Where are we heading?

One of my cousins finished his 12th standard exams recently. This is an excerpt from our conversation:

Him: I hardly attended college. I don’t even know where my classroom was

Me: Why did you not do so?

Him: Because no one else attended college.

Me: Then what did they do?

Him: Everyone goes to coaching classes.

Me: Didn’t the college say anything?

Him: No. There are only a few colleges that strongly adhere to the attendance regulations.

Me: Why did you not join such a college?

Him: No one joins such colleges.

This is only one particular case. But this is prevalent all over the state. You never know whom to blame. The colleges say that they cannot do anything as the coaching classes urge students to not attend college. The coaching classes say that they merely teach because nothing is taught at colleges. The system is like a snake biting its own tail off. And ultimately, the snake is itself harmed!

When I was at school, only those students who were weak at a particular subject would take tuitions. Nowadays, there are not too many people, who do not enrol themselves for these coaching classes, in their 12th standards. We were visiting a few colleges where my cousin would have liked to take admission into. So one of the Principals asked me where I was studying. I told him that I had secured my admission into IIT Madras. The first question he asked was-“Which coaching class did you attend?”. It seems taken for granted that everyone who gets into IITs does it through coaching classes. The other day during my IIT counselling, when I had to get some papers signed by the chairman of the JEE, he asked me whether coaching classes had influenced the order of choices for the various branches. I told him that I had not attended any this year. At this, he seemed pleasantly surprised.

Most of these coaching classes are heavily exam oriented, and do not focus on teaching the subjects, instead focussing on examination techniques. They take in students in hordes. They sing success stories about how many people did well because of them. They never talk about the number of people who do not do well. They totally refuse to own up to a student’s failure, saying that if someone else could do it, why not him/her.

I find this system really unfair for those, who come from financially weaker sections of the society. The coaching classes charge high fees. Usually around Rs. 50,000 for a two years classroom program, which is by no means a small amount. I have heard of some such “classes” that charge even more. If the colleges do not teach, what can such people do?

This does not end here. Coaching classes continue for engineering courses. I was surprised of hearing of this at first, but find it very common nowadays. The other day, I made some rather sarcastic comments about people going to such classes for engineering to a friend. It turned out that she was attending such classes too. I was in an uneasy situation, but then, I merely said what I felt. Who know, at this rate, they might even have classes on how to do a job, how to date, how to spend one’s first night… LOL. The possibilities are endless. All I can say is God save the system!