They are not just rigid. They are exceedingly strict beyond comparison. having spent a little time in the Indian system, this I can assure you. It's also no surprise that the biggest hit movie of India in the past few years was about how rigid the education system is and how students should be allowed to pursue their own passions, rather fulfill their parents desires.

As for China, what they've gained culturally in the last 5000 years became irrelevant once communism took hold.