The case is the current state of confusion surrounding IITJEE 2013 and the single entrance test (AICEE?) being proposed to reduce stress on the students of our country.
The first time I heard about this new proposal by the MHRD, I was actually pretty dismayed. I mean, the intention was to reduce the stress on students, but you just don't do it by eliminating 10 exams and having one instead. Then I thought for a while, that maybe I'm not able to see through things and my instincts are getting the better of my judgment. No doubt that there having a lot of exams unduly stresses out the students. As a BITSian I should know better, but having just one exam will put all the more stress on them, is what I feel. Now, the students will have the added burden of performing well on one particular day, their efforts of two or more years culminating in a test of 6 hours and the worst part is, they won't get another chance until the next year. This is my biggest qualm about the new proposal. Anyone can have a bad day. A lot of students crumble under pressure. Earlier we could at least think about doing well in AIEEE even if we had a bad IITJEE, but now what?
The way some of the IITs have come out defending the JEE just shows their shallow thinking and their sense of insecurity surrounding the threatened JEE. As an autonomous institution the IITs have an undeniable right to conduct their own exam and select students that should perform well in their engineering education framework. Mark Twain in his book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer says that, "In order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain". Isn't this precisely why the JEE is such a coveted examination? It is a difficult examination that filters out (or rejects) 98% of the examination takers, making it probably the most competitive examination in world. No wonder, only the most prepared, and sometimes only the most high IQed students crack the exam. The IITs are definitely proud of the quality of students getting in. But, are the IITs equally proud of the students getting out too? Doesn't the IITians also comprise a good part of the 83% engineers in India who are actually unemployable in the IT industry? My concern is that why are the most premier institutions in India worried about taking in the best of the students? Why aren't they inclined towards taking in the most interested students, and groom them to become excellent engineers? There lies the root of the problem.
Our education system insidiously pushes a large majority of students in the direction of engineering entrance-exam preparations in classes 11th and 12th. The situation is worse now where children are starting JEE preparations from class 8th onwards. If the child is good at Math and Science, he is not allowed to think beyond IITJEE. What entails then, is a grueling narrow-minded exam preparation lasting two or more years. And what is born out of it is a talented set of students who naively enter engineering institutions without knowing a thing about engineering and more importantly, without knowing what they want to do with their lives. The faculty at these institutions, the parents of these children, and the society as a whole is oblivious of this problem. Rather than letting the children explore their interests and find their dream, the society thrusts its dreams on our children. For some, luckily the dreams reconcile while others, sadly, suffer in the next four years of jail and look for MBA/Civil Services as soon as they are set free.
What we need is a change in the pattern of thinking and not a change in the pattern of our examinations. A change in the way we educate our children. We shouldn't expect a 15 year old to decide on his career path. We have to give him time to explore his interests and find a dream if he doesn't have any. We need a society that supports all children and not a one that hails a few and derides the others. Then only, we will have a nation of motivated youth, who are happy with what they have and contribute back to the society with their knowledge, and not a society of unemployed youth who are looked down upon because they weren't allowed to dream in the first place. With that, I would like to end. I hope I made sense. Thanks for your time and please share your comments!
