which are now probably extinct. These streets can now be found empty in the evenings, because children have to attend those mandatory classes.

In this large-scaled disarray, Angad Nadkarni, an 18 year old hacking genius comes up with an idea.

This video was presented by Franklin Templeton Investments which partnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012.

Angad says, why stress the minds of the child with unnecessary clutter? Why do they need a digest, class notes, professor’s notes, text book and friend’s notes to study for one paper? Well, most of it is gibberish, with only handful of important information that needs to be learnt for the exams, information which embodies the syllabus in a concise and proficient manner.

Angad’s app ‘Examify’ does precisely that. Angad, along with his people performs a lot of complex operations which involves a lot of esoteric terms. Ultimately, the app presents to the students, the quintessential information which they need to study for the examination. This gives them a proper direction, studies-wise and ameliorates the current nerve-racking examination system.

Let us not devour the creativity of the youth by narrowing their paths. Let us simplify the process of giving them a wholesome education.

What ‘Examify’ does is move towards that direction, a positive ray of light in our dismal education system. Plus, it is an 'app', something that all of the youth can identify with.

It is not a good exercise to burden the young mind with the troubled fruits of the adults that bear them. A young mind must cultivate their lives with freedom, and build their path with choices of their own, not those of the society.

Let us work together with Angad Nadkarni in that direction, for simplification is often, if not always, the answer to everything...