It’s that time of the year again. Following the declaration of the class twelve-examination results by school boards, universities in India have released the cut-off percentage for admission seekers. The 100% cut-off percentage set by Delhi University for non-commerce stream students seeking admission in its premier college, namely Shri Ram College of Commerce, has been the contentious topic of debate is newsrooms and drawing rooms alike.
Critiques of this unprecedented high, read next to impossible, cut-off argue that it is discriminatory towards students who opted for the science and liberal arts stream in Classes XI and XII. School principals and counselors, who are supportive of the Human Resource Development Ministry’s call for lessening the ‘burden’ and ‘pressure’ of studies on students, argue that this leaves students at a disadvantage.
However, as is a trend with my posts, I belong to the contrary school of thought. An important thing that this move would do, would be to quash the misconception that most science students have, which is that since they have opted for the science stream, they are intellectually superior to a student from the liberal arts and commerce stream. It is important to establish a clear fact that a student opting for the science stream (with the exception of students with economics) doesn’t want to join Delhi University’s commerce related course over say joining engineering at IIT or medical at AIIMS. Also, if a commerce student cannot join IIT or AIIMS after 12th, why then should a non-commerce student be able to join B.Comm at SRCC?
As far as lowering the ‘astronomically high’ cut-off for even commerce students is concerned, my firm belief is that any such move would detrimental for the education system of India. It is not for nothing that India is lauded on the world stage for producing the sharpest engineers, doctors, economists, et al. There is no dearth of sub-standard colleges in India. However, the need of the hour is the setting-up of institutions offering quality education that are at par with global institutions. We must focus on quality, not quantity. Simply passing value judgments on the quality of faculty in Indian institutions shall not suffice (Jairam Ramesh, had claimed that it was the students that made the IITs great not the faculty). The government needs to step-up its game if it aspires to take the giant leap from being a developing nation to a developed superpower.
Let's stop studying :)
ReplyDeleteErr. There are some students as well who have a predilection to take up finance even after completing their studies in science. The want to have the best of education! Does that mean they have to undergo a rigid system of discrimination?
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty who do B.com after their 2 yrs of science!
The change that is needed in Indian system of education is:
ReplyDelete1. Quality Universities (as I agree on the point you made)
2. A transition from a degree-oriented education to a job-oriented one.
Thanks for your comment Ravi!
ReplyDeleteI do understand that several science students have a predilection to take up finance related courses in college. What I find incomprehensible is that why don't these students take commerce at the very first instance.I understand three potential reasons behind this.Firstly, their primary aim is to make it to IIT/AIIMS, with a commerce course just a backdrop option. It is important to remember that a commerce student doesn't have the same options.Secondly, they are under parental pressure to take up science in class XI and class XII.Thirdly, they feel they would be 'looked down upon' for not having opted for science.It is high these students and their parents do away with thought that commerce and arts are second-grade lines for education.
Agreed with your counterpoint! But have you tried to fathom the fact that it is only this year that the cut offs have rocketed sky high! For the Non-commerce students, the cut off was pretty much as same as it was for commerce in the years that went by.
ReplyDeleteMy question is why this year?
The students in sciences weren't supposed to be under so much of pressure, if they wanted to opt for finance after science, before that deadly day that dawned on them to think that there is no future for their RIGHT TO STUDY WHAT THEY WANT! The cut offs deprive them of carrying out a future in finance if they want! Who, what will cater to their desires?
P.S. Expecting more blogs from your side on social issues
undoubtedly! this time the cut-off has shot to such a great height. only one person qualifies in the 98% to 100% slot, as the news channels say. it is utterly disgraceful that students scoring 95-96% are unable to get admissions in colleges for which they've slogged for almost a year, if not more!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Ekakshra!
ReplyDeleteI believe only the first list is out yet. I think with the release of the second and third lists quite a few students should be able to make it to DU. Don't you think SRCC won't be SRCC if everyone could make it?
Just to put another contrary view....not everybody can decide what they want do do, what they want to be from early on. Life can take us on strange journeys. In the US and UK for example you can take any mix of subjects in your plus 2's and then appear opt for interviews for diverse careers such as medicine and accounting. I was one of the interviewers for the St Georges Medical School and we used to love having students from diverse educational backgrounds to join medicine.
ReplyDeleteOr to bring the example closer to home....I thought that I always wanted to be a IIT grad and prepared myself for that career from Class 8 onwards with all the Brilliant / Agarwal classes(do they still exist?). However on a lark ticked the medical entrance form, and appeared for biology just for the heck of it. Really dont know why suddenly decided 'medicine's for me'. Never regretted it though and would do the same all over again.
The other issue of course is that all such divisions are probably a bit too restrictive. I have a cousin who is a IIT engineer who is currently head of GE Neuroimaging Division and probably knows more about the brain functioning than I do. Another doc fried of mine id now heading up the business division a major pharma company and all his time is to do with spreadsheets and number crunching and business development. So....keep your options open... you never know where life is going to take you...and enjoy the journey!
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ReplyDeleteMany people joining this debate in the media forget one important fact. The generations that went to college in India till the early 1990s followed the simple principle-if you are good at studies, you opt for the Engineering and Medical streams; if the family was in some sort of a business and you are ok in Maths you opt for Commerce and if you do not fall in the
ReplyDeleteaforementioned two categories and you are not overly ambitious, you opt for the humanities stream.There were honourable exceptions to this principle, but these were people who were intrepid to the level of flaunting a devil may care attitude.However, the proliferation of Engineering Colleges (and to a lesser extent the Medical Colleges)has now led to a
situation where several thousand Engineering seats go abegging each session in the absence of students.However, Colleges dedicated to the commerce stream are not that many.SRCC is extremely attractive to students because of the placement of even fresh Graduates in the best Companies. How many B Com or Eco Hons students of colleges get such offers elsewhere?
People might not be aware of another fact. i was shocked a year back when a State Generation Utility was able to employ about 100 fresh Graduate Engineers of Electrical, Electronics and Mechanical streams from an NIT and other Engineering Colleges at less than Rs 15000/- a month package .Even today these people want to be continued at the same salary. So much for
the hype of placements! This was not reported by the media!
Another point that needs to be kept in mind is the point of convergence of disciplines. Many Engineers and some ambitious Commerce/Humanities Grads apply for attaining the degree of MBA for the simple reason that they want to be Managers (with the concomitant
glory/higher packages/better career options )and not Engineers or Accountants/Analysts. MBA as a post graduate stream is practically open to all.
One should also factor in the issue of the prevalent 50% reservation of all seats to the students from the weaker sections of the society to understand the angst of the General Category student (and parents) for whom the media projected mind boggling cut-offs are actually applicable.It will be interesting to know (from actual studies)the percentages of cut-offs for these weaker section students in the last few years.I am reasonably sure that the same will also be very very high for these premier colleges.
But why does the media not delve into these issues as well, instead of trivialising the matter by highlighting just one aspect of the process in one College (the most coveted by Commerce students)? Well that is a separate subject altogether!
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on the blog, Dr. Sen!
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad I got in last year. Phew.
ReplyDelete