Toatmasters Project 3 :Education System in India

i delivered my project 3 on 27th March,2010.

The title for Project #3 is “Get to the point” The expectations from this are that the project must have a General purpose (To entertain, to inform etc) and a specific purpose (something like to inform about ill affects of smoking). The entire speech should gel in well to support these purposes. And of-course No notes!!
Here’s the content of my speech:


“Education is the progressive discovery of ones own ignorance”

Only 3 Indian universities were listed in the times higher education list of the worlds top 200 universities and only 6 institutes were listed among the top 20 science and technology schools in Asia per info published in Asia week.

Good Evening Toastmasters and Welcome Guests,

What does success mean to you?

Some animals in a forest decided to start a school. The students
included a bird, a squirrel, a fish, a dog , a rabbit & a mentally
retarded eel. A board was formed and it was decided that flying, tree
climbing, swimming, and burrowing would be part of the curriculum in
order to give a broad-based education. All animals were required to
take all subjects.

The bird was excellent at flying and was getting A's but when it came
to burrowing, it kept breaking its beak and wings and started failing.
Pretty soon, it started making C's in flying and of course in tree
climbing and swimming it was getting F's. The squirrel was great at
tree climbing and was getting A's, but was failing in swimming. The
fish was the best swimmer but couldn't get out of the water and got
F's in everything else. The dog didn't join the school, stopped paying
taxes and kept fighting with the administration to include barking as
part of the curriculum. The rabbit got A's in burrowing but tree
climbing was a real problem. It kept falling and
landing on its head, suffered brain damage, and soon couldn't even
burrow properly and got C's in that too.

The mentally retarded eel, who did everything half as well became the
valedictorian of the class. The board was happy because everybody was
getting a broad-based education.


The present education system in India is in a state of flux. While there are world-class institutions of higher education others are nothing but degree awarding institutions. They neither prepare the youth for advanced research in social sciences, technology and management nor for employment in various productive sectors of the economy.


Universities in India have not changed their colonial mode of functioning. They still aim at producing administrators and clerks by feeding more information than knowledge and skill.



The Primary and Secondary education systems are in real bad shape.The weak secondary education base forces the universities to lower their standards.In some states copying in examinations is not only tolerated but also encouraged by the state government Also added to it is the shortage of enough teaching staff in primary and secondary schools.


Someone rightly said" Our education system tends to be rather one dimensional in its emphasis on scoring high marks in the examination.”

What can be done to improve the system?

Education system should also focus holistic approach with emphasise on culture and value based development of individuals.It should teach them to be self reliant, and offer a practical approach to education.

On a parting note , The principal goal of education system should be to enable individuals to become self reliant thus creating a self sustained and organic growth economy.”