Sunday, June 03, 2007

Education - Just Another Business

This is something ridiculous and has changed the education system into a money earning business. Eight years ago, the story was really different and now the scene has totally transformed into coaching dependent. When I passed my 12th , there were only two popular coaching institutes , one was BT(Brilliant Tutorials) from Chennai and another was FIIT-JEE from Delhi. Kota has become IITian's Macca now. More than 50% students who clear IIT-JEE are from Kota's coaching institutes(guess Kota has become synonymous because of IIT-JEE coachings). These days students also give more preference to classroom coaching rather than doing on their own.

But I still think that this idea is not new and very well adapted from past. My past experience while preparing for IIT-JEE, aptly reveals that I had seen Ashwin Bharmbe's (IIT-JEE Topper '97) photo in almost four to five coaching institutes.(e.g. Apex Academy from Bombay,Agarwal Classes from Bombay, Bansal Coaching from Delhi,BT and FIIT-JEE too) During my preparation, I had joined BT and Vidyalankar classes and I was always finding this thing really puzzling how a student could think of joining so many institutes for coaching. Did he has a day of more than 24 hours? I know it must be correspondence coaching, but still can he study such diversified material from all institutes and my father had told me that it sounded like hoax only. True to that, it was just money-grossing business. But this was not expected from JEE toppers at least.

Main point of discussion is simple as this can be misleading for students and their parents and instead of making their lives , it simply can lead to a spoilsport. Finally getting through IIT-JEE depends on one's individual efforts and coaching are just for providing some guidance or competitive infrastructure needed for motivation. Coaching institutes can not make one work if there is nothing in oneself to pursue it. This reminds me some thoughts by Madan Lal , India's former test cricketer who once said "My years in International cricket has taught me one thing.Cricket is a god given gift. If I see a gifted child , I take interest in him.Otherwise I tell the parents not to waste my and their time and take their child wherever his potential lies". Can these coaching institutes make a dumb student to qualify for IIT-JEE?

"Aim at the sun, and you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly higher than if aimed at an object on level with yourself" - Joel Hawes

10 comments:

suramya said...

It really surprises me how people kill themselves to get into IIT's. The work they put it in and all the fun forego is a little scary to watch. I had a friend who studied like crazy to get into it and she finally feel so ill that she's unable to do anything properly now. I thought IIT was a testing ground for people's intelligence but their entrance tests seem to be grounded behind the ideal that the maximum u manage to store in your brain in two years then your in. I actually knew a person who had learned vebartim 5000 different problems. And the coaching classes, sheeesh, they are horrid, I feel after a specific age one must learn to absorb from books and research instead of waiting for a teacher to explain all the points and dissect it.

Unknown said...

well.. a good reflective post on which u know i have a mountain of dope to comment..

Firstly, IIT was religion where i grew up and having a son/daughter there meant a lot for the family's social standing. Ahh..:-) It was my first dream which came crashing down heavily because of one bad day. My! how much I cried on the day the results were out haha sob sob

Secondly, I have lived in Kota for a month and shit.. the IIT craze is maddening.

Thirdly, the guys there are outright studs. Period. I hav tons of friends from the IIT and what brilliance..phew! Serious, if I ever had to change one thing about my growing up I wish lady luck had smiled on me that eventful day in May 1999.

COEP is very close to me.. and i rate many of my engi friends much better than the current brood i hav but honestly there were very few truly exceptional gems.. like our quiz club members. Spjain crowd.. puke..dont even get me started on that!

Loved that last line.

Unknown said...

@Suramya - well said last line. But the thing which you told about your friend seems to me a sort of obsession. Yes..while studying for IIT, it happens , but one must learn to keep the things in limit..Finally that last line of blog consoles me all the time :-)).
@666 - True..Quiz club members and some few others were really gems of COEP.Right now I have some IIT friends here, but nobody seems to be that great.

Gabbar said...

Nice entry. Some feedback, I had joined Vidymandir for preparding for IIT. To prepare for DCE I also joined IITS and after my JEE result came they quoted me as their student. I could not have done anything.

Yes coaching institutes have made the process quite complicated. I agree preparing for 2 years for one exam does sound crazy but a country of a billion people is also quite similar. A line needs to be drawn and somehow this is how the selection process came about. Is it correct? I don't know. Is it working? Somewhat yes.

Unknown said...

@Shubham..agree with you..and if you have been coached and if the institute uses your name, there should not be any problem.And most of the institutes have been started by IITians only. But the craze of IIT does not help in smaller towns where no IITians will bother to open the institute, but some XYZ does ..and then they spoil the generation. So..there should be some defining creterias for institutes also.

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

IIT's continue to be the temples of learning they were supposed to be, I hope!!! so only the most dedicated worshipers are allowed entry....i dont have much to say about it though i went through the same rigmorales as most of us did....I never wanted to be an engineer in first place., leave alone from IIT!!!

Saket said...

I think in some ways it is a confidence booster... for some people it might even be an ego booster. The point is that because you were able to do that, you believe you could do more. A friend of mine who was the PGM in IIT Bombay in our batch said that people from Maharashtra have a very hard time getting in, but when they do they top.

I lived through all of this for a very long time. I didn't know about Kota during my time. Plus when you have a seat in a good dept at COEP, you really don't want to waste a year.

Jas B said...

One has to be gifted and if not that gifted, must have the strength and the will to achieve their dreams.

My Dad made me write all the medical entrance exams. Needless to say I sucked at the exams, mostly because I did not want to be a medical doctor. I used to dread the time when the results were declared, my greatest fear being what if I made it!!!!!!Thankfully, the results were in my favor! Don't tell my Dad please! :)

Jas B said...

And I forgot to add that the quote concluding your post is brilliant.

Unknown said...

@Moi - Yes , dedication and sometime , inborn skills do help to enter those temples.
@Saket - Yes , it is a moral boosters for them,but don't you think, it can spoil others someway or other?
@Jas - Haha..I had same story, My parents wanted me to be a doctor,but my love for Mathematics never allowed me..in fact I had got admission in Medical school also,but I just did not want.