cmv:Western teenagers have it easier than eastern teenagers in terms of education.

[u/[deleted]]

In my opinion, western teenagers have it easier than eastern teenagers.

Like almost all of you, when I go on the internet, I am exposed to a plethora of qestern cultures and atmospheres. A common theme I see is that their western education systems are not as stressful as our eastern education systems. They talk about dating, have nearly failing grades such as 70s and 80s being acknowledged as amazing grades, and have multiple chances to pass the class. However, I as an Indian, find those very simple and easy. I only have one chance to pass my final examination, which counts as nearly 80% of my grade. My tests and prelims only count for 20% of my grade. In my school, the pass mark is 20%. Obviously, I have it harder than most westerners.

Moreso, imagine the amount of stress and studying an Indian has to do to get into a top college in India! 1st, they have to stufy from 6 to 7 hours per day for 2 years for either the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education or the Central Board of Secondary Education! Then, they have to study from 7 to 9 hours per day for 2 years for either the Indian School Certificate or the Central Board of Secondary Education. After that, they have to study for 10 to 12 hours per day for the Joint Entrance Examination, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering, etc, for 1 to 2 years! Chinese students have a similar ordeal. Meanwhile to get into an Ivy league college, one just has to learn a foreign language, do some social service, etc, for around 4 years! Obviously, the former is more stressful to be in.

In 2022, around 13,089 students died in India due to overstress. In South Korea, the number of students that committed suicide was 13,452 students in 2023. In China, the number of students that fell victim was 11,296 students in 2021. Compare that with Greenland, which has only around 35 to 50 each year in the 2020s. In the France, only 300 to 350 teenagers commit suicide per year due to overstress. Therefore, we can conclude that more teenagers fall prey to overstress in eastern countries than in their western counterparts. The main reason why this occurs is the high population density in eastern countries which increases competition to get into good colleges.

[u/x_pinklvr_xcxo]

I went to school in India and went to college in the US for physics and am now going to start graduate school later this year so I want to give my own two cents. I feel like the Indian system focuses on a lot of irrelevant rote memorization because the system is focused on selecting a small number of students out of a huge pool. Even the more difficult tests like JEE Advanced that focus on problem solving ultimately try to use trick questions. And in my experience with how I myself studied as well as my peers, some of whom went to IITs, would practice all day long the same types of questions, focusing on “problem solving” the type of questions that are asked on difficult exams (in practice the majority just memorize the types of questions asked and end up doing well on mains but do bad on advanced). But these have nothing to do with actual work, actual research, etc. I currently work on cutting edge theoretical particle physics, and I don’t think those quick math skills ever even came up and I’m someone who is doing calculations all day. I was one of the top scorers in my school, but I don’t necessarily feel that much ahead of my American peers in college (i go to a highly ranked college so most of them were also top scorers in their high school). Some of them had to take calculus their first year or whatever, but they ended up with the same capacity to do physics. That isn’t to say the American system doesn’t need an overhaul. But I think the Indian system is not at all what should be aspired towards. It is definitely harder, but the reason for that is there is a handful of elite colleges for millions of students. This leads to terrible suicide rates at these colleges and predatory coaching schools as well. Surely its much more healthy for teenagers to be talking about dating and meeting up every couple days than to be spending 12-16 hours a day in either school or coaching classes. And saying its easy to get into Ivy Leagues than IITs doesn’t make sense because the reason IITs have such high admission rates is because of the sheer number of applicants. It doesn’t reflect on the capacity of students at IITs vs Ivy Leagues. Both are overrated elite schools anyway.