Friday 22 September 2017

Common better quality education before common exam




The above quote is one of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein.
This also sums up what I am trying to tell here, in this post.


I am not against NEET. It is OK to have a National Eligibility cum Entrance Test.
But I just wonder.. Shouldn't we prepare everyone across the nation before testing them through a common exam? Isn't that how the system should work??

Though India is a single country, we have 29 states and 7 union territories which are different from each other in many aspects.
Let me take just two aspects here, relative to this topic.


Educational boards :
There are 55 boards of education in India (visit  Boards_of_Education_in_India for complete list). Of all the boards of same level, no two boards have same syllabus. Every board have their own unique syllabus. When syllabi/boards are different from each other, is it fair to have a exam based on one particular syllabus?
Now, since the exams are based on one particular syllabus, people have no option but to follow that syllabus!

Till May 2016, number of CBSE syllabus based schools in India are 17,093 only (Here is the list of Schools_affiliated_with_CBSE). Is it enough for a country with population of 1.3 billion?


Let me take Tamilnadu for example (Tamilnadu because it is easy for me to collect data).
There are 55,667 Government/Private schools in Tamilnadu (By 2012), out of which 5660 schools are higher secondary (Proofs at TN_Schools_per_district and TN_Education_Report). All of them have same higher secondary syllabus as your higher secondary mark is used for college admissions across state.
Now, if we take CBSE schools in Tamilnadu.. There are only 499 CBSE schools in Tamilnadu (By 2013-14), out of which 122 are present in Chennai itself (FYI : Apart from Chennai there are 31 districts in Tamilnadu). The ratio of CBSE schools to stateboard schools is almost 1:112.
So, among 113 schools, students of 1 school have little privilege that the students of other 112 schools have (I am not saying they are 100% privileged or only they can crack NEET, but they have better start / better chance). Is it fair?


Social and Economic Status :
When there is not many CBSE schools available, and the chance to crack a national level is hanging in balance, next stop is coaching centers.
Now, there is a huge economical and social difference in this country. I don't have to present the data for social difference as well all already know that every region has it's own caste/religion differences. I will just share some data about economical difference.
Per capita income in Goa is 4,66,632 whereas the per capita income in Bihar is 63,200 (visit  List_of_Indian_states_and_union_territories_by_GDP_per_capita for more details). Percentage of people below poverty line is just 5.09% in Goa, 7.05 in Kerala whereas it is 39.93 in Chhattisgarh (visit Indian_states_and_territories_ranked_by_poverty).
My question is simple. Can the students from Chhattisgarh/Bihar have same chance in getting proper coaching as like students from Goa/Kerala?

When people are from different education system, different social and economic backgrounds, there is no point in testing them using a common exam.


My opinion:
Equalizing social/economic status is almost impossible, at least for next couple of years. But equalizing education is possible!
Every state's syllabus is based on various factors specific to that state. For example, if Tamilnadu students ready about Bharathi in detail, Bengal students will read about Tagore in detail. So changing the state syllabi is like destroying their identity.
But.. For the sake of this national level exam.. Why can't we have a high standard, good quality, higher secondary syllabus, common across India?
Let the students study their state oriented syllabus till 10th grade. Then, let them study a common syllabus for next two years and appear for a common exam (NEET or any other such exams that might pop-up in future). This will provide every student in this country a common platform to develop themselves before they take a test to pursue their dreams.

Common education. Common exam. 
Sounds fair?
Then sign the below petition regarding the same :)

Petition for Improved Common Syllabus for higher secondary 



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