The stealth reality behind SRM University

One of the universities from those who have made National as well as International recognition in recent time is SRM University.Like most of all others I heard its name and fame for the first time when convocation of Indian Science Congress (ISC) held there last year in its world class auditorium hall.(Seen myself ).The large infrastructure,impressive study and hostel buildings everything go fine and mind boggling till this gist.But the truth is much bitter and dark.A world class institution having collaboration with around 35 universities worldwide including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),having 60:40 ratio of Indian to foreign faculty,Semester Abroad Programs ,Faculty and Student exchange programs.Everything seems as nice as just it is the best option to opt for.I did the same.I wrote SRMEEE as i was pursuing admissions.Fortunately,i got the counseling invitation.After the IITJEE 2011 hard luck i decided to go with SRM after all it was ranked 8 nation wide as per Times of India (TOI) survey.The scheduled day for attending the counseling in SRM,Kuttankulathur was 14 June.We reached timely on 13 June.So we went to visit campus.And it was all very impressive.Meanwhile my sight stuck on the seats availability.On my surprise there're still 13 seats left in ECE in main campus.I was glad enough.But when we returned from canteen the left seats were all filled up.Most surprising thing was counseling wasn't going on during that period.So i approached to two Hindi spoken college guys (As most of them speak Tamil it was lucky bumper prize).After enquiring my Board scores and AIEEE marks,they suggested me if you really wanna have ECE on main campus,then you should go SRM Hospital at Mamblam.On further enquiry i got to know there are some management seats which are in his hand as he has financial share in the party founder of SRM University founded.So we entrained ourselves from Puttheri to Mamblam,almost 45 minutes long journey.As we reached SRM Hospital i called to Satyam (The man who has privilege to manage management seats).He sent a guy ,he was receiving a BBA degree from SRM ,Vadapalani campus.He was very talkworthy guy.I started enquiring him about SRM administration and campuses environment.He told me the availability of seats problem has been experienced by many others too.As he was actually from Bihar,he started conversation in Hindi.As we stepped inside Satyam's office there were already four cases which they call "parties" sitting on couch.It was an air conditioned office.The guy he sent was collecting 1.5 lacs from the party sitting in front of us.My father and i both started looking at each other,as were not familiar what was happening outta there.Through keen observation i analysed it was donation which set to money exchange.After sitting there for about one hour (amidst Satyam too entered room).I got to know almost 80% seats are filled through donations only.There is a well pre-planned procedure for the donations too.One can even cancel the seats one had got through official counseling by giving more money as donations.So overall it was only money which speaks there.They were saying there has to be signs of HOD's,chancellor,vice-chancellor to get a management seat and all of them are bribed in lacs to get one signature.With sad heartened,as

i was anticipating fair system then such a corrupt,i left the room.

I said to my father I don't need to admit in such an institution.But my father has more tricky idea he said Let's see what happen in your tomorrow's counseling.But my inner conscious wasn't allowing me to even attend my counseling but for sake of respect to my father i attended it.But i left the auditorium hall without taking admission though i was getting each respective field in each of SRM's capuses except ECE in Kuttankulathur main campus.One thing i would like to suggest readers please don't go for private institutions in India whatever fame they got .It is just money which contributed towards huge infrastructures.Better to go with IIT's and NIT's which have fair admission procedures.

I wonder how this could be possible without government involvement.Such institutions have made education a business and money making machines.It is the darkest aspect of Indian education. Privatization of education has made it standards much lower.SRM is conducting SRMEEE just only to show they're ,otherwise seats are filled only through management quota.WTF if these are international standards i strongly condemn it.

One-size-fits-all education

Every child is unique. Unfortunately, this uniqueness is subsumed in a completely standardised system.

At the regular schools, the ability to quickly ingest, digest and expel information is what really counts. Some kids 'pick up' and retain lessons easily. Others don't. But both kinds of kids are in the same class, learning at the same pace. Neither is happy with that.

