Recently I happened to came across an article that flaunted India’s four B-Schools in the list of top 10 B-Schools, in a survey conducted in the Asia-Pacific Region. Similarly, in the list of 36 B-Schools, there are six Indian B-Schools that made it to the list.
But I have a question; are we really making it happen?
India is the land which has invented the zero, around which the world revolves. It is the place which is known for the Vedas in which one can find medical treatments for diseases that still need to be identified, and the concept of flight which existed thousands years before it came to the real world.
We are the ones who can boast about really old educational institutions like Nalanda University where people from other countries came for research.
India was where Jeffery Archer released his Novel “The Sins of the Father” before releasing it in US.
We are the audiences that saw the TV series “Missing” four days before it was aired in US.
The question then is; why do people die to go abroad for higher education?
Tough question as it may seem, it’s actually tougher it is to answer. I feel agitated when I pick up that book of Class X Social Sciences and don’t find Indian History there.
I feel ashamed when I ask a kid of class X the basic concepts of chemical reactions and she can’t answer.
I would like to point out the basic flaws of our education system which have erected such a situation.
The curriculum and books are so diluted that the basics are missing from these books. They are mere picture books which were even better during the time I was in school.
Just by scrapping boards from class X, if the education ministry believes that it has done well for the cause of parents and students, then it is wrong in thinking so.
I would like to point out that they have done far worse, as board exams in class XII would put students under a lot more pressure than they can endure.
I do not understand why improvising something means changing the system as a whole when there is an option of keeping the right things in place and adding better things to complement the system. I can surely say the students who passed out Class X eight years ago were better versed with the subject.
There are many factors that are causing this problem, the foremost being the inadequacy of educationists to provide a stable system in place. Other factors include the dilution of the content from the course books, introducing a grading system which even teachers are not familiar with and the habit of our esteemed “ministry” to advocate his prophecy every now and then.
The anger in me doesn’t subside here. The pain students go through while getting admission in professional and non-professional colleges post their schooling is just tremendous. While one should be totally confident of the subject after studying it in school; why then is there a need of tutorials and coaching classes? Why blame the coaching classes for wooing the parents and children? You allow them to do so.
Our schools and faculty are not competent enough in doing so (this is with respect to the non seriousness of teachers in schools and not their intelligence).
The country filled with a whopping number of IIT and AIEEE aspirants is doomed by endless quotas, and students have no other option left other than to be dejected and demoralised.
The recent news about a revised system of entrance into engineering institutions which brings under its gamut the IITs as well as NITs, has caused complete pandemonium.
First of all, I feel that very less research goes into making these decisions.
Secondly in a country where individual state boards exist, who will take the onus of fair normalisation of marks attained by students in various boards in order to judge him or her on the same scale for entrance into the colleges.
Thirdly, these plans are supposed to be implemented by the year 2013, which leaves very less time for students to be mentally prepared for such a change.
Lastly, insufficiency of the deciding committee to give all schools and colleges a good deal to understand the new system would only result in a lot of confusion.
Not to mention that by having such a system in place, only top notch students will be able to enter the premium colleges as equal importance would be given to board results, entrance test (JEE) and advance test.
So, it makes it compulsory for students to outshine in each exam. And they talk of reducing stress levels?? LOL moment!
Such a system also makes it tougher for mediocre students who were able to get the minimum required percentage in their boards earlier and work hard for entrance examinations and managed to get a seat in an institution of their choice.
And the fight doesn’t end here. Post Graduation is still left.
They are marred by the class X, class XII and graduation results. After all “A, B and Cs” are the most reliable ways of judging students, right?
No matter that the bright student met with an accident in class X, or lost his parent(s) during his exams or that there were unavoidable circumstances. All this just doesn’t bother them.
If we can’t find a way to validate the genuineness in the facts presented by applicants, a more genuine and transparent method needs to be adapted.
In fact I believe that writing essays, Group Discussions and Personal Interviews are the best ways to judge a candidate thoroughly. However, in a lot of personal interviews, the candidate is asked questions that are in no way relevant to the course.
The way in which the system is being simplified by the Education ministry is only leading up to the day when Indian students will need a calculator to compute eight plus eight.
After all Westernisation is what we aim to pursue regradless of the drastic effects that it could have on the level of intelligence of our students.
Making the system simpler, not easier, is the solution.
What all we want is a system that is genuine and legitimate or else once known as “The Pioneers of Education” will be doomed to the vicinity of darkness.
(P.S.: This article has been written taking into consideration average and below average students. This statement is in answer to those who will argue that India still produces many distinguished students.)
Karanvir Gupta
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