The Indian Edu-system Fiasco !

One of the resolutions in the Preamble of The Constitution of India is 'to secure to all its citizens - EQUALITY of status and of opportunity'. Also, the notes to the Preamble suggests that in order to achieve the golden goals set out in the Preamble of the Constitution, the polity needs to be educated and educated with excellence (cita. P. A. Inamdar v. State of Maharashtra, (2005) 6 SCC 537). However, the catch lies therein which make the fundamental rights controversial - The fundamental rights are not absolute but justiciable and with exceptions to suit and provide for malfeasance.

Well, malfeasance there is and big time at that! School education is dated and sub-standard. To top it, there is involvement of politics at matriculation level. To top it, there is a fight between Central and State education Boards! Add to that, the confusion created by the new 'percentile' system, which gives a clear advantage to students of State Board over Central Boards without any solid proof, that students of the State Board are at disadvantage with respect to their score. Even the parity between the standard of education provided by different Boards is hard to prove besides their grading system. So, the imposition of 'percentile' system, at best seems like an arbitrary move to monopolise State Board education. The State Board has employed some idiotic mathematician and invented some arbitrary formula to mark up the score of its students to give them an edge over their Central Board counterparts. However, the parody is that even the Central Boards are finding it hard to convince the court of the un-justiciable lacuna in the system imposed by the Maharashtra State Board. All this complication aside, there is 70:30 area-wise reservation rule which incidentally, is constitutionally approved under Article 15, hard to conceive, why?! Thankfully, this year the applicability was made recommendatory and not mandatory. However, the future is not bright on this front with the talk in the air that this thing might be mandatory from next year onwards.

Now shifting gaze to Junior college and Degree college level, the muck turns tarry black from dark brown. Corruption and black marketing exists in every stream, be it commerce, science or arts. The number of seats available in colleges of various streams is grossly disproportional to the pass-out ratio and the standard of teaching is so poor that I cannot f****** justify it in words. In fact, it is right in all the wrong ways! In one of the most reputed colleges for commerce in Mumbai (I'd be damned if I named it), everyone in the tree right from the top hierarchical position (meaning the principal, vice-principal, et cetera) to the lowest (meaning the 'peon' level) to the sandwich-wala opposite the college are peddlers, selling seats. And they do it without any shame, sitting right in their air-conditioned offices or wherever they have their actual job. Various quotas (read reservations) that exist due to constitutional provisions are being misused. Students from ST/SC/OBC category are shrugged away by the management by instilling fear of failure in tough internal college examinations. You feel you have entered into an auction with faceless people who want the coveted seat for their children. There is price even for having the option of opting the second language! The numbers quoted resound in six digits. All this for a First Year Junior College seat! Well, this auction is speculative as auctions are supposed to be and the numbers keep rising depending on what your faceless competitor is offering over the phone. It might even be a gimmick to sell the seats at higher prices. Lies, betrayal, dirty tricks to extract more is part and parcel as there is always someone willing to offer more. It makes me pensive as to what would India's national income be if all the unaccounted wealth was accounted for!? It currently is on 4th position on Purchasing Power Parity basis as far as its GDP is concerned. It makes me ponder; can India covet the no. 1 position if the unaccounted is accounted? Maybe not, maybe yes. This is a question, which might even mystify economists!

Imagining the plight of students and parents in this scenario is pitiable. Despite working hard and scoring well, the students are bereft of their deserved seat due to the opportunity cost that other, more well off parents are willing to cough up. The parents have to shell out their hard earned money to fetch their children a chance to decent education, lest 'educating them with excellence'. 'Ditto!' is the scenario with colleges churning out medical, engineering, legal and business professionals (here the numbers may even resound in seven digits). Corruption has made the education system decadent. There is an entire lobby of such education peddlers with strong political ties, which makes them as shameless as they are. There is no fear. Bribe money is not even accepted under the table anymore! It is accepted gleefully, without any guilt and kept in the college cupboards. This goes in a way of tarnishing the image of India as seen by the world. There are no takers for professionals like doctors, engineers, MBA's, et cetera from India in developed countries of the World, as they do not have the required credibility. They have to re-prove themselves. Imagine going to a Doctor whose parents had acquired a paid seat or reserved seat for him/her and getting yourself diagnosed wrong and paying good bucks for being mistreated! He/She might not even know the difference between heart beats and ticking of a clock. Beware! The probability of such a thing happening is 50-50, given the circumstances.

There is no equality of opportunity for everyone. The people with deep pockets always win the battle for a seat vis-à-vis a meritorious candidate. The very 'Preamble' of the Constitution is being flouted. Knock knock, is there someone to guard it?