Saturday, June 02, 2007

Corrupting young minds with cash


Now, JEE toppers are getting offers of money to say they studied in this or that coaching institution. Can you guess how much is being offered? Prepare yourself for a big surprise!

8 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    This is very well known and is more common for state board (10, +2) exams. Budding training centers pour in cash to pick attention this way. Once the craze is in, good students too join and they will perform well (because / in spite of the coaching) and the coaching centre has its name established. Look at Narayana coaching centre's story in AP, for eg.

    Selling one's own soul for cash starts here for the top engg students. Otherwise how can they feel comfortable earning lacs of cash later counting cocacola / toothpaste sales after a BTech in IIT?

  2. barbarindian said...

    Doesn't this further weaken the "coaching class effect" theory? Perhaps the use of coaching classes is way too inflated.

  3. Vivek Kumar said...

    Abi.. this is not something new. It was happening in 1998 when I took the JEE and probably even before that.

    I don't know what the amounts were.. probably lower than they are today. But the concept is as old as coaching classes.

  4. Doctor Bruno said...

    :( :( :( :(

    Seems that doctors in Tamil Nadu are poorly paid here also

    Ramans' use our name ... They come to our home, give us a box of cake get a letter from us and then happily say that the "toppers are our products"

  5. Ritwik said...

    Abi,

    What these classes are doing is definitely ridiculous, also unethical. But I wonder why you chose the 'Corrupting young minds with cash' moniker. This conjunction of cash with corruption is quite skewed, in my opinion.

  6. Abi said...

    Anon, Vivek: I have also heard about this practice; at least the possibility of it. This is the first time I am seeing it in black and white in a news report. That's why I linked to it.

    Also, I was too stunned to see the amount of cash beckoning the toppers (or, at least, their parents). One has to be really strongly incorruptible indeed to say 'no' to these offers.

    Bruno: I guess you are what would be called "collateral damage"! :-(

    Zen Babu: I don't get you; this is clearly a case of cash and corruption, no?

  7. Vivek Kumar said...

    @Abi: Some more thoughts..

    Why exactly is this "corruption"?

    Isn't it more like advertising?

    I am quite sure that Boost wasn't the real secret behind the energy levels of Kapil and Sachin. Should they not advertise for Boost *after* achieving success (with high energy levels, of course) by whichever way (probably just balanced diet etc.) they did?

    Just wondering..

  8. Anonymous said...

    Vivek,
    You are correct. I have this thought for quite a while... Even some stars and starlets in a 'face whitening cream' ads, they show them to be in dark color(real, i suppose) and put make-up and claim that's because of their cream. I just don't understand this! Isn't it a bold faced lie?