Schools in India may teach computer science but they do not teach a few things, the absence of which leads to racism against Indians abroad. Unless schools pull up their socks and start teaching this fast, other Asian nations will be preferred stops for western companies wanting to recruit people to work and stay in their country.

The three things schools do not teach in India and which are considered unnecessary subjects in the country are common sense, civic sense and good manners. For some reason most Indian parents too are in sync with schools and feel that there is no need to teach anything apart from Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics or Biology as a person should either be a good doctor or a good engineer and that more or less takes care of everything.

These good engineers or good doctors then complain while working in India that the average Indian is disrespectful, does not have compliance with rules and laws and does not respect the privacy or rights of others. In a foreign land they are shocked when given a ticket for something they felt was normal to do back home.

Let us see what all we take for normal and granted in India which is actually not normal and we are actually in violation of the law even in India. While we are not booked in India and may get away with our behaviour even in developed nations for some time, we one day end up being racially profiled and targeted. Then we panic.

Let us start with a recent incident where a group of Indian tourists went to Vietnam. There they performed a Garba dance on the airport. Would they have done so in Delhi or have been allowed to do so in Delhi? What about the security personnel in Delhi how would they have reacted?

The same tourists did group singing and clapping in the airplane while on their way to Vietnam. Was that right? I am sure no school teacher told them not to do it as a child so they probably thought it was a novel idea and a great way to make a reel for Instagram or Facebook.

Taking out a baraat with loud music and holding up traffic and blocking the road? Is this normal behaviour? This behaviour has been normalized in India but may lead to a police intervention and a ticket and fine in a foreign land. The problem is that it should be recognized as an act of invasion on the privacy of others and illegal in India too and police should fine people here as well. But they don’t. So things are normalized. If people are fined for doing the same in India then the practice will go away. But because they have not been fined in India when Indians go abroad they try to do the same thing. Maybe for some time they will get away with it but a racial backlash will come eventually. Then they will have to face the consequences of their actions as a people and not as individuals which is not a great social future either.

Do schools or parents tell us that we should not defy court rulings? Defying court guidelines and setting off firecrackers may be the normal behaviour in India during festivals but unsafe use of fireworks can be a criminal act in most developed countries. However, since Indians get away with using fireworks even after the court deadline on Diwali night, they feel the same is passe in developed countries. They have seen their parents mock at court orders and look the other way. When things go out of hand, they face law suits and huge penalties. If they were disciplined in India at the school level and taught civic sense along with data science and cyber security then maybe they would not have to face penalties abroad.

An Indian couple on Diwali in the USA set off fireworks at 2.00 a.m. and set fire to the neighbor’s garage and his car. Most houses are made of wood in the West unlike concrete structures in India where if a rocket hits the neighbor’s roof in India it will not set fire to the entire building. However, the very fact that your rocket reached a neighbour or his house shows lack of safe practice on your part. The problem is that since no one is penalized and no policeman comes knocking on your door if your fire cracker ends up in a neighbor’s house and you do not even face a civil suit (which will take 25 years to reach judgment day) so no Indian bothers about the rights of their neighbors. In fact, fighting over car parking and even murders over car parking are being reported in today’s India. Unfortunately, court cases are decided within six months in America so the Indian couple faced a huge fine and penalty and their Diwali day became Diwaliya Day or Bankruptcy Day.

Then let us take a tour of old monuments in India where we find names of people scribbled on the walls in certain areas. We take such behaviour for granted but there is a law against it which is never implemented by the local police because it is a low priority area for us. In India a policeman would be aghast if he was asked to lodge a complaint against someone for defacing a monument for scribbling ‘Raju loves Guddi’ on the walls of a fort. Here it takes media pressure and political pressure to even lodge an FIR in a Dowry Death case. In the west defacing a monument is a crime. So, will schools or parents bother to teach that in India too? The country would be a lot cleaner with Raju and Guddi not being written all over the nation.

A school has lost the real focus for which it was set up in the first place and has become a teaching shop instead where the primary aim of education -- which was to create a better human being -- is being forgotten. Schools do not create good and law-abiding human beings today with the right values. They create people who can do a task but are socially challenged humans who extract a cost from society. All this is done under pressure from parents as schooling today is also about profit and loss.

Take a simple thing as a traffic accident. Road rage, which can easily be avoided and is easily avoided elsewhere, is a common problem in India. Not only does one side beat up the weaker person but they believe they are doing the right thing too. Because they were never taught in school that they are doing something wrong. They know how to run a computer, manage AI and run Data checks but when it comes to managing day to day life they fall flat on their faces. As for following traffic rules well Indians are very good at following rules in the West because they will lose their license if they don’t. So why don’t they lose their driving license in India if they beat up a person in another car following a small accident? Or if they drive on the wrong side of the road? I guess our lawmakers have to figure this one out?  / DAILY WORLD /

( The writer is an educationist and a mother. Views are personal. )