Crossing the chasm
By: K S S Pillai
When I got up, as usual, at 4.30 in the morning, I remembered it was 2 o’clock in the Gulf country where my younger son lived with his family. I sent a WhatsApp message of ‘best of luck’ to my grandson studying in Standard XII, who had a test in the morning. Within moments I got a reply. He was fully awake and reading for the examination!
I have nothing but pity for the new generation. Parents want to realize their missed dream of becoming professionals like doctors and engineers through their children. They do not think it necessary to know whether their wards have the same goal. They are in a race with other parents with similar ambitions.
Not suffering from financial constraints like their parents, they are prepared to spend large amounts to get their children admitted to courses of their choice. Most of them have enrolled their children in prestigious coaching classes that conduct online classes that children are required to attend after school hours.
Those who are bent on getting admission to some courses like medicine ask their children to take a break of one year or more after passing the qualifying examination and join coaching classes in cities that have become famous for such classes. Frequent reports of suicides by students under pressure at these centres appear in the media. Suicides by low-scoring students continue even after they join medical and other courses under various quotas by paying hefty fees.
Today, students scoring near full marks are plenty, and it has become almost impossible to get admission to even courses like B.Sc. in good colleges. As the number of students scoring high in the qualifying examinations is very high, the authorities have devised various entrance examinations.
There are entrance examinations conducted by the central government for some courses and by the state authorities for others. Students are admitted to different courses based on marks obtained at these examinations. Private colleges have been given some seats under various quotas like management and NRI, for which they can charge exorbitant fees.
Coaching for entrance examinations is big business. The coaching institutions have adopted modern technologies and conduct online classes even when classes for the qualifying examination are going on. Students have risen to the occasion, and it is common to see them with their earphones, busy with electronic equipment like laptops, iPads, and mobile phones.
The present condition makes me realize how lucky we were when we passed out of our schools. During that period, students studied their textbooks mainly, and the only other help they could expect was from one or two ‘guide’ books. Students read those books throughout the year and were well-versed in them when examinations arrived. As tension mounted, they would burn the midnight oil, studying in the light of kerosene lamps. Electricity was a new entrant, and few houses had an electric connection.
The current system of examinations with objective-type questions was unheard of, and all questions were of descriptive type. The brightest students had to be satisfied with first-class marks of sixty per cent or so. Even well-managed schools did not get more than five or six first classes when the final results were announced. I remember a professor telling me when I complained to him about the marks I got in an essay, “Even if I am the paper-setter, examiner, and examinee rolled into one, I won’t get more than 60 per cent marks.”
Colleges for higher education were very few, and only the rich could send their children there. Getting a job was more important, and most parents would send their children to study professional courses like typewriting and shorthand, various engineering courses and other short-term courses.
(The author is a retired professor of English. A regular contributor to ‘The Kashmir Vision’, his short stories and articles have appeared in various national and international publications)
