School Education and Competitive Examination

 The topic under discussion today was not the first choice for this month but became the focal point due to two incidents. First, my interaction with a gentleman from the parallel system of tuition culture, and the second, an article in a Hindi Newspaper by Sh. Girishawar Mishra, former Vice-Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi International University, Vardha, (and the third incident happened while I was writing my thoughts). I would like to narrate these in brief. By the way, in the first case, the gentleman was from a reputed coaching center and was keen to meet as a courtesy visit. After initial pleasantries, he asked me an important question related to dummy schools, how was it possible to get rid of these types of schools which are eating away our formal education system? I was pleasantly surprised that someone from a coaching center felt the same way as many of us do in the formal education system. What transpired between us will be shared later in the article. But before I could forget this conversation, I came across the above-mentioned article and that made me think and write again about the topic which has been disturbing many of us for a long not because of any personal reason but our children (who will be the future leaders in their respective fields) suffering silently. Professor Mishra is M.A and Ph.D. in Psychology and started his teaching career in Gorakhpur and then moved on to Allahabad, Bhopal, and then Delhi. He also served as VC Mahatma Gandhi International University, Vardha. His article is worth reading for all those who value education in its real meaning and not something which enables some to pass an examination and get a job. He very clearly mentioned the ill effects of the entrance exams for admission to undergraduate courses. He is in agreement that different boards (responsible for conducting class XII exams) grade the students differently and there is no standardization (some are lenient in comparison to others) but then forcing the students to take another examination just to rectify the shortcomings of the other, is not justified. CUET, would not only put pressure on students and parents (even the school teachers) but also undermine the importance of not only class XII but also the entire schooling system. He questions why not the regulators think of some better method so that the quality of teaching-learning at the school and college level does not remain focused only on passing the examination but build such competencies and skills in students that they are able to accept all kinds of tangible and intangible challenges and most importantly evolve as better human beings,  which is the core objective of education. I do not know whether I would be able to translate his statement in English the way he wrote, so will quote the same in Hindi also. He writes” To get rid of the ambiguity in the evaluation of different boards UGC has proposed another examination. This means the class XII exam will just be a qualifying exam and marks obtained in the entrance exam only will be considered for admission to colleges and universities. But in this new system, there is no proposal to increase the number of seats. Yes, the process of admission has been made complex. Now the students would have to prepare for two exams instead of one. To get rid of the problem of one exam another exam is being forced. In the opinion of regulators, the examination is the only and best solution for all the problems. The students, instead of learning would have to go to the shelter of the examination. This problem is getting worsened day by day. The tragedy is, now education is becoming means to pass examination than being the means to acquire knowledge.” Two of his sentences are worth mentioning in Hindi, when he writes” Ek pariksha ki samasya ko door karne ke liye ek aur pariksha laadi ja rahi hai. Vidyarthi ko seekhne sikhane ki jagah pariksha devi ki sharan me jana hi padega”. I do not how many people would have felt the pain and reality shown by him but we must not forget that if the opinion of such eminent persons are ignored then we are heading towards a catastrophic situation where our formal education system will be completely paralyzed.

