The basic and most important difference between the two educational systems is the stress on math that is given in India at the elementary and high school level itself. Mathematics, in my humble opinion, teaches students logical and rational thinking - it lays the foundation of independent and lateral thinking. Indian schools start teaching maths, like multiplication tables, at the elementary level itself. It is given a lot of importance and is a must for students who plan to do science related study in college.On the other hand, high school in America is so flexible that a lot of students who end up majoring in sciences in college do not take advanced maths and calculus in high school. In general, At the end of their 1st year of university, math majors in the US are equivalent to high school graduates in India in terms of math study. This emphasis on maths in high schools and engineering programs is also the reason why India produces so many "good" software engineers. The analytical thinking taught by mathematics is exactly what is required for software development.
The flexibility of the American education system is its greatest strength and also its greatest weakness. Students can choose among a host of classes and courses in high school and college. This means they can change their major (i.e. field of study) midway through college. This usually means that students in the US receive more exposure to a variety of subjects and hence, are more aware of their career options and opportunities. However, the downside is that they can avoid taking courses which are hard in their major.
the general problem with the American education (high school and college) system is that it is designed so as not to reduce/hurt the self-esteem of any kid in class. So, the system is designed in such a way that nearly everyone can pass the high-school level. This leads to lowering the standards at the high school, which in turn leads to lowering the standards for college entrance too and subsequent college programs. So, college students in, say, computer science, are learning much less and at a much slower pace than the students in computer science programs in India and Europe. This is one of the main reasons why most of the graduate students in computer science in the US are foriegn students; American students are just not able to compete with the quality of foriegn student applicants. College education is becoming common place, with a large proportion of high school graduates opting for it. Universities are under pressure from state governments to take in more students, that is, in turn, leading to reduced quality and lower standards (quality*quantity=constant). Universities are just not able to cope with the quick increases and the corresponding lack of good faculty.
However, the flip side of the coin is that the Indian education and social systems are very hard on kids and completely ignore their feelings, opinions and ambitions. Kids are pushed to study from the age of 3 and non-performers are treated as dolts and ostracized by parents and society. The preferred choice of learning and teaching is memorizing facts. These facts do help in the long run; the multiplication tables we learned in elementary school keep us ahead of our American peers who need a calculator to find out what 6 times 7 is ! However, the memorization approach to study does not allow and teach kids to think independently. The American school system lays stress on individual ability development and encourages kids to express themselves and their opinions from an early age. As a result, most Americans are way better at getting their point across as compared to people from other countries.
However, again, the downside of this is that students in the US who are more out-spoken do well in class and outside class too only because they are more effective speakers. In the Indian system, individuals are not asked to stand up infront of the whole class and recite something. Instead, the whole class reads books out aloud together in unison. This allows more timid students to participate and overcome their fear of public speaking (since they are actually speaking with a group). Individual speaking is only done with the teacher one-on-one during "oral" examinations, where students are asked questions on the subject matter. Both systems work, however, in the Indian system, just because you can't speak well, does not mean you don't do well in class. But students in the US build more self-confidence and are much better at public speaking. Indian students on the other hand find it hard to learn to speak up or express their opinions (I know those are really broad generalizations). Classroom discussion and asking questions to the professors is encouraged. However, in India, professors expect you to treat them like God and often use their almost dictorial powers against students who upset them in some way.
Overall, the high school system in the US leaves students at a disadvantage when compared to their peers in India, Europe and perhaps the rest of Asia too. Some Americans cannot point out all the states in the United States on a map, let alone know anything about India.
Indian education is overall better atleast till the undergraduate degree (for engineering). However, graduate programs in the US are probably far ahead of most other countries due to the critical mass they have and the fact that they attract the best students and faculty from all over the world.
Source : 4bearsOnline
This brings me to some very interesting facts,
why students goto foreign countries to study ?
Well I believe that one of the reasons is the work exposure that you get along with the education in the field of Operations. But another reason that is rarely discussed is that they think if they will go and study from an XYZ university they will get better placement and social acceptance among their peers.
Ayush Agrawal
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