Friday, July 6, 2012

Easing into Things

Today is primarily some seminars as we get our bearings and figure out what is going on. First was a really good overview of Indian history and culture about "India as a Functioning Anarchy" and willingness in India to take things as they come and the imprint left by the British on Indian culture. A good overview of things to come. We also heard about the education system in India. The big idea that really emerged was that language makes things complicated. Each state in India has their own language in addition to English and the "national language" of Hindi. State government schools tend to be primarily in the state language while the private schools focus more on English (the British kind). With 28 states, this can make things a bit complicated when it comes to what language school will be carried out under. After Standard 10 (Grade 10) students then focus on a specific stream for Higher Secondary School (grades 11-12) before going to college which is primarily taught in English especially for Medicine and Engineering. Tomorrow we actually get out and about and get our feet dirty.

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