Exams, Exams And More Exams

Summer used to be a time of gay abandon, freedom, open spaces, sports, and undiluted joy. No more. Now the poor students who have failed are attending coaching and appearing for Supplementary Exams, the bright students are attending coaching and appearing for selection exams. The brightest of the lot are on a Bharath Darshan jostling with the vacation crowds to get reservations from one city to another to appear for all possible entrance exams. Then there are the college students who seem to be perpetually caught up in internals, externals, practicals, “backs”.

Professor C N R Rao, Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister recently very rightly said, “India is said to have an examination system but not an education system.” I agree wholeheartedly with the learned Professor. In the medley of exams, is there any learning taking place? A top official of an IIT confessed that the sole aim of IIT students is to complete the course with the best possible marks and get out as fast as possible. Another Professor of IIM said that their students, from the time they join, are waiting drooling at the mouth (like in Pavlov’s experiment) for the “campus recruitment” that will ensure their lakhs and crores.

Isn’t it long overdue that we review the whole “exam system” and make it a “learning process”? The youth are crying out for justice, as sung by Aamir Khan in 3 Idiots:

Give me some sunshine,
Give me some rain,
Give me another chance,
I wanna grow up once again …
La la la la-la ....