“Good morning teacher!” Students dressed in their black and white uniform, with neatly done hair and eyes brimming with hope and sleepless nights, cheer in unison as their 45-year-old female teacher arrives in their class. She asks them to sit, then proceeds to the blackboard to write the topic of the day. With the exam season approaching in a day, all 35 students open their notebooks and begin scribbling down whatever she says―right or wrong, nobody cares. The students perform perfectly what they have always been taught―the art of rote memorisation.
Ahead of this year’s competitive term-end exams, the students are planning what other competitive exams they will write in a few months to get into a top-ranking university next year. The date of Akbar’s first sneeze, the chemical composition of Bhagavad Gita, and the square root of the national debt―they have all of it ready in their minds to paste from one sheet to the other. But here’s what students can look forward to beyond the opportunities of attempting multiple exams.
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The Indian education system annually churns out students with enormous talent. From elaborate curriculum to extra-curricular activities, educational institutions are equipped to prepare students to choose between their dream careers of engineering and medicine, while also urging them to follow their side hobbies of painting and dancing.
From Sundar Pichai to Narayana Murthy, students who have been molded by these institutions and eventually graduated from top-ranking universities in India were inspired to go outside our borders to finish their studies. To secure admission into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) remains a dream for many who are just finishing Grade 12. This is evident from the number of people who write the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), where there are almost 1.2 million applicants. About 10,000 of them, including Pichai and Murthy, successfully walk through the doors of an IIT.
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Within the four walls of these high-ranking institutions, students learn and practically witness social events that a layperson comes across in our country every day. What better way to learn about the different caste systems in India than having segregated spaces within college campuses within which one is allowed to sit! And what better way to understand the glorious history of the reservation policy that our country follows than being taught by professors from the privileged castes while sitting in front of your friends from across the road.
These institutions also strive to foster a sense of equality and uniformity among students. Whether this means enforcing a common uniform for everyone by removing the practice of wearing head scarves or turbans or by ordering all students to line up and treat their classmates of other religions in one way, teachers will go to any lengths to achieve the same.
Last but not the least, the institutions you study in will prioritise your mental health even if you don’t do it yourself. While some offer counselling services that will help you meet your 10 deadlines along with crippling anxiety, others will hold rallies, posters, exhibitions and activities on suicide awareness, whenever they get the time.
So, dear students, as you gear up for yet another exhilarating exam season, remember that our education system is here to shape you into a well-rounded crisis manager and a thoroughly uniform individual.
[DISCLAIMER: The following stories that are part of this issue are a work of fiction inspired by the state of news media today and are meant for reaction purposes only.]
