At least they are thinking about it.
The exams test what the student knows. Right now in India the student knows
only if he took the initiative to know spending a lot of the parents' money for
tutorial help. Most educational institutes do not provide education
or knowledge.
The high school students are so busy preparing for the multiple entrance exams
that there is hardly any time for extracurricular activities. Like the article
says the fun in education is gone, it is a burden now.
================================================================
'India has exam system, not education system'
Mathang Seshagiri & Hemali Chhapia, TNN | Apr 14, 2011, 02.12am IST
var facebookktitle='\'India has exam system, not education system\'';
facebookktitle=facebookktitle+" - The Times of India";
var facebooksyn='In the
thick of the entrance exam season, a furious dispatch to the PM from his own
scientific adviser has termed such tests as one big menace.';
In the thick of the entrance exam season, a furious dispatch to the PM from his
own scientific adviser has termed such tests as one big menace.
BANGALORE/MUMBAI: In the thick of the entrance exam season, a furious dispatch
to the Prime Minister from his own scientific adviser has termed such tests as
one big menace.
Strongly recommending an immediate halt to the system of sitting for a pile of
exams, C N R Rao, who heads the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime
Minister (SACPM), said in a letter sent last week that the American method of
holding one national exam before joining university is the way.
Putting it bluntly, Rao told the PM that India is said to "have an examination
system but not an education system... When will young people stop taking exams
and do something worthwhile?"
Referring to the exam overdrive, Rao briefed Manmohan Singh on the various
flavours of examinations that dot a student's life: "It is important to relook
the entire examination system including the system of final examinations,
entrance examinations, qualifying examinations, selection examinations, and so
on. Now one hears of a proposal to have a qualifying or accreditation
examination for medical graduates and post-graduates."
Students who groan under the pressure of multiple entrance exams will cheer
this advice. Citing the example of Joint Entrance Examination conducted by IIT,
he said: "IIT entrance exams have the reputation of being difficult and
purposeful, but they have also had a negative effect on young minds. Young
people suffer so much to succeed in these entrance exams, and in the process
lose excitement in education itself."
The lakhs who don't make it across the IIT gates, Rao told the PM, get
exhausted and can't perform as well as young people with fresh minds.
Talking about the agony that the Indian higher education sector is in, the
SACPM, in a brief document sent to the PM recently — accessed by TOI — noted,
"Today there is not a single educational institution in India which is equal to
the best institution in the advanced countries".
In view of the growing number of aspirants for higher education, the SACPM has
readied a 10-point checklist of key problems and challenges. It has asked the
human resources development ministry to set up a taskforce to come up with an
action-oriented document within a year.
"We should seriously consider a possible scenario wherein the young India
advantage enables India to emerge as the provider of trained manpower for the
entire world in the next 20-30 years. This could be a worthwhile national
objective," he told the PM.
Rao's checklist for higher education include:
Raising the bar: Provide all required support to 10 educational institutions to
enable them to compete with the best in advanced countries
Look ahead: There's a manpower mismatch in many countries with too many
professionals in some subjects. Prepare a vision document which foresees the
problems 20 years hence
Inclusivity: Increase the number of fully residential schools up to higher
secondary level in rural India to nurture rural talent
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