Learning anything is never a waste.

A study by the government think tank Niti Aayog found, "Because of an emphasis on enrolment, India adopted the strategy of building schools near every habitation, resulting in a proliferation of schools with tiny populations and inadequate resources. 'Today India has almost 3-4 times the number of schools (15 lakhs) than China (nearly 5 lakh) despite a similar population. Nearly 4 lakh schools have less than 50 students each and a maximum of two teachers,' says the report. Around 1.5 crore (15 million) Indian students study in such unviable schools." Naturally, with so many schools, there is a shortage of 1 million teachers. The Annual Status for Education Report (ASER) for 2018 found a significant deficiency in basic mathematical skills in children 15-16 years old. "Is the completion of Class 8 syllabus the goal? Or is it the ability to deal with everyday issues of communication, expression, comprehension and   problem solving? asked R Banerji. In China, enrolment of children in primary education in 2014 was 90%, compared to 95% in 1987, wrote Prof S Mundle. So, how are Chinese children able to perform so well in the global test Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA). That is because China has three grades of schools. In 'key schools' students are selected according to merit, to create a pool of academic excellence. 'Choice schools' are for children of rich parents on payment of hefty fees. This kind of discrimination will be completely unacceptable in India. A survey of urban people in India found that a majority support the idea of women working outside their homes. "In terms of income groups, acceptance of women workers is the highest among respondents in the middle income groups. Lower income earners (less than Rs 20,000 household income per month) and higher income earners (more than Rs 2 lakh) are relatively less supportive of women working." For poorer families, it maybe because they cannot afford to pay for child minders when both parents are out working and for the rich, the women maybe more selective in what they choose to do. Despite all criticisms, the teaching profession is highly respected in India with people giving 7.11 out of 10 to the education system and 54% of parents wanting their children to become teachers. In India 46% of school teachers are women, in contrast to the US, where 77% of teachers are female and mostly white. Perhaps, it is not a matter of modern methods of teaching versus learning by rote. Perhaps, if children are taught the basics of every subject they can choose what they are good at. At least teach them something.