Sunday Tribune has a longish story on Kota's cram schools. Here's an excerpt from the section that talks about the nexus between the cram schools and 'regular' schools:
Another interesting aspect of the IIT aspirants joining coaching classes in Kota is that a majority of them prefer to get enrolled in the local schools, as it saves them the hassle to return to their native place to appear in Plus II exams. Surprisingly, none of them appear in these exams as a private candidate. Then how do they fulfill attendance criterion of the schools amid immense pressure of IIT-JEE coaching? "There are schools which give some relaxation in attendance to these students," says Sharma from Resonance. Though he ruled out any nexus between coaching classes and schools, he said some schools, which don’t have adequate infrastructure and fail to meet the parametres set by the CBSE or the state education board, are happy to get more students even if they are not attending the school. However, a student of Resonance told on the condition of anonymity that almost all the coaching classes have a tie-up with some private schools and they persuade the parents to admit their wards to these schools in lieu of which they get commission from the schools. These schools, he said, are affiliated to either the CBSE or the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE). About attendance, he said though these schools tell such students to attend classes thrice in a week, but the latter do the same in a month. "All the students who get relaxation in attendance pay more to the schools while those who don’t want to attend school at all have to shell out more money," he added. According to him, the coaching classes also get a cut from hostels and other such facilities. In view of such activities, the CBSE has tightened the noose around its affiliated schools in Kota and has asked them to admit students in Class X and XII only if one has a "strong reason"for seeking admission in the town.
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And this ToI story from Neha Pushkarna is positively scary:
FIITJEE for instance will be starting a course for class VI students from 2010 session to train them for competitive exams, admissions for which, will begin in January.
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Over at Midway, blogger L (who teaches at a college) calls these schools 'concentration camps'; here's her comment about how they manage to beat the life out of their students:
Students after their spell in these Intermediate college/concentration camps, don't even joke amongst themselves. Many have forgotten how to laugh, I think.
Only normal youngsters are those who went to CBSE/ISC schools without the engg/medical coaching.
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We have noted that China has a nationwide entrance exam for university admissions. Now, a prestigious university in that country is experimenting with a new system of admitting some of its students through a different route -- recommendation from school principals:
One of China's top higher education institutions, Peking University, last week released a list of 39 high school principals nationwide recognised to recommend students to be enrolled without taking college entrance examinations...
13 Comments:
A whole lot of these problems will be solved automatically if only we had more of good quality institutions. Real universities, plenty of them, anyone?
at least these cram schools do not claim they are something else. most of the engg students in iisc and iits (from one particular state) attend colleges which are actually GATE coaching centers. and sadly their motive is to command more dowry (i am an iisc alumnus and some of my classmates have actually told me this). why dont u start by eradicating the evil right here before moving on to kota?
Its appaling to see the state of competetion here. I cannot believe that people want to start from 6th standard.
However here is my question, what should the ordinary middle class person do? An engineering degree ensures that you will at least get a well paying job, that pays the bills correct? If I have a son or daughter who is 13 years old, and I know he or she is not going to be Einstein, I want to try my level best to ensure that my ward has some sort of a security blanket for the future. I want to emphasise education, and inculcate the values of hard work in them. THis sort of a coaching (if somewhat affordable) might give my ward an edge..I say why not?
I know that the liberal intelligencia would scorn at my "middle class" thinking, but tell me what is an alternative? I can let my child study basket weaving, and resign to the fact that I will be feading him or her for the rest of my life? Will my child be better served this way?
Its a very egalitarian Ayn Rand like approach to say- everyone should do what they love, but isn't there a question of pragmatism here?
The need is to create more diversfied pool of jobs (hoteliers, bankers, designers, etc.) and not just engineering. It is more of societal pressure that eng/medical careers are still considered as "only" options. Once society respects other jobs equally(they will respect if other jobs are well paid); the rush for engineering seats and coaching classes will reduce. This will be a painfully slow process. Coaching at class 6 level is pure business!!!
