With the exams approaching in March/April, the fever intensifies, and for the parents whose children are in the 10th and the 12th classes, it peaks in May and June as the results are declared, and with that, the signalling of a mindless race to secure admission in a decent college for a course of choice.
The media, as has been its characteristic in the recent times, adds fuel to the fire by plastering on front pages meaningless statistics such as how many children secured over 90 per cent marks (and thereby implying that anyone scoring less is not really worth any recognition) and posting interviews of children who have scored close to 100 per cent.
This May, 8,120 students have secured 90 per cent or more marks in the CBSE Class XII examinations and 21,187 students achieved this in the Class X examinations of the same board. With such results, on the one hand, there is the usual debate on whether the marking system has become more lenient, and, on the other, the usual frenzy on speculating what the cut-off marks would this year be for various streams and colleges.
With the cut-offs settling at a little above 90 per cent for the more coveted subjects in the premier colleges, and around 85 per cent for most others, no one sheds tears for those tens of thousands who have done well enough to score between 70 per cent and 85 per cent but not well enough to see their (and their parents') dreams of getting better higher education getting fulfilled.
Like in most other critical areas of social obligation, successive governments, especially in the last 30 years, have failed to discharge their responsibilities and must therefore squarely take the blame for this heart-breaking and depressing situation even as the current government delivers homilies to the private enterprises on corporate social responsibility.
Let us first take a look at some basic statistics. In 1947, our population was about 320 million. In that year, the total enrolment in high school was about 2 million. In 1977, the population increased to 640 million and the enrolment in these classes increased to about 9 million.
In 2007, for about 1,130 million population, the enrolment is about 40 million. This trend will, of course, continue in the coming years. There has, of course, been a significant increase in the total number of seats for graduate in these 60 years, but in the last 30 years, the rate of increase has been woefully falling short of the pace at which India will
see the growth in the number of students passing class XII.
When it comes to creating seats in 'hot' professional courses such as engineering, medical, architecture, economics and commerce, the ace has been even slower, with just about 55,000 seats in the top 70-80 colleges and professional institutions in India (in IIMs and IITs, the total seats have only inched up from about 3,150 in 1977 to about 5,300 in 2007) while the number passing class XII now probably exceeds 5 million, i.e. just about 1 seat for every 100 students!
Hence, with several million more children now reaching classes X and XII compared to one generation before, it is no surprise that in absolute numbers, more are achieving very high marks and this trend will continue.
However, this does not imply that the next 25,000 students who scored below 90 per cent but still well above 80 per cent are any less capable or have less potential to succeed later in life. In a previous generation, these marks would have been adequate to comfortably secure admission in a very decent college in a course of their choice.
What is the way out? At the level of the HRD ministry, it implies putting together an urgent plan to augment capacity at higher levels of education without wasting energy on imposing quotas and other trivial pursuits. The government cannot shy away from its responsibility on this front and has to allocate adequate financial resources and infrastructural support to make this happen.
Of course, this has to be supplemented with massive private investment -- whether from within India or overseas. The government has to create the policy framework to encourage and invite such investments without any further delay.
For parents, it implies they should be supportive, and sympathetic to their children rather than putting unbearable pressure on them to forsake their youth in favour of countless hours of studies and tuitions just for the sake of securing that extra percent in board exams. The good news is that there is a fundamental change taking place in the composition of the Indian economy and Indian society.
Dozens of respectable, high-paying, and professionally and personally rewarding jobs are being created and will be created in the coming years. Some of these include myriad exciting job categories in the gaming and animation industries, media and entertainment sectors, etc.
To the young, my advice to them would be to have faith in themselves and the opportunities our country offers. They should confidently pursue what they feel like rather than just a few disciplines, and where they can, rather than just a few select institutions. The coming decades will be far more liberal in rewarding talent in whichever form it exists!
