IT essay no child’s play

No prizes for guessing who was orchestrating the the competition. HEP Solutions, a public relations firm on behalf of Samtel. What the hardware industry needs to do to be on par with the software segment is probably the meat for discussions in Samtel and other hardware company boardrooms, even the chatterati club on the Information Technology circuit. But an essay for school children? That too compulsory participation?

When HEP Solutions requested entries for a quiz and essay contest, they said “compulsory participation of the students (class V upwards)” for the essay competition. The word length was set at a maximum 800, later modified to a minimum of even 150. To cast the net wider, HEP Solutions even got in touch with the office of the deputy director of education asking him to instruct the 1,200 schools under his jurisdiction to participate.

Though schools were told that the competition was compulsory, most school authorities made it optional for students. Says Asha Bhandari, principal, Jasudben ML High School that won the competition,“we always encourage students to participate in such contests, but they are never forced to enter.” Principal RK Pande from Model School, Wadala, agreed the topic was tough but he had given them the choice to enter.

However, not all principals are amused. “We are already gasping for time. Here is this badly disguised attempt, labelled one of its kind contests, which is actually using students as guinea pigs,” says the principal of one of the Don Bosco schools, “Why should I subject my children to this?”

Explains Puneet Kaul, founder-director of HEP Solutions, “Samtel has made heavy investments in computer monitor manufacturing. Their market share right now is 2.5 lakh units in a 13 lakh market and they are aiming to sell 10 lakh units in the next five years. What better way to have a student-contact programme than this competition? After all these students are going to be the end-users in the next five years.”

Though the topic of the essay was dense, Kaul says that it would have motivated help from parents which would only add to the quality of the essay. Of course, there are parents who beg to differ. “When I asked my daughter what she understood by the term `turnover’ she demonstrated by turning round!” says an exasperated father, who, incidently works in the IT sector. Parents could not believe that some schools had made it compulsory for the students to write this essay. But Kaul has his reasons: “Unless the school makes it compulsory, there is no use having the contest. No one will enter it.”

There were some who refused to have such contests in their schools, either citing too many activities for their students or refusing to participate in such commercial exercises, especially in the absence of any written instructions from the directorate. According to the company, however, they were “not selling any product, only driving home a point.”

As one of the principals remarked, “Companies constantly come to schools, wanting to hold contests with subliminal messgages packed in such activities. It is disappointing that the directorate also got involved this time, albeit not on paper, but there was a `verbal request’ to almost all schools.”