Aug 15, 2006 03:54 AM
2165 Views
Just yesterday when I was watching TV, I witnessed a very shocking news item being screened. Now this article is for all the people who want to recruit Indian MBA’s, MCA’s and some like these. Most of you, who are avid followers of the news on the TV, may know this. But for some of you who are not, this is THE news!! You might have come across news which might shock you, scare you, surprise you, or even disgust you. Now here is something that might awaken a similar kind of emotion out of you.
There are students who appear for some professional courses like those mentioned above from a specific University in Meerut, India. Now to be precise, the courses are MBA, MCA, BBA, and some on these lines, the specialization I keep forgetting. Now I know most of my friends have opted for these courses, but through other University’s (thankfully), and almost all of them have worked really, really hard to be able to get admission in these courses. They prepare for the entrance exams, study hard, clear them, secure admission and again repeat the same cycle all over again to clear the examination. There is a lot of money, time, dedication and hard-work involved. And above all of these, there is someone’s career-building decision involved.
The University in question is running these courses with the sole intention of making money. The reason is quite obvious, candidates pay a hefty sum to get admission and at the end of it all get a degree and subsequently a good job in some multinational or any good company. But when these companies recruit these candidates, learn that the grades they have secured are not given to them by Professors or some one who is authorized, then there is a real problem. Then who if not the professors, or anyone authorized, corrects these papers?
Ladies and Gentlemen: Please meet Mr. X, Ms. Y, Mr.Z – all students of, hold your –breath- class 5, 9 and 8 respectively. Confused?? Nah! Don’t be, this can happen only in India. Yes my dears, answer sheets of professional courses like those stated above are being corrected by students of grade 5 – 9. And of course they are getting paid to do this ‘job’- and its Rs. 2, Rs. 5, Rs. 7 per paper which when converted in our dearest dollar value comes out to be $0.047, $0.11 and $0.16 respectively.
Now imagine the state of the students who slog for the entire year, complete all the assignments spend sleepless nights to study for the examination and finally are being given grades by children who don’t even know the full form of the courses they are correcting the papers of.
There is a huge uproar about this issue in the city of Meerut. The entire electronic media is sensationalizing this issue. The education system in India is again raped by so called scholars and the learned. How long will this continue? The police have raided the residence of the Registrar of the University and confiscated bundles and bundles of uncorrected copies of the aforesaid courses.
The modus operandi of these ‘valuers’ is simple. My dear friends please read on. Its Verbatim. Though some of the text is tweaked a bit to give the desired sentence formation. The interview was done in Hindi(the local lingo)
Q: What is your name?
A: Mr. X (After all what’s in a name?J)
Q: Do you know what are you doing?
A: Yes, I know. I am ‘giving marks’ and correcting these papers.
Q: How do you give marks?
A: I just check the handwriting. The one I like, I give it the highest marks and the ones I -don’t, you guessed it right- lowest marks.
So friends, this is one more reason to rue the decision of not listening to your first grade teachers who diligently told you all to dot your I’s and cross your t’s . But hey hold on! The other criteria used by these ‘scholars’ to grade the answers. To the same question he also replied
A: contd…. “I give good and high marks to the paper which has many pictures.” Pictures here refer to diagrams.
Good news to all of my friends out there who can draw good pictures ahem, diagrams.
Q: Do you get money to do this ‘job’?
A: Yes. I get Rs.5 for doing this.
And the payment ranges based on the valuer’s qualification.
The story does not end here. When this scam surfaced, the local police swung into action and the accused was none other than the son of the Registrar of the university. An ex-professor is also named in this scam. The students who suffered did what they do the best, they ransacked the Proctor’s office and residence, the Registrars office and residence, and shouted slogans all over the city.
The final nail in the coffin was driven when the police found uncorrected copies of answer sheets in an agricultural farm in Agra. Now one might ask- what were these answer sheets doing in the farm? My guess is as good as yours.
My first reaction was – nothing! I just sat dumbfounded watching the news reader’s lips move and the entire story unfold. How can some one be so callous towards the future of the “future of India” as we love to call them. The current Prime Minister was once deemed as one of the best Finance Ministers of the world. The President of this country is someone who has pioneered the country’s Nuclear Programme. With these people heading the country there are people like the ones accused in this case, who give our country a bad name. And what are WE, the ones reading and the one whos written this – doing about this? Again - NOTHING. We are as callous and obtuse as the people who are involved that we choose to not to do anything. We all think and this includes me, its not me whos getting affected so why the hell do I need to fret over it. And finally when something like this happens to us, then it dawns on us that we are in no position to do anything without the support and help from those who are not affected.
Look at what happened when the reservation demon stood in front of us. No one came out in the support of all the Doctors who wanted to put an end to this. Are we so insensitive towards something that might affect us? May be not today but later it may affect our children. And who wants to gift a country marred by such scams, bound and gagged in reservations, divided over castes and religions to our children. If we are environment conscious thinking that our child needs fresh and pollution free air to breathe, why cant we think about giving reservation free and scam free education system to them? We talk about brain drain, I feel its good to work for some other country where atleast you are getting paid for what you do. The basic education system in these countries is far better than what we have in our country. When this is going to stop? People should be made accountable for all that they do. A politician is nowadays so powerful that he can play with the future of the students and can get away with it.
Its high time that the people responsible put an end to the rape of our education system and the country which is already raped repeatedly by the terrorism. By doing such things they are not only corrupting the minds of our people but making the country more vulnerable to attacks- both intellectual and physical.
