Education – boon or bane?

This article has been submitted by Prashanth V for the CLATGyan Blog Post Writing Competition. If you think this article is a good read, ‘Like’ this article on Facebook (the button is at the bottom of this piece) or post a comment using the ‘comments’ section below.

CLAT is over! For a lot of people this is a relief but for me it is only the start of more problems to deal with. When I was preparing for CLAT, I knew what I was doing, I knew that I was heading and working towards something. Working day in and day out, without even thinking of having fun (especially the last month) and even when I think of taking a break or just randomly take a break and do something not relating to CLAT I feel guilty, I feel like I am wasting time, a 10 minute break means – missing to practise 10 legal questions, 2 sides of a newspaper, 20 easy math questions. Nothing could get my mind out of CLAT. But now all is over, and I don’t have even a slight sense of relief.

Ask me why? – well, now I need to wait for the results, and then if I make it to the university I want, it only means I need to work even harder to get to the top to make the most out of the university- exchange programmes, MOOT court, placements. And if I don’t make it to any of the universities then what’s next? First thing, I need to face people saying – “It is not the end of the world”, “You will have a better option”. I don’t care what others think about my life, because they have no slightest clue how I would be feeling. Keeping all the social torture apart, I have a more sensible problem prevailing – how is my future really going to be? I may get into some private college but is it really worth it? Is it really worth it? Dreams shattered! Depression haunts!

This is how a typical student feels. But there is no real appreciation for hard work or real talent in India’s education system. CLAT exam was the biggest proof for that. After more than 20000 people preparing for the syllabus given they get to face a paper which was out of the pattern and still there’s nothing which can be done about it! They say PIL, they say protests but at the end they know they just have to face the results just the way they are. Nothing is going to make a difference. In midst of all this, is a student who cheated just because she had an influential father! This is just for CLAT but there are so many more competitive exams conducted in India, I doubt how many of them actually filter the right students.

Money buys everything in India including education and health! And this can happen only in India. This is sad; there are thousands who obtain admission by paying loads of money especially in medical and engineering courses. So much can be done but no one cares because that is how it works. There are so many students who are much more deserving and passionate and just because they are not rich enough to pay the DONATION they can’t do what they want in a good college. Keeping that aside, what is really happening to the money? Why is it called donation? If really all the money went to the institution then why are the standards so low? In The Times world rankings there is only 1 Indian university which made it to the top 200 that is IIT Mumbai.  There is so much more than just the theory of the subject, the overall improvement of a college is not up to the mark in India. In most of the universities sports and co-curricular activities take a back seat, the standards of scientific labs are not that great. Indians are smart but the facilities provided will never get them to the position they deserve.

If we take UK for example, it is supposed to be one of the top countries for education. They don’t take DONATIONS, only deserving people get into respective courses. Most of the competitive courses like medicine have interviews. But, I can never ask India to do that because I know how much drama and corruption that is going to create. UK looks at much more than academics; they want proof of commitment, passion and hard work. Unfortunately, in India all these are tested in one final exam. The marks somehow tell you everything about the student and if it doesn’t then the money does! Influence is a negative word according to me in the field of education. Students born to famous parents will have more advantages. Who can we go and complain to? No one, because at the end no one is true! No one wants to set it straight and if he/she tries to do it they are opposed by 10000 other people who are probably being advantaged by what is happening. And even if the person crosses this hurdle the higher officials have more important things to deal with, well that is what they think, so they ultimately stop the person by either corrupting them or threatening them.

The literacy rates are not up to the mark, well if all Indians are rich we may probably have 100 percent in every state! I am not trying to say India’s education is just about money but at least 75 percent of the colleges are. We can’t do much, actually no one wants to. We can’t really blame anyone either because if the person is corrupted there is someone who is making him corrupt.

And now, after preparing for 12 months I get a paper which doesn’t stick to the pattern. I feel betrayed! This was one of the best exams I thought but there it goes this is just the start for CLAT. This year there was one student who had an influential father, next year it may increase.

All I can do is write about it, and probably get few people to read it and get their heads to nod to what I say. But after all I am an Indian too, criticism is in my blood!