STOP THEM

Prologue: Yesterday I saw two advertisements which were in sharp contrast. First, was from the government advertising on right to education. Second, was from the various schools and colleges of their ability to churn out top results year after year. I shall deal with the latter in this post.

It is that part of the year when news channels are inundated with advertisements of success from all schools and colleges. I have little idea how education system works in various cities and states in India. But, in Andhra Pradesh especially in Hyderabad it sells like hot cakes. Somehow over the years the need for education has drastically changed. Today, education is about percentage secured or getting a seat in IIT’s, NIT’s, other top universities. I’m in no way contemplating against having aspirations to get into IIT’s or NIT’s. But I’m very much concerned with the mad rush for ranks, percentages and marks. Is it really what most of us want? It wasn’t always this way. What has changed in a decade? That today we have children of class six being trained for IIT?

Concept of coaching for IIT was started with an idea to help students in their preparation. It was started by Mr. Ramiah with a noble cause. But, soon it has paved way for others to use it as a business. Today it has blown out to be such a business that I wouldn’t be surprised if five years down the line we have Narayana/ Chaitanya ringing the bell at the coveted Dalal Street. We could be having stock market experts and brokers analysing trends, ups and downs in the education sector. We might have to buy their stocks to get admission into them. Then, their are people on both sides of the coin with regards to justifying coaching styles of Narayana, Chaitanya,..etc. But, can anything justify the ludicrous level primary education system dropped to in our school ?

Class 10th students are forced to sit for extra study hours, late night classes as a preparation for 2-3 months before exams. We all seem to be lamely agreeing with this trend. Time has come to take stringent actions to stop the sale of education. Their should be complete ban on IIT coaching in schools. Schools should use that infrastructure for other purposes like play ground, arts, etc. Schools should be fined and administration should be sentenced for minimum jail terms if found to be taking extra and late night study hours. (Cancelling licenses to schools would be bad option as it would students in perilous situation). Also, check needs to be on number of students per class and total admissions. Explanation should be given by schools for fee they seek. Any hike needs to be informed to govt. with justification before implementation. All the schools need to follow same time-schedule. On the whole govt. needs to play big boss for these private players.

State Govt. of Delhi has taken a measure to address above concerns, by restricting admissions to a school based on locality i.e. preference would be given to students who stay nearer to school. Also some seats would be reserved for needy and govt. would be over-seeing all the admission process. It’s high time for Andhra Pradesh govt. to quell the misadventures schools are dealing in and take appropriate measures to address the low-level primary education has dropped in city.