Friday, July 15, 2011

Education overrated

Past one month has scared the crap out of me. No, I’m not scared for myself but for the coming generation. 100% cut off for college admissions! It’s like living in a different planet altogether. Although I have nothing to do with college admissions now but I strongly feel that the whole cut off system has gone way overboard.

I also hear that there are certain amendments lined up which would make the aggregate percentage a criteria for appearance in the entrance exams. Let me be very honest here, I wouldn’t have had a bachelor’s degree in my hands today had it not been for the entrance exam that I appeared in. I passed that exam with a remarkable rank and landed in a college of repute.

On a personal level, I believe that performance in examinations can’t be the best judge of a child’s aptitude, especially board exams. I hear that the format of question papers has changed already and is about to change further yet I feel that the percentage acquired in the board exams cannot be a parameter for appearance in competition.

Here is an idea though, why not have a common entrance examination at stage I, containing questions based on reasoning, aptitude, general awareness and English for candidates from all streams. Performance of this test as well as the subject stream of the candidate should be the basis for stage II, which should be more specific. There should be different stage II objective type tests for different courses like engineering, medicine, psychology and so on and so forth.

Then should there be a stage III involving subjective type tests; followed by personal interview and/or group discussion. All these tests should be held online at verified centers reducing any and every possibility of corruption.

India has been known for its education system since the times to Aryabhatt but we’ve already oversold it at the cost of our own children and their future. We need to realize that learning is only possible if it is fun and 100% cut off does not make it fun. We got to take it easy before we start losing our children to nervous breakdowns, depression or even worse - suicides.

The idea suggested above is just quite vague may be worth considering, maybe not. The need of the hour is a centralized common test that would eliminate the pressure, the harassment of filling different forms and appearing for different tests, and wasting a lot of money plus which would lead to better determination of the right candidate for the right course.

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