Originally written for "Metropolis" A youth magazine for Hyderabad.
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Education in India has taken a leap so
big that it has left the significance of the term behind, while taking the commercial glory
forward. Numerous junior colleges are being deployed in every part of the
country making the “vital” stage of education a mere parody. With the Ivy-League
colleges like the IIT’s, NIT’s and other top private colleges setting the
standard high students, not colleges, are the ones who face the music. Every
year 2-3 lakh students get in pursuit to clinch that one “coveted” seat at the
top colleges, and, the stakes are too high, the pressure insurmountable, and
expectations weakening the shoulders, the students compete for just a few
thousand seats.
While the Top colleges are busy in
setting the bar high, the corporate junior colleges are grinding the students
to perfection so that, their getting past the bar will lure more students to
join the college in the next academic year. The vendetta between the different
junior colleges is no less than a war! No college leaves no stone unturned as
they rigorously train students to the extent where the student tends to remember
the question number along with the page number along with the solution of
course.
The junior colleges tend to forget that they are training humans not
machines, the students servility is very much appreciated as they make
themselves vulnerable in order to clinch that one seat. The vulnerability is
something that comes from within, with the peer pressure, the parental pressure
and not to mention the college managements’ pressure.
The corporate colleges from the very
beginning of the first year of the two year course start lashing out at
students- giving them numerous amount of material that one could not possibly
imagine of, examining them every week twice or thrice and in order to this,
exhibit the results that builds more pressure on students as there are students
who are ahead of them. I completely agree to the fact of displaying results,
but the scenario and consequences that are staged later is what that concerns
me.
Students tend to believe that they are way far behind in this cat and mouse
race and face the brunt. Every parent wants their kids to get into IIT’s and
the NIT’s and also other private colleges, but the fact is there is no place
for all of them; it is not circus to get in to those colleges. What’s
perplexing and astonishing is all want to get in to the top colleges, if that’s
the case, who are to join the colleges that are ranked after?
Corporate colleges are the demigods of intermediate education. They rule
this phase of education and tend to do the same for the coming years. Now, the
scenario depicted outside is way different from the one that is staged inside,
students are the pawns that are staged in a fight with the kings (Top colleges
in this game), where in the recent times “death” comes into play, Why? Assumed
by many people that’s the most viable option when one’s game ends in a “stalemate”
The corporate colleges slap huge amount
of fee on students as they know the students have nowhere to go, the levied fee
sometimes amounts to more than 1-2 lacs for all they know that getting into the
ivy-league colleges is not certain yet. The education is not worth the money
people pay, no proper facilities are provided, and students are grinded to
hell. The curriculum includes studies and studies only right from the morning 8
a.m to 8 in the evening. With no proper food and physical exercise the students
suffer lack of concentration at all times.
The tryst with exams, books, study
and exams goes on for two miserable years, at the end of which only few bask in
glory. Corporate colleges have been beguiling people for years now, they join
500-600 students and how many get in to the top colleges is a hand few, who are
failing when it comes to going through the course at the IIT’s and NIT’s.
The
education here in the corporate colleges is spoon fed to students and they tend
to mug up all the formulae and numerical because they have doing the same
models for the past 2 years day and night incessantly. Now, when they face the
D-day all the numerical seem similar to the ones they have been mugging up
(which they think they have solved) for 2 years. The etchings deepen once they
get into the top graduation colleges, where they are left to design their own
future let alone education and notes.
The corporate junior colleges luring
mechanisms are no less than a commercials ad and a captivating one at that.
With a filthy yet catchy catch phrases imbibed in a video depicting the various
statistics of the results ranging from the ranks to marks and segregating
different sections as Top 10, Top 50, Top 100 and relentlessly displaying the
commercial again and again, thanks to the media channels as they run and show
everything for money despite its worth being abysmal. The scholarships to the
backward economy classes are promised by the junior colleges, but just like our
politicians their promises are void. The economically backward sections of the
society face the music and are being forced to follow suit with the middle
class and high class when it comes to paying the exorbitant fees. At the end of
the day as we speak lacs of students end up perturbed, vulnerable, and
emotionally weak.
The money is literally squandered under
the pretext of education in India, with Engineering and Medicine being the buzz
words all over and the prospect of their child being an Engineer and a Doctor
makes their parents even more vulnerable and helpless. With the corporate
colleges basking in students’ success year after year, there is no blaming the
anxious parents who want their lads to bask in glory.
But, with a student
perspective, if seen, this entire rigmarole seems an immense and intense task
where nothing is certain yet.
Adios!
