Results Of Education - 90:10 The Quota War

The 90:10 reservation issue has been going on for quite a long time now. I must say, it has turned from a small conflict into a complete war; between parents of students from education boards like CBSE and ICSE and the State Education Ministry.

I myself am a product of CBSE education, however I do agree with the fact that SSC students don’t get seats due to students who score higher than them and come from CBSE and ICSE backgrounds. But the quota system seems to me to be a weird solution to the problem.

Why are quotas the common answers to any and every accommodation problem in establishments and institutes in our country? Why can’t the ministry look for more sensible and logical answers to problems such as these? If the present admission process is unfair to SSC students then the 90:10 quota system is unfair to ICSE and CBSE students. I mean come on…there has got to be something between the two extremes which could benefit both. The percentile system which was about to be implemented last year was one such sensible solution to the admission problem, unification of education boards/uniform education boards across the nation is another one.

There are approximately 15,608 CBSE and ICSE students and 16,03,144 SSC students in the whole state of Maharashtra (Source: News Reports). Percentage wise the assigned quota seems perfect. But the fact remains that SSC students are spread over the complete state in rural as well as urban areas while a large majority of the total number of CBSE and ICSE students reside in major cities like Mumbai and Pune. In spite of such diversity, I fail to understand how Mr. VikhePatil decided to apply the universal magic ratio of 90:10 across the whole state.

Mr. VikhePatil goes on to advise that students should not be choosy while selecting their respective colleges, however the fact remains that every guy and gal yearns to go to the most reputed and happening college in town, this goes for both the students of SSC as well as other boards.

Many of the students from both boards do not get admissions because of their average marks. Instead of helping all such students secure seats in good colleges and ensuring uniform as well as efficient utilization of seats in colleges, here we have administrators and political parties that are hell bent on making sure that CBSE/ICSE students don’t have a place in junior colleges this year.Today, education has been made the plaything of a few select officials of the government, who amend the rules and regulations according to their whim. Changes in education and admission methodology should be a result of extensive and accurate research and should not be carried out at the eleventh hour. But sadly, things are different here in India. We can only hope that such differences do not ruin an innocent child’s chances of acquiring quality education irrespective of which education board he belongs to.

Doing The Happy-Happy Dance!!!

I haven't gone nuts due to over exposure to examinations, if that's what you are deducing from the title.

I have been doing this little victory dance just to celebrate my freedom from exams. They got over about a week ago and I've been soaking in the pleasure of doing nothing since then.

Now that the Everest of exams has been conquered (for now that is, the results will determine if I actually conquered or just got buried under a landslide, if you know what I mean), I can get back blogging and complete a few resolutions that I have been meaning to, so here they are,

1. Blog as often as possible
2. Update a few ignored portions of my blog.
3. Take off across Mumbai to see the less popular yet equally interesting sites.

Now the only thing to be seen is how many of the above three resolutions I can actually complete!

Results Of Education

Pic Courtesy: bmaindia on flickr

I have just recovered from two long days of mourning, the reason - My exams results were declared a couple of days back and well, to put it simply, they weren’t upto my expectations.

However, a trip to the college today clearly showed me how pointless my ‘mourning’ had been. There were students who had fared far worse than me, a few buddies included! Some had even ended up with ATKT’s (KT’s for short, also known in some parts as ‘arrears’) ranging from one to a couple of ‘em to as much as KT’s in all subjects.

But I feel that the students of our college (irrespective of the number of KT’s they possess) are far luckier than those few who suffer from a lot more than just a bad result. I am referring to the horrendous cases of ragging that have taken place in the past week (and many other ragging cases that do not come to our notice).

Something that was considered a ‘ceremony of introductions’, ‘induction ritual’ or simply a ‘prank’ has become a game of humiliation and a chance to take revenge. Inspite of the fact that law prohibits the act of ‘ragging’, ignorance by the authorities at the colleges/universities tends to give the miscreants a free hand at crossing their limits. It is important to note that colleges in metro cities like Mumbai take strict anti-ragging measures and are more successful at preventing it (not completely of course) than their counterparts in towns and villages.

