Friday, June 15, 2012

The Death of Education



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!



8 comments:

  1. You have summed it up pretty well. The Elitist behavior of IIT professors has come out in open for everyone to see in last few days, even at the risk of sounding a little rude I would say it clearly shows how shallow they think of themselves for they need a 'tough' and 'highly competitive' examination to produce the best engineers.
    I heard MohanDasPai making this comment on a TV show :
    " No country in this world does to its youth what we do in India. We give more than a 5lac students their biggest disappointment in life at the age of 18 by rejecting them admission at their dream institutes."

    I really find it surprising that in a country of 1.2 billion we have only a handful of 5-8k people who are capable of becoming good engineers, we need to look at China for a comparison to realize that they produce more Phds a year than engineers produced by IITs.

    One point you have missed out in your post is the complete Demand-supply issue which exists in the market. My hunch says that it is actually good for a lot of elitist MNCs to not have a lot of pedigree IITians for 1. they would have to pay them better and give them better work in comparison to global standards
    2. A lot of companies actually run on the credibility of these recruits and they believe that opening up more IITs or increasing seats would only dilute the quality.

    In my opinion the solution lies in increasing the number of seats at IITs and such other institutes commensurate with increase in quantity and quality of faculty.
    Pandit Nehru took a bold step in 50-60s to create centres of excellence in this country but not much investment has been made and attention paid since then and that is why we are here.

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  2. Very true.
    In my opinion, change would come when the admission procedure is changed altogether. There should be personal interviews before admitting applicants. This would actually test the desire and aspirations in a better way and do justice to the applicant as well as the seat.

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  3. pretty good ... the problem however, just rethink a bit and u will find ... as a country / ppl we dont rescpect knowledge/true education

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  4. Well written.
    It is true that children start preparing for Engineering entrance examinations before even knowing what lies ahead for them, or rather the most haunting question..which branch of Engineering ?

    In my opinion, the problem lies in the way the young minds are being groomed in the High Schools (for many, Coaching Classes) in India. They are taught nothing else than what is required for clearing JEE or any other examination of that sort. And, ironically, these institutes keep just 1-day counselling session before students finally apply as if in 1-day, they would clear all their doubts and be sure of what they want to pursue :) Rather, if such guidance is given to them spanned across a span of 2 years, we could hope for better & well informed Engineers, or as you said, "Interested Students". :)

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  5. First of all, I must tell you that this is the _most_ rational and well-thought out post that I've read on this topic. Being an IITian, I have many IITian friends, and believe me, I've read nothing but medieval and pedestrian crap out of them on the same topic.

    Second, since I'm an IITian, you might be inclined to predispose of my comment in some way (positively or negatively). Hence I must assert that the comment I'm about to write is the human being in me speaking, not the IITian (not that they are different - that's part of the point). The comment comes from a human being who has gone through the IIT experience - the bad and the good (mostly bad).

    So here goes:

    I agree with the main point and main thrust of this post, and appreciate you for putting it forth. My own response is quite similar. But some of your finer points are debatable, while others are awesome. I'm just going to mention what I think about them.

    1) Having lesser exams: You're only the second person I've read who understands the benefit this gives to students: lesser stress, no unnecessary travelling, no need to prepare for different syllabi, no need to prepare for multiple _formats_. All of these are nothing but nuisances getting in the way of a student.

    I also agree that a single-exam-system is flawed in that students have only one chance. But I don't think it's a big flaw. The solution is simple: conduct the exam online, like BITSAT or the CAT. I know this does not sound "practical", but I think it's a necessary move.

    There is a tougher argument against the one-exam-to-rule-them-all system: it'll be difficult to conduct fairly. But if you look at the Wikipedia pages for JEE and AIEEE, the no. of students that give the AIEEE are only 2 times more than that for JEE. So all that is required is a doubling of effort. I personally don't think it'll be _that_ difficult.

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  6. 2) Reaction of the IITs: I disagree with you on this completely when you attribute the reaction to a sense of eliteness. Believe me, while many IITians suffer from that disease when they enter, it is washed out of their system in only a couple of days. The profs are even more humble - I've seen more people with their heads up their arses at Avaya than at IIT.

    The reason the IITs have reacted the way they have is two-fold. As you mentioned, IITs are autonomous institutes, and that is part of their strength. If a government tries to undermine their autonomy in any way, they will obviously try to defend their freedom and their strengths. We all know how bad excessive government control can be. The profs who design the JEE work VERY hard to get the paper and its format right. They take the whole year to perfect it. They will obviously not want some idiot in power to ruin a system they've worked hard to perfect. The second reason is simply "don't fix what ain't broke". IIT profs may not be completely happy with the kind of students they receive through JEE, but overall, students do quite well. So why change a system that gets them good students every year?

    Unfortunately, the problem with any technical person is his excessive reliance on logic - to the extent that he/she may lose sight of reality. That is the same case with IIT profs and their defense of JEE. You hit the arrow right on mark when you pinpoint the problem - that even students who aren't inclined technically can crack it given enough preparation or a good brain. In the 4 years I've spent at IIT, one of the saddest things I've seen is bright, young, talented minds and people wasting their efforts towards attaining something their hearts don't desire. The light in their eyes fades, their enthusiasm disappears. They become cynical, desperate, lonely, and eventually lost.

    Most complain, but conform nonetheless. A few brave souls fight to pursue their interests. Some of them are punished ruthlessly for that. "3 Idiots" wasn't that far away from truth when they showed the quadrocopter inventor killing himself. I've witnessed something similar.

    The problem with JEE isn't a problem with JEE itself - the JEE is a very technically challenging and rigorous exam. It's just that the JEE by itself isn't an adequate system to determine if a student wants to pursue technology. Any student who puts in enough effort can crack the JEE, no matter how tough it is.

    And IIT profs refuse to accept that.

    Now. I won't act as if I can see a good solution to this problem with the JEE. Maybe something like a recommendation system - but that can easily be fooled. Again, you're right when you point out that it is a social problem. No examination system is smart enough to fight a social problem.

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  7. So what is it exactly that I want to say?

    - The JEE isn't adequate to determine if a student wants to pursue technology. But it's not THAT bad.

    - The JEE, AIEEE, PET, CET, BITSAT, DEC Entrance,... ad infinitum make life hell for a student. Things should be simpler.

    - The proposed exam is simply idiotic. If anything, it looks more like a ploy to control the IITs than anything. If any change must come to the IIT entrance system, it should come with good, well-thought out discussion with the IITs themselves.

    - And finally, let's start giving HELL to parents who force their children into Engineering instead of appreciating them. Let's be vocal in criticizing them openly and broadly. That's the solution to this social problem.

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  8. Yaar, it talks about the same shit that we have been discussing for a long time in under/postgrad. I pretty much agree with what you and Alok have to say - 1 exam is idiotic, students don't know what they wanna do, school education lacks direction, JEE doesn't test interest, etc.

    1. Why did you change the name of your blog?
    2. Why don't you write about what you wrote for the Oscure Intellect - how you despise the world? why no one understands you? why you don't care what anyone thinks of you? why everyone else is stupid, but you?, etc. AFAIK you never picked up topics on General Awareness ?!

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