The Great Indian Brain-Drain

What can be more exhausting than the Board exams itself?
The wait for the results.

The past two weeks gone by were sure a roller coaster ride for the students who appeared in the 10th and 12th board exams 2018, as the results by both the ICSE & CBSE were declared online.

The board results like every year bring cheer for many and disappointment for some. Like the trend of past few years, this year too, we saw many students scoring above 90%. The “toppers”- they call them. But not all toppers are toppers. What I mean is that all toppers are not alike. By observing the manner in which a topper reacts on seeing his/her result for the first time, they can be categorised.

Like the ‘smug ones’.

These are the omniscient angels. They know their results even before the CBSE (or ICSE) does. 99% dot! They knew it and poof! Here it is. Not a muscle on their face will move when the computer screen flashes their score card with the gargantuan marks on it. Or even when the parents & the media & the neighbours shower all those boring accolades. Just a somber smile is all they have to offer. After all, they knew it, no surprises here.

Then there are the ‘always-hungry-for-more ones’. The score card is displaying a giant sum total of 499/500 and they are already half-drowned in their own tears, mourning the death of that one mark that could have given them a perfect 100%. Absolutely nothing could satisfy these hungry marks-eaters!

Then we have the ‘brooders’. They are initially at peace with their scores, all hail &

hearty, but no sooner do they hear that their comrades got a higher merit, than their merry-making turns into worry-&-racking. How come he/she got a point more than I did, we studied from the same notes! (Sob sob)

And then there are my personal favourites, the ‘dumbfounded ones’. They are the ones who expect 80% but get 90%. They thrice check their roll numbers and even probably call up the Board administration to enquire if there had been any mistake in the compilation of the results. It is upon being only utterly dead sure, that there had been absolutely no glitches at all, the feeling starts to sink in. The feeling of a topper. It might take a minute or two, but once it does they go berserk. There is no stopping them then. This is their salvation. They want nothing more from life.

Funny isn’t it? But guess what’s funnier- our country, which produces lakhs of such toppers annually, is destined to be the youngest nation in the world but is also, ironically, the one with the highest number of educated unemployed. We are producing “toppers” but are we producing enough jobs to retain them? Our country where the pass percentage is a mere 33%, the topper getting a humongous 99% is a self-mockery by our education system.

We are not giving them 499 marks; we are giving them 499 dreams, dreams which our country cannot fulfill. We are raising their expectations only to trash them later on. And this is the root cause of brain drain. What does a topper do when he/she is unable to make a career that fits the magnanimity of their scores? What does an average scorer do? The one who got a handsome 85%. It’s a fairly good score, c’mon. But it is peanuts when compared to the giant 99%. The toppers eventually head West because there aren’t any opportunities here that befit their massive calibre and the average ones, who were made to feel too average due to their super-intelligent contemporaries, also, sadly start looking for greener pastures. The good brains and the best brains all wash out.

I am not saying that awarding some one with what they deserve is wrong but promising unicorns when the forest is actually filled with ghosts is kind of cruel.

Do let me know your views too in the comment section on “toppers” and our education system.

CBSE Paper Leak: Our Education System in Perspective

It’s been more than a week that our news channels are going all gaga over the #CBSEpaperleak and #CBSEsham etc. etc. hash tags. Our school students are sloganeering out on the streets in protest and from school teachers & principals to CBSE chairperson & HRD Minister, nobody is spared. While everyone is sympathizing with the poor class 10 & class 12 students who would have to once again go through the traumatizing exam fear for seemingly no fault of their own, and elaborate diatribes are being launched by the opposition parties fuelled by extensive media coverage, I am still trying to make head & tail out of this whole imbroglio.

Yes, the question papers were circulated via emails and whatsapp groups and also that the CBSE has decided to re-conduct the examination is all clear to me, but what bamboozles my mind is the reckless TRP-hogging disquisitions on our news channels. What are they exactly trying to conclude? From high ranking political spokespersons, relentlessly mudslinging at each other irrespective of the agenda on the table, to regular school students, wearing their angst on their sleeves, what largely remains absent is a legitimate conclusion, without which any debate or discussion remains incomplete.

Exam paper leak-out is a reality in our country, however grim it may be, but it has been there since decades and will be there for many more to come. Days, even in some cases a night before the exam, question papers are sold to desperate students in prices ranging from a few hundreds to many thousands. Universities are as such notorious for paper leakages, and now the CBSE board too has been accused of this malfeasance. Parents association has moved Supreme Court against the re-exam, students are all up in arms, political parties are asking for the HRD Minister to resign, the media, as usual, is fanning the flames, and between all this hullabaloo the real agenda has gone down the drain- Our Education System.

Our education system is far from perfect, true. But that doesn’t mean countries with more comprehensive systems don’t face such wickedness. But the reason why these are increasingly becoming rampant in India is two-fold. The primary reason being our education set-up which spuriously promotes rote learning than practical knowledge, and the ancillary reason, which cannot be ignored with respect to the current scenario, is the level of pressure exerted by parents on their wards. CBSE chairman Anita Karwal may have said that marks do not define a person, but ironically the very institution she heads has failed to vindicate her claim.

Because of rising pressure on students to get a perfect score in the examination such malpractices are being resorted to. Parents keep nagging their kids right from a tender age up to their 12th boards to score better & higher, and it is this fad of ‘high marks’ that allows the manifestation of such people who, by exploiting loopholes in our system, are able to slither out such devious schemes.

While the foibles in our education system cannot be denied and indubitably remain for the government to amend, I personally feel that we as society are too responsible for this. And because we will not accept anything less than a 90 or 95%, the coaching institutes are able to cash-on on our fancies. They charge exorbitant amounts as fees in return for a guaranteed best result, and then to keep their reputation they run such rackets. They ostensibly circulate the question papers among their students as ‘worksheets’ or ‘expected questions’ and thus the student does not even know that he/she is inconspicuously becoming a part of the sham. As for the outsiders, the leaked papers are sold directly. Many a time’s parents are aware of it and often a party to it.

Because we run amok blindly after ‘marks’ and NOT after education, these rackets are able to flourish.

A re-exam cannot, of course, cure us from this malaise and neither can the resignation of our ministers. The government is taking the necessary steps it should in the matter and its time we too start doing the same by changing our outlook towards education and examination.

Do share your views and let me know your take on our education system.

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