(Ashish Gupta is the Managing Director at Bansal Classes in Jaipur, Rajasthan)
Engineering entrance exam coaching has come a long way from the time it started some decades ago. Back then candidates took coaching only post passing the tenth standard. These days, there children as young as 11 and 12 years old who wish join the IIT coaching. It’s difficult to say what came first – the coaching industry’s offer to coach sixth standard students or their parents’ initiative to teach their wards at such a young age.
Till 2008, students only came to coaching centres post their tenth exam but now a days attending coaching classes for IIT even when in school has become a norm. The fact is that coaching has become a norm for those from sixth standard onwards unto the 12th, when they actually take the engineering entrance exam. At Kota, all coaching institutes are streaming with students of all ages wanting to get into the IIT.
They enroll in dummy schools and only take coaching from sixth standard onwards.
There is no other development in their growing years. No partaking in sports, no cultural activities, no social life. It would also be a statement of truth that students are getting obese because of these changes in study habits. If the child is only going to sit in one place and study, where is the exercise? There is no self-study for children anymore, no way that they can use their minds and do something else in their formative years. So, in a way, these children have stunted growth- not only physically but also intellectually.
Do 11 year old children really understand what IIT is? A question most would not like to answer. The answer lies in the point that we have begun to put so much pressure on our students that it is only studies and more studies to be able to finally pass the IIT entrance exams. We have decided on our own that there should be nothing in a child’s life besides classes.
CBSE has ruined our education system by scrapping away the board exams. The off-shoot of so much coaching and a wrong school framework is that children are also getting drawn away from writing. Exams are getting to be objective from ninth standard onwards so writing is going out of fashion for them.
Are the IITs happy with the students they are getting these days?
There is a stress on by-heart learning these days, not real learning. Students learn and re-learn and also practice the same thing over and over again. There is no genuine understanding of the subject.
Maharashtra is better off than Rajasthan in this respect. You have your board exam which is the tenth standard, so coaching if at all, begins post the tenth standard. Hence, in a place like Bombay, there is a variety of choice for those pursuing academic excellence. Children there pursue different and unique careers which may be far away from engineering.
There is better learning in states where the tenth standard is the board exam.
You may be a topper and an IITian but who says you are intelligent. What about all-round growth, what about learning different things and then deciding on one course. Life doesn’t begin and end with coaching classes, but sadly that seems to be the trend in the current day scenario.