Dr. A.V. Raman. Ph. D (Pune) B.A. (Hons), AICWA

Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellow.

 

                                                       Board Barrier

 As one who has spent around three decades in the field of higher education, I was happy to read “Board Results don’t Impact one’s Larger Academic and Professional Journey Prof. Bijayalaxmi Nanda in Mumbai Times on May 18. She hits the nail on its head when she observes “It is the collective responsibility of society to stop judging children based on board examinations. Let me add some more thoughts.

The joint responsibility begins in the child’s home where more often than not the child is coerced   to believe that board results are the be all and end all through inducement or threat or even punishment. This should stop forthwith. The argument that in a highly competitive process of admission to professional education, board examination results coupled with an even more tough common entrance test score is counter-productive as the child may develop a morbid fear of examinations and tests. A student getting 98.9 % in Biology and comes within the first 100 ranks in NEET need not necessarily be suited for pursuing a curriculum of professional education in medicine unless an aptitude test to assess his/her capability to practice medicine is administered and evaluated. Similarly, within the MBA scene, a person somewhat shy and withdrawn may not be suitable for a sales job requiring an outgoing personality.

The second   entity involved in executing the joint responsibility is the print media who publish interviews of students scoring unbelievable high scores and the preparations they made for their high performance, with photographs of their parents to boot!  It is quite in order if the schools they passed out from recognize their merit in special functions and award them prizes but what good is the advertisements except the commercial interests of the Coaching Institutes. A recent film” All India Rank” highlights the travails of a student being subjected to unceasing pressure by his father to make it to admission for a private coaching institute in Kota for IIT entrance examination.

The third entity is appropriate policy for reducing competition faced by students due to demand- supply mis match particularly in undergraduate professional courses. The National Education Policy is sadly silent in this regard  except saying that the policy for college admission is “” based on the pillars of Access, Equity, Quality “, Affordability and Accountability”., As for professional course in Medicine it states “Given that people exercise pluralistic choices in healthcare, our health-care education system must be integrative meaning thereby that all students of allopathic medical education must have a basic understanding of Ayush and vice versa.”  ...

The fourth entity is the employer, both government and private. It is not clear how these agencies would redefine their qualification requirements for jobs.  With the graded system up to secondary school and curriculum designed to include knowledge and skills, the student now has the option to drop out at the end of the first and second years with certificate and diploma respectively, the employer should stipulate qualification/experience requirements. This may further include clarification on issues like the student dropping out will get preference to rejoin his employer .

 It is fervently hoped that issue raised here draws the attention of all concerned with children and their education