Rahul and his sister Asha wake up at 6 every morning. They have one hour to get ready. Their school bus comes between 7:00 and 7:10 AM. School starts at 8 AM and ends at 2 PM. The bus drops them back home between 2:45 and 3:15 PM.
Once home, they change their clothes, eat a snack, and by the time they relax even a little, it is already 4 PM. But their day is not over. From 4:30 to 6:30 PM, both of them attend private tuition classes. They get home by 7 PM. Dinner is done by 9 PM. Then comes one to two hours of homework — both, school and tuition homework. Then comes time to sleep. The next day, the same routine is repeated. And the next day, and the next…
This goes on five or six days a week. Furthermore, most Sundays are not free, either — more than half of the day usually goes to coaching, revision, or exam preparation.
This Is Not One Family’s Story
This is the daily life of a typical school-aged child in India. Our country has around 25 crore school-aged children, and most of them live a routine like this.
If you take away seven to eight hours of sleep, these children are spending 70 to 90 percent of their remaining time doing things they have no say in. There is no time left for hobbies, for play, for discovering what they truly enjoy, or for just being a child.
Classrooms That Kill Curiosity
In most schools, the teachers talk and the child listens. The child is expected to remember what was said and write it correctly in an exam. That is it.
There is no room for questions. No room for curiosity. No room for a child to say, “This does not interest me, but that does.” Slowly and steadily, the natural love of learning and the curiosity that every child is born with gets crushed under the weight of notes, chapters, and revision schedules.
Everything Comes Down to Marks
The whole system — schools, parents, and even children themselves — is focused on just one thing: marks.
Whether a child is doing well is judged entirely by the numbers on their report card. Is the child happy? Is the child curious? Is the child growing as a person? These questions are almost never asked.
This is a serious problem, especially because the years of childhood and early teenage life are the most important years for learning. The brain during these years is like soft clay — it can be shaped easily. It is most open to learning new skills, building habits, and forming the way a person thinks. Scientists call this neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to form new connections. This ability is strongest in childhood and slowly reduces as we grow older, though it never fully disappears.
We are using these precious years to make children memorise facts and score marks. We are missing the bigger picture completely.
What We Are Not Teaching Our Children
When education becomes only about marks, many things that truly matter get ignored. Here is what most schools in India are not teaching:
- How to think clearly — analysing a problem, questioning information, and finding solutions
- How to reason logically — using common sense and clear thinking in real situations
- How to communicate well — not just reading and writing, but actually expressing yourself and listening to others in everyday life
- How to handle emotions — understanding your own feelings, staying calm under pressure, dealing with failure
- Good values and character — honesty, kindness, responsibility, and knowing the difference between right and wrong
- Taking care of your health — physical fitness, mental well-being, and emotional balance
These are not small things. These are the building blocks of a good life.
We Can Already See the Results
The damage caused by this system is not hidden. We can see it every day.
Take language learning as one example. Most Indian children study two languages for twelve or more years in school. Yet when they finish Grade 12, most of them cannot hold a confident conversation or express their thoughts clearly. Communication — the whole point of learning a language — was never really taught. Only grammar rules and essay formats were.
When students reach Grade 11 and 12 and start thinking about which subject to study in college or what career to choose, most of them have no idea what they want. And this is not their fault. The school system never helped them discover their strengths, their interests, or their natural talents.
So what happens? Most students end up choosing in one of three ways:
- Their parents decide for them
- They do what their friends are doing
- They pick whatever earns the most money
None of these choices come from the heart. None of them are based on what the student is truly good at or genuinely excited about. And when you spend years studying something you do not care about, the results are rarely good.
The Struggle Does Not End After School
This same pattern continues in college. The same marks-based system. The same rote learning. And still, the same skills that employers actually want — communication, problem-solving, teamwork, independent thinking — remain undeveloped.
When these young people graduate and enter the job market, many struggle to find work. Those who do find jobs often feel empty inside. They go to work for eight to ten hours a day but feel no real connection to what they are doing. A salary comes in, but no sense of purpose.
This emptiness is taking a serious toll on the overall well-being of India’s working population. Mental health problems among young Indians are rising rapidly — anxiety, depression, and a feeling of being lost are becoming increasingly common. This is not surprising. A person who was never taught to understand their own feelings, build inner strength, or live by clear values is not well-prepared for the pressures of adult life.
And when young people have no emotional foundation and no strong values, they become vulnerable — to making poor decisions, to harmful influences, and to actions that hurt not only themselves but also their families and communities.
A Question Worth Asking
Every morning, Rahul and Asha wake up, rush through their routines, sit through hours of classes and tuitions, come home tired, do their homework, and go to sleep — only to do it all again tomorrow.
The real question is not whether they will pass their exams.
The real question is: what kind of adults are we turning them into?
If you want to exit this futile cycle for your child/ren, we are happy to help! Book your first consultation with us here.
