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Yeah I am from India. I think we could have guessed this is the ultimate stage of IIT JEE rat race that's getting more and more aggressive over some years. Whi

Yeah I am from India. I think we could have guessed this is the ultimate stage of IIT JEE rat race that's getting more and more aggressive over some years. While I don't subscribe to all ideologies of socialism, I can only think of free high-quality education by government as a solution to this aggressive game-the-system and FOMO mentality so deep rooted here. For context I studied in Rural Governement schools till 10th and even after that I didn't have to pay 20% of what an average Urban "Middle class" peer pays for education. The education quality is not much different. Only when I had to study engineering I came across stupid expensive not-worth-the-cost education.

sn41 6y ago
A lot of the stress associated with IIT JEE stems from aggressive fear based propaganda by coaching classes. Things were much more laid back in the 90s, pre-Kota mania. Fear sells. They make it sound as though if you are not in an IIT, your life will be a flaming wreck. This is far from the case, even if you confine yourself to the tech sector.
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alex_smart 6y ago
>I can only think of free high-quality education by government as a solution to this aggressive game-the-system and FOMO mentality so deep rooted here. I am also from India and I am really perplexed and pained by this. Why is it not possible to have a genuine business catering to the same market but with actually good content and trained teachers? If nothing else, WhiteHat Jr has demonstrated that there IS a market and people are willing to pay for educational content. A genuine company might take more time to succeed, but they will eventually win the war, right? Why are we perennially doomed to be stuck with either scammy companies like these or the mai-baap government doing everything under the sun? The free market seems to be able to solve these problems in other countries. What makes India so unique?
- higerordermap 6y ago
  > What makes India so unique The sheer population in competition I guess, gaming the system is almost always the way to win. This is true everywhere but more pronounced in India, because we have very large number of people very eager to game the process. Maybe it's a culture thing, or just the effect of competition and FOMO, idk. (The coaching mania so fierce in North is less aggressive in South) When I was studying K-12 or PUC or whatever it's called, Byju's (the company that acquired WJR) was doing most aggressive promotions. There were a few similar education startups putting genuine effort but way less aggressive promotion. I liked the content of one of those startups called Toppr. I never went to purchase anything, tbh (I was a rural student), but the quality doesn't necessarily win. The entire coaching ecosystem is also like this. They teach lot of formulae and shortcuts. These years success in IIT-JEE is a combination of super hard work and having access to highly expensive coaching material. (Tbh, as a rural student, I dropped the dreams of getting into one of these "good" institutes halfway because of this). Whitehat JR is just misusing FOMO of urban Indian parents. I don't think pushing programming on children of 7-8 years is worth it. Instead it needs to be properly taught at high-school level.
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sn41 6y ago

A lot of the stress associated with IIT JEE stems from aggressive fear based propaganda by coaching classes. Things were much more laid back in the 90s, pre-Kota mania. Fear sells. They make it sound as though if you are not in an IIT, your life will be a flaming wreck. This is far from the case, even if you confine yourself to the tech sector.

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alex_smart 6y ago

>I can only think of free high-quality education by government as a solution to this aggressive game-the-system and FOMO mentality so deep rooted here. I am also from India and I am really perplexed and pained by this. Why is it not possible to have a genuine business catering to the same market but with actually good content and trained teachers? If nothing else, WhiteHat Jr has demonstrated that there IS a market and people are willing to pay for educational content. A genuine company might take more time to succeed, but they will eventually win the war, right? Why are we perennially doomed to be stuck with either scammy companies like these or the mai-baap government doing everything under the sun? The free market seems to be able to solve these problems in other countries. What makes India so unique?

higerordermap 6y ago
> What makes India so unique The sheer population in competition I guess, gaming the system is almost always the way to win. This is true everywhere but more pronounced in India, because we have very large number of people very eager to game the process. Maybe it's a culture thing, or just the effect of competition and FOMO, idk. (The coaching mania so fierce in North is less aggressive in South) When I was studying K-12 or PUC or whatever it's called, Byju's (the company that acquired WJR) was doing most aggressive promotions. There were a few similar education startups putting genuine effort but way less aggressive promotion. I liked the content of one of those startups called Toppr. I never went to purchase anything, tbh (I was a rural student), but the quality doesn't necessarily win. The entire coaching ecosystem is also like this. They teach lot of formulae and shortcuts. These years success in IIT-JEE is a combination of super hard work and having access to highly expensive coaching material. (Tbh, as a rural student, I dropped the dreams of getting into one of these "good" institutes halfway because of this). Whitehat JR is just misusing FOMO of urban Indian parents. I don't think pushing programming on children of 7-8 years is worth it. Instead it needs to be properly taught at high-school level.

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