‘increasing percentages pose a challenge to the Indian education system’

Principal,Maxfort School,Rohini

Stellar Scores,but still lost in the maze.

It is indeed heartening to note that the students are doing remarkably well in exams and the cut-offs have usually been high,in the vicinity of 95 per cent and above. Unfortunately,many students,even with stellar performances are left stranded due to cut throat competition. Today’s education system is challenging but there definitely is a scope for improvisation. It is pertinent to make some amendments in the exam system,which pushes the students to the wall and forces them to adapt to a system which has a single shot at higher education (Class XII exam) turning into a do-or-die situation. Students are consistently bugged with thoughts whether they are making a right choice with regard to their future or not. Very few kids get support to freely explore options and decide what career they want to pursue. Thus,India’s education sector has to find a way out of this maze. Changes in the education system have to range from devising a common entrance test. The need of the hour is to expand proven quality institutions like Amity,generate more research funding as well as create better facilities in private universities,nationalise curriculum and standardise tests which focus on continuous evaluation. It is distressing that lakhs of students leave the country every year for a college degree. A 100 per cent cut off is not only the sound of a college slamming its door shut but also of millions of students screaming to be heard.

Renu Singh

Principal,Amity International School,Noida

Ninety per cent is on the increase in the CBSE Class XII results. According to the current data,the number of students scoring 90 per cent in the city has crossed 44,000 this year .The average scorers are left with very few choices. There was a time when 60 per cent scorers were appreciated and used to be very few. Getting admissions in professional colleges was not so difficult. Children were very clear about choosing a career — a doctor,an engineer,a teacher or a banker. But in today’s scenario,there is a wide choice of careers. Due to the increase in the cut- off of colleges every year children with lower percentage are left with no other option than to seek admissions in other states of the country or in foreign universities or probably switch over to other career options. Not only city toppers,but most of the national and state toppers are also trying for admissions in DU. Therefore ,children with less than 90 per cent must have a back-up plan. Change or any reform in the education system should be welcome because not all traditional practices are good .We need to change with time.

Rama Sethi

principal,saint mark’s sr sec public school,janakpuri

Getting a 65 per cent in our times was considered to be an expression of par excellence. It symbolised your genuine intelligence. To be awarded a first division meant a passport to a top college. Now the situation has undergone a 180 degree turn. Talk about achieving a 90 per cent,no not enough. If you get anything less than a 96 per cent you can forget about obtaining a course and college of your choice.

Increased percentages have put tremendous pressure on all stakeholders — students,parents,teaching faculty and colleges. The system of education in our country is marks oriented. It is nice to use words and expressions like de-stressing,edutainment,play way methodology and so on. The student is made to realise from Class VIII or IX itself that securing a 95.5 is not acceptable. Study and hard work are considered to be the motto for each child.We talk of holistic development but that is sacrificed at the altar of college admissions. Parents run from pillar to post to coordinate the tuition timings to give their kids a “ much needed edge”. For what is this edge? To get into the rat race of admissions. Can the teaching faculty cope with all the high end achievers? Aren’t our colleges also becoming more and more unapproachable? Why is it that many of our students are looking at foreign universities? This is because many of them are pragmatic to realise that getting a 90 per cent will not get them a coveted seat in a “good college”. As an educationalist,I have nightmares that if more colleges are not opened and seats are increased what will be the fate of my so-called average students? Our education system is not giving rise to “happy students”.

Tania Joshi

Principal,The Indian School,JB Tito Marg

Increasing percentage in exams throws a volley of questions to the education system of a nation. The system,on the one hand,has to accommodate the large emerging lot in various streams and trades and at the same time,it has to strike a balance between the demand and supply of human resource to various sectors of the economy. Students with thorough knowledge of the content material of a syllabus or with greater analytical skill may get elbowed out by the students with greater percentage. And thus the quality of the end product gets affected.The education system in India has to confront with yet another challenge on this count. We have so many state exam Boards with different examination and question paper patterns. Candidates at various exams cannot be examined and rated on one particular scale of percentage.

Saroj Aggarwal

Principal,Abhinav Public School

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write but those who cannot learn,unlearn or relearn.” The quotes is apt but insufficient for today’s glocal student,whose digital intelligence coupled with quick reflexes and capability to think out of the box has enabled them to successfully remove all the bottlenecks to reach excellence. The competitive spirit built in the students from ‘pushy’ parents’ end,peer pressure per se or due to evolutionary education pattern adopted in school,has made our youngsters review and reset their own benchmarks. Increasing percentage is understood and interpreted as better performance and students are not taking any chances. Improvisation of evaluation strategies is the need of the hour,so as to check the real learning with a student. Constructive classroom,shifting of paradigm from teaching to learning will elevate the status of our students to that of being a “learner”. Evaluation parameters should ensure scoring 100 as extremely tedious task as the zooming percentages are posing a threat to the education system. On the other hand,if students have learnt to ace their targets,let a lottery system decide their selection into various courses/universities. Equality of opportunity should reign supreme and achieving excellence a privilege for a student.

Arti Chopra

Principal,Amity International School,Sector 46,Gurgaon

Increasing percentage at school level has become a challenge for the present education system as quality professional colleges are handful in number as compared to the number of students coming out with flying colours. Therefore,the challenge at the moment is to add more quality colleges so that top scorers get the best education. Further as Class 12 score is the passport to prestigious colleges,students getting average/ below average scores are deprived of best education. Moreover,it is a challenge for the colleges also to raise their standard and chalk out an action plan to achieve International standards level so that students do not look at universities outside India. This way we will be able to stop the brain drain. Earlier,India was famous for its universities like Nalanda and Takshila. So our dream to make India a Vishwa Guru again can only be achieved if we increase good colleges and further attain better place in the list of universities all over the world.

Sonia Luthra,

Principal,ASN Sr Sec School,Mayur Vihar-I