Over the years India has been successful in overcoming different raj’s , from the British to the license raj. But one which has damped India’s effort towards understanding the real meaning of equality is Quota Raj. A word which has been misused and misinterpreted over the years by all- people who derived it and deserved it. I am not here to argue on the system as a whole but what provoked me to put my views across was the misuse of this very word which has handicapped us today. Recently the Maharashtra government came out with a abominable law to reserve 90% of seats in junior colleges (11th & 12th Std) for its state run board and the remaining 10% for the common central boards.
We have already tampered with the government job sector and higher education system, plaguing them with various quotas and now we have set out to tamper with the lives of young boys and girls. The juvenile innocence are being fed with the concept of quota when they should be enlightened about the vast opportunities ahead of them.
The Indian education system is currently balancing three to four educational boards trying to avoid conflict among them. But this new rule has brought to attention the need to communize these education boards, such that we create a level playing ground. There exists a variation within states boards as we move from north to south and east to west adding to the confusion. Different evaluation systems, different question papers and at time different curriculum have made this system debatable. The marked difference I have seen across all the boards is the language options in a curriculum, with Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Orissa etc.. paying emphasis on regional language. I personally do not disapprove of this because it is important to know one’s own native language if given the opportunity (I personally do not know how to read or write my native language due to the different education boards I studied during my schooling). Apart from this I believe we teach identical concepts of mathematics, science, history, geography, english etc. Why have a difference in curriculum across the boards, of when and what to teach, on a concept which does not change from region to region. Why can’t we have a common curriculum spelling the same words, with native language as the only dividing line ?
It is very debatable to pronounce which board is superior. I have experienced the differences personally and through friends at school and college. Few boards pay emphasis on science and math’s as a whole while others also pay emphasis on specialized topics like economics and civics. Within a specific subject for example, mathematics, I have seen difference in emphasis being laid on applied, commercial and general mathematics. Shouldn't students have knowledge of all these subdivisions without being biased against the other? To further illustrate the difference, social studies in few boards have history, geography economics and civics as sections of a single book but others have them as separate subjects of examinations, paying equal emphasis. Should we all not be educated equally on all topics under the umbrella?
The examination system also shows distinctions across boards, with disparity in question paper patterns and evaluated scores. Consider this; When you might be hard-pressed in preparing for your board exams with twelve papers, your neighbors will be on the verge of completing his/her exams with only six! Why the difference ? When you neighbor knocks on your door to distribute sweets on achieving a high 90% on the exam, you will be anxiously waiting for your results knowing that the average score that can be attained in your board is around the mid 80’s ! Why the difference? When you get up early and log on the Internet, hoping to see your name in the admission list on the schools web page, you are taken aback to see your name in the waiting list when your scores were in the top bracket for your board but lacked the meat to compete with others. Why the difference ?
In the past few years complex methods such as indexing scores (which still evades the understanding of common people and lacks transparency) across different boards have helped solve the problem to an extent when it comes to admissions, but overall the system still continues to balance itself to attain stability.
With close to 10% of students in Maharashtra studying outside the state board , why did the government have to introduce such a discriminating law? A motive to encourage students to join state-board adopted institutions? A motive to further divide the cracked system? Such populist laws have been put forth from various governments but not a single successful attempt has been made to unify the system. In an attempt to give equal opportunity to all students they seem to have somewhere lost or overlooked to plot of the game.
We have plagued the young minds of India with the ancient caste system and now we are trying to infuse in them a discriminatory notion based on the type of education system they hail from!
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