The keen and quick learners end up bored. Everything is moving much too slow. Where's the challenge?

Meanwhile, there are kids who are finding it hard to cope. Some are slow learners, others are distracted.

"Mere bete ka man padaai mein nahin lagta (My son's heart is not in his studies)," wail parents. To make matters worse, these kids are then sent to tuition teachers, who further sap the life and any latent love of learning out of them.

Do we need to know so much?

A wise man once said, "The aim of education should be to teach us how to think, not what to think. To enable us to think for ourselves, rather than to load the memory with thoughts of other men."

But NCERT -- and the other powers-that-be -- think otherwise.

Most school syllabi appear to be training our children for the Bournvita Quiz Contest and India's Child Genius. They cram irrelevant-to-your-future-life information into young heads.

Sure, you and I survived the mental carpet-bombing, but didn't a tiny little part of you hope that future generations would be spared?

All I remember of years of history, geography, science and Mathematics (and I was the school topper) are the few important details making up the Big Picture: Photosynthesis, Mughal invasion, Eskimos-live-in-igloos, that kind of thing. My entire recollection of geometry boils down to two Ps: Pi and Pythagoras theorem.

Here is what really irks me: while five-day weeks are the norm for working adults, seven and eight-year olds are attending school on Saturday! How vast and unending must the CBSE syllabus be to require that!

Preparing for what?

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe," was how Abraham Lincoln once famously described the purpose of education.

Lots of sharpening happening in our schools, but with no idea what trees we will be cutting.

In India, school is essentially a compulsory training ground for the Academic Olympics . We have to learn to solve quadratic equations and master organic chemistry, just in case we want to take up engineering at age 16.

Even if we know, at age 12, that we have no talent, stamina or inclination for it.

Even if this means, at age 6, a child with barely a couple of hours in a day -- squeezed in between schoolwork and homework -- to call his own.

Issues -- small and big

Ever noticed the standard Indian school uniform? It is awfully uncomfortable and unsuited to Indian weather. Pinafores, ties, socks and closed shoes.

A few, very few, schools have used common sense to modernise their uniforms. Most couldn't care less. This is the way things have always been. Why change?

Because you know what, even the vast majority of parents are uncomfortable with the idea of doing things differently. To middle class India, excellence at exams is a fundamental and elemental aspiration. It is what, we believe, makes us different from those lazy Americans.

But all said and done, the American school system is a universal one. Every child of school-going age must, by law, complete high school. Since not all kids aspire to go to college, there are different paths available to students.

Beyond some basic English, Math, History, you have the choice of taking easy courses. Enough for a career as a car salesman. Or tough ones leading you to college.

The Indian Board Exam system -- whether State Board, ICSE or CBSE -- is not designed for universal education. But to educate 'People Like Us'.

People whose kids must go to college, preferably a professional one. People who have the ability to assist their kids to 'excel'. Or pay someone to do so.

Which is why even though 39% of the students who appeared for the Maharashtra State Board's HSC examination this year failed. But we don't care a fig.

The schools our kids go to -- the 'good' ones which carefully select kids of English-speaking parents -- generally manage a 99% pass percentage.

And to achieve the extra 1%, they will not hesitate to tell parents of weak students to take their wards elsewhere. To appear 'privately', and take 100% of the blame for flunking.

Signs of change

At last, there seem to be enough dissatisfied parents to constitute a 'market segment'.

While ICSE is generally considered to place more emphasis on creativity and less on rote learning, the academic pressures are no less. And classroom sizes remain rather large.

So a new generation of super-elite schools offering the International Baccalaureate programme have sprung up.

Which is great if you can spend a few lakhs on your child's school education, and several lakhs more for a college education abroad.

Else, like me, you will shop around for the 'best' school in your neighbourhood. And hope that i'll -- like millions of other children -- will learn to 'adjust' and fit in with the system.

But is school supposed to be an experience you survive? Or a wonderful journey where young minds bloom and thrive?

Wish someone had the answers. Or at least more of us started asking these questions!