Well to quote superman ” With great power comes great responsibilities”, I believe there is no bigger responsibility than to spread correct education and no such power as the power of wisdom as through the means of education. I still remember the bold voice in the halls of major movie theatres back home, with just less than 5 minutes for the movies he would recite ” Education is the nation’s foundation”, and I stand firm on believing there is no part of that sentence near to false. We’ve been hearing a lot about Nepal’s education system and people’s rage against it. To be honest if a boy of a 4th grade writes a sentence ” our education system is very poor” in his English essay, I would say our education system is pretty good. So what’s prevailing wrong? The only thing i could think of is “our Nation’s foundation” is getting old.

He’s got cracks and brushes and dents and is crying for help while we open our books on the last seat of the class and draw a mustache on the face of Laxmi Prasad Devkota. A human development report of education ranks in 2013 states that the United States stays in 5th position while Nepal bags 145th position of education ranking along with Norway as the no. 1 education ranking followed by Australia. As an international student here in the United States, there are awful lot of things I discovered about learning. One of the most important ones will always be learning what you want. To be honest I was really fascinated when I found out that despite being an engineering major I could study “Music” at least once in my undergraduate degree and that would count as a proper degree credit. Now that is a proper way to keep the student engaging in their studies as with their interest. So what if I don’t understand music? Well I’ve got wide variety of art, dance, and a lot. This is one of the major difference between the two systems of educations which is both ways.

In addition to legally eating in class the other thing that intrigued me is creativity. Here the education system believes “what’s yours is yours and what’s not yours should never be said yours”. If in any case you are found copying even if it’s just your friend’s you are no longer the student of the course. Plagiarism is a very big deal and is one of the best feature here. Here you get points for trying unlike Nepal where the more you copy the better the answers. Everyone believes copying makes you dull, let’s try to be creative. This is one of the most strict rules of college and on a longer run for a student it has been proven very efficient. Something’s never change either that be Europe, America or Asia. Our parents will always ask us to study hard for better jobs and future. They believe that we should go out and get education in order to be prepared for life. All our life we’ve been taught that education is the preparation of life. But one of the greatest of minds John Dewey believes ” Education is not a preparation of life but life itself”. But there is a certain part of all of us who knows that the world doesn’t run that way. Everybody is looking for a secure future and the term secure future is almost every time followed by secure jobs. Jobs are regarded more important as the degree. The good thing with this system of education is you have a job placement if you are an above average student. There is no compulsion to be friends with some big guy at any company.

All we have to do is be a good student throughout the degree. The system here walks you through the process of hiring. From content, to appearance, confidence, and even interview preparation. Well that never hurts. I remember waking up early and getting to revise the whole book as it was the finals and that single exam decides your whole year. You study and study and in the end a simple mistake makes you lose everything, getting just about marks to pass. Now all your teachers are shocked that you got this less of marks but nobody says anything except “You are losing focus”. Now 10 year old me got highest throughout the class in all exams and tests but failed to deliver on finals. This means I am a below average student as I Just managed to pass on my finals. Its seems forever ago yet still a 4th year engineering student fails his finals and now has to wait one whole year to have the degree. Well this has been more of a shock to me here in The United States that finals are just as important as your homework. If you perform very well in class, do all your assignments, take all your tests and receive a good marks but fail to deliver on finals you are in no trouble. And sometimes if you do all that you don’t even have to appear on your finals. Your class performance is regarded more important than your answers. And well this is one very useful method I really wish our country had. Well all these lines and words but hardly I ever complained about the Education system in Nepal and very less did I compare.

There is nothing in the system of Nepal that I should be complaining about as the same system is responsible for me to stand where I am right now. And there is no fruit in comparing but we must realise ourselves ‘where are we?’. There is no such thing as a non-educated person. Life in itself is an education. As I said in the opening lines “with great power comes great responsibilities”, a well educated man is himself a powerful man. With that power comes a responsibility of spreading positive education. But why are we so behind on these things and so forward on blaming the government for all the small things? Why don’t we try to realize that change doesn’t start from any authorities? Our education system is not poor. It is just old and it is the duty of a newer generation to update rather than complain about it on our facebook status. So next time we bunk out classes for movies remember what the guy in the advertisement before the movies say “Education is the Nation’s foundation”.

Ankit Aryal
Computer Engineering
Sophomore year
Louisiana Tech University Ruston, Louisiana
United States of America