Anon#2. I agree with your comment about dowry. I had several of my classmates in IIT who were very open about the reason to come to IIT. The only difference is that they are from "two" states and not one.
An average IITian earns about 6-8 lakhs pa in some software job after passing out. I do not think bankers and hoteliers get this sort of money. So the pressure is to get into IIT and not into some engineering or medical career.
The only other profession that beats the software job is being a finance guy in the stock market trading futures and options. Any top percentile IITian gets about 20L as their beginning salary.
With this sort of disparity, an arms race is inevitable. And as in any arms race, the price one has to pay is heavy.
@Anonymous 3."I know that the liberal intelligencia would scorn at my "middle class" thinking, but tell me what is an alternative? "
The alternative you have is to spend time with your child from when he/she is born, read stories, sing silly rhymes together, show the wonderful world around, ...it's endless and is simply called parenting. Automatically, the child will achieve his or her potential, do his best, and that's all you can ask for. Secondly, you send him/her to a school where there is a lot of academics, but also music, games, dancing,and kids quarrelling with each other--just like the school you went to 30 years ago.
It's nothing to do with snobbery, it's just like you don't want to expose your child to a drug pusher, similarly you don't want to expose your child to a "mind number" if I may coin a term.
Childhood is lost in the vortex of intense peer pressure and in pursuit of the holy grail which is IIT in this case. Needless to say that is why these days kids commit suicides or become acute mental patient. The balance of life is destroyed.
What can we do? 4-5 lakhs appearing for IITJEE, and only 6 thousand succeed. Can entrance examinations focus on a diversified set of criteria for admission. Apart from IITJEE, can recommendations, Extra curricular activities, social work, higher secondary results etc be given weightage also.
Fact remains if a kid does not get into engineering (IIT or NIT or state level) or medical then what is left of his future. Can he function and earn his own living or is it pretty much all over.
a reply to L from anon # 3
I see that in a world that were perfect, I can let my child reach his or her potential. I have done all that during my childs salad days, sang silly rhymes, played in the sand, took her to planetariums etc. However, she is 15 now and she wants to become an engineering professor like her daddy. IS it not my duty to give her the best and help her gain an edge in order to beat the exam? If tutorials are going to help her, why not?
Amidst all the hand-wringing about "how will I give my 15-year-old the best opportunity" is never seen a realization that a major part of the problem is that there are too many 15-year olds in India (and China) and that's the real reason why life is so nasty and brutish. While we are committed to caring for whoever has already entered the world, it seems to strike amazingly few Indians that a second and also necessary cure is to shrink our numbers peacefully before the peace is blown to bits.
@anon #3
Sorry for sounding rude previously, but given good parenting your 15 year old will make it to a good Engg college, but more importantly, if she doesn't make it, will be mature enough to handle that without feeling a failure...also, it's not that coaching is bad per se, it's the way it is done in these schools/junior colleges that makes it dangerous. I mean really dangerous...I teach those students who went to these cram centres, still did not make it to the IIT/med school, and have joined for a BSc. They have become mental wrecks--not just one or two, but a large percentage of them are in a bad shape to varying degrees.
PS to anon #3 My censure is not about 15 year olds going voluntarily for a bit of extra coaching..it is about parents sending 11 year olds away from 7 am to 7 pm to these cram schools.
L
Your point is well taken, it is really quite astonishing that even my little girl voluntarily wants coaching, and her reasoning being all "my friends want it". With the teenage hormones raging, its hard to convince her to clean her room often enough, let alone convince her of just understanding the basics completely, and forgetting every single grade you get in every single exam - when I myself am not entirely convinced I believe in it anymore. It has served me well in my time, but today I am not sure...
Let me give you another example. The kids are learning about quadratic equations and the teacher has drawn graphs to illustrate these functions. But, they have no idea about what is a graph, it completely surprised me when they teach a concept in school without even an inkling toward teaching a concept.
@anon#3
True. It has happened with my kids many times. Not only in science /math, in English, geography, in most areas. and not only the teachers, you should see the AP state syllabus IX class physical sciences book explaining polarisation of an atom...
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