The ignorance exhibited by the authorities (that includes professors, lecturers, principals, deans, etc.) towards cases that could have grave consequences does not surprise me though. That’s because that’s what they usually do - ignore the students and in turn ignore their needs and requirements. Other than a few exceptions, I personally have never come across a professor in college who really takes any kind of interest in his/her students. I mention this because taking interest or at least showing it is the first step to successfully urge a student to take interest in a subject. The next would be to try and make the subject itself simple and interesting for the student, again an area where 99% of the professors fail dismally. So basically, everyone just needs an attitude makeover!

These are only a few suggestions, whereas we require drastic changes at university and collegiate levels if we are to achieve a strong, fair and sane education system. Unless this change happens, such incidents and pass outs like us (with or without our KT’s) would merely be a bad result of education!

At Last…

This was the headline on the front page of one of the various English Dailies in the metro. The article was, of course, referring to India’s first ever Gold medal in the Olympics won by Abhinav Bindra. And I think this is also is what the rest of the Indian’s will be reflecting!!! Certainly, like all other Indians I too am proud to read and watch news reports of the prestigious win by the Indian shooter but there was that ‘other’ part of me that wasn’t all that impressed.
The first ever individual gold for a country with a population count exceeding well over one billion and harbouring a large pool of athletic and sporting talent, what an irony!!! The headlines all over the newspapers, it seemed, were secretly mocking at the present sports scenario in India. And my ‘other’ part seemed to agree.
This gold is the symbol of the dismal image of the country on the world’s sporting scene. It reminds us that we, the people, as well as coaches and sportspersons, have been ignoring the sports and games other than the bloody game of cricket. While all of us pour our interest, time and investments into the Gentleman’s game we forget that our country needs to exhibit it’s excellence at other sports as well. Table tennis, swimming, archery and so many such sports are still waiting for their fair share of popularity, fame and glory.
On the other hand this gold also tells us another truth, the truth that the Indian Sportsperson is ready to give it his or her best. He is ready to face any challenge and any hurdle, be it lack of finances, lack of training facilities or pure negative criticism, and rise above it all with a passion for the game in his heart and be a true winner. And that is what I think Abhinav has truly done, he has invested in himself and his own training (with not only money but with hardwork and determination as well) while other ‘experts’ out there were shamelessly criticizing him. A hearty congratulation to you, Abhinav.
Hence as my ‘other’ part rightly says, this Gold medal makes us proud and yet it leaves us humiliated!!!

The Day Of Results...

Finally the SSC results have been declared, while some are engulfed by attention from all corners (be it the media for the toppers or the parents and relatives of those who have scored rather well), we should not forget those who go unnoticed, those ‘average’ ones, the rest of the 16 lakh who have scraped through or have managed a fair score.
This year, like the past few years has thrown out into the limelight a few select ‘heroes’ (I should say, the SSC is nothing less than a battle…)

We have the state and divisional toppers who are the ‘heroes of the day’ without doubt.

There is the 20 yr-old Night-school topper Manojkumar Singh, who completed his SSC after missing out 4 years of school (because he was abducted)

We have Manali Naik the girl topper from Handicapped Category as well as overall city topper at second position.

We also get to read about the controversy surrounding the ‘Real’ topper Teena Andrade who received extra marks for participating in state level tournaments pushing her average above the other city toppers. (This claim was ignored by the Board saying the extra marks are for Admission purpose only)

This brings us to the central issue – Is academic excellence everything? While students who spent a whole year rote learning for the exam are awarded and applauded, students like Teena, who I think represent an All-Round Development in a student, are ignored.
Moreover how many students out of these understand and remember what they studied? The scoring pattern of our SSC and HSC exams do not ensure conceptual understanding of the subject and still depend on rote learning as the staple means of study, even after the syllabus has been revised. And this fact has been repeatedly proven by the difference in the marks scored by students in HSC (marks such as 88, 92, 98 Wow!) and the entrance tests (92, 98, 100…out of 200 – Oh! What the hell happened here?!?!)
When will our Education System improve??? I think that is one question that does not have an answer.