Now I come back to interaction which I mentioned as the first one. When the question was put to me about how to get rid of dummy schools,  initial thought which came to my mind was that the ones who are themselves largely responsible for the problem are asking for the solution, but then I immediately realized that they are not the only one responsible for that, but our education system and the ones running the same are also accountable. His next question was equally important when he said, why were the students compelled to go to coaching centers? Why do not the school teachers take care and fulfill the need for competitive examinations also? Though I always believed that schools are meant for the overall development of the child`s personality but this question did make me think from a different perspective. What was stopping school teachers from doing a bit more than just focusing on the syllabus provided by the respective boards? I tried to figure it out and read the concept of the coaching centers. During this search, I came across a research paper published by Gurinder Kaur which she submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education. Though it is her copyright as it is available in the public domain so I would like to quote a few things from the same. To get the answer to the question I mentioned earlier let us understand the difference between a teacher and a coach. Though there are different definitions and explanations for these two terms and both are important in the life of individuals. What I feel is that a coach is a trainer in a particular skill while a teacher is largely a facilitator who encourages the children to explore their potential not only in a specific skill but also in life skills. The word coach seems to be a synonym for the word tutor. A teacher would go beyond the subject-specific to all aspects of the personality development while a coach will try to sharpen skills in a specific area. They both are important and would be required at different stages and in different situations. I have already written in my earlier blogs in detail about the negative impact coaching centers have caused on the formal education system. Let us try to examine whether coaching centers caused that problem or the problems of the schools gave space to the mushrooming of coaching centers? It is difficult but the deeper I get into the issue more I realize that the formal education system faulted somewhere which allowed tuition/ coaching centers to grow. The indifferent attitude of the state and privatization further complicated the problem of formal education. The research by Ms. Kaur supported with facts, my belief that liberalization brought in inherent problems in the education system. I believe that post-1990 we did not get economic liberalization only but got liberated of values and morals. Quantity became more dominant over quality. Everything changed into numbers and further bigger numbers. GDP became the prime focus and in the process, privatization became a road open for all economic activities. The state started shading its responsibilities and private players became important. The education system did not remain unaffected by that. So we saw a large number of private institutions coming into school as well as higher education. Before this period also we had private institutions, like Mayo College, Birla Public School, Doon School, Delhi Public Schools, BITS Pilani, etc but these were run by the big corporates/ Societies with a mission to provide quality education. As the market was open now so the business concept seeped into education and that really was the starting point for the downfall though initially slow nonetheless over a period profit-making concept took over the philanthropic concept. The moment education was named as the education industry and educational institutions as service providers, the problem became manifold. Due to this, parents’ mindsets also changed and they started seeing schools and colleges the kind of places where the education could be purchased by paying money. In this context, I remember an incident of a few years back. A person who came to meet me sent his card which had his designation as vice-president sales in a coaching centre. I invited him to my office and after a formal introduction asked him to let me know more about his role and the meaning of the word sales in respect of a coaching center. I further asked what did he intend to sell? Because to me sell means somebody selling furniture, electrical and electronic items, computers, some gadgets useful for the students` learning, etc. Nothing could be explained by a very qualified person who had graduated from a very reputed engineering college and had done MBA from an equally prominent institution. I was really wondering why did he spend his years in a coaching center to get into that college? Was it to become a salesperson for the same or do something creative and better not only for self but society. Maybe I am wrong and he is right (and so others many like him) because for him and the family earning would have been the main motive for doing engineering and MBA. If the purpose of getting educated is to earn money only then how can the commercialization of education be stopped.

Coming back to the point- who is responsible for the situation in which our children have become prey to the demands and expectations of their parents and victim of the marketing strategies of the coaching centers and private institutions? When children openly talk of dummy schools it is difficult for any educator to talk to them about values and morals. No coaching center would be able to exploit the students and parents if the state and the educators decide not to let them. Because if all school heads decide that they would not allow so-called dummy labels on their school no child would leave a school and approach others. To say that the state is not aware of the menace is unacceptable. The government machinery is aware of the same but nobody wants to admit the problem rather when it comes to their own children that become the part of the problem. I would give an example here. During Covid, most educational institutions remained closed. Some could manage to run online classes, some could manage to send videos to students and many could not do much. Different state boards and national boards reduced the syllabus by 30-40 percent. But can somebody explain why the syllabus of the competitive examination was not reduced? Would this not have forced the student to go for private tuition or head to coaching centers? Even for 22-23 academic session CBSE has removed many chapters in almost all subjects. Will these topics not be asked in JEE or NEET exams? Will this not force students to go in the shelter of coaching centers? For this, should the coaching centers be blamed or our education system?

What I wrote does not mean that coaching centers are not to share their part of the contribution towards the problem faced by the parents and students. Ms. Kaur quotes some issues raised by the students in the short documentary- Why Kota kills. A student confirms that any student who performs very well in JEE/NEET is lured to declare that he/she studied in their coaching center. This has been observed by the common public also that the name of one child appears on the list of many coaching centers. She also found that the kind of marketing strategies used by these centers do not inform the parents and students. The number of students enrolled in these coaching centers and the selection ratios are much different than what is claimed through advertisement. In the desire of providing the best so-called best opportunity for their children,  many parents suffer a huge financial burden. The routine which is followed by the kids is far away from what our education policy mandates. I tend to disagree with the statement by many people that without coaching the children cannot qualify for competitive examinations. If you have been regular in your studies at school and home, then even without formally going to coaching you can do that. There are several examples around us but unfortunately, as their names and photos do not appear in the newspapers, not many believe this fact. I have numerous examples of my own students and one of them even was the topper of the board and qualified JEE and graduated from one of the most prestigious IIT's, and by the way, he was the head boy of the school also. Another, a deputy head boy got into AIIMS Delhi, and the head boy of the same batch in AIIMS Jodhpur. If I mention the names of all the students, I would need a big space so just a few examples. Even if some could not do well,  they have done extremely well in other fields without getting into depression due to not qualifying the so called most prestigious exams.

Now the question which is usually asked is what is the solution.  For this, I would seek suggestions from all my readers. Please help so that our children are not treated as commodities but as pure souls who need to be treated with a lot of care and concern along with sympathy and their emotional being is being shattered because of the apathy of the responsible people. In the next article, I would share the views of my reader and would add what I think can be done, so please read and have a wonderful time.