Admission frenzy
No sooner have the HSSLC results been declared when there is a rush for admissions in various colleges of the city.
Kick-starting the annual admission frenzy is the hot sale of prospectus, booklet after booklet glorifying the best features of every institute, each sold for a couple of hundred rupees, not to forget the ‘admission form’ cushioned between the pages of the prospectus.
This single page, A4 sized paper sells for nothing less than a hundred rupees at this time of year!
After the excitement of the results sink in, students and their parents are faced with the dilemma of combination of subjects to opt for.
Those with Science and with enviable marks, if they happen to be covered by the tribal quota will be sitting pretty waiting for their seats in one of the many medical or engineering colleges.
Others who are not so sure would have sat for all kinds of entrance exams across the country. Of late, the competition has become tougher resulting in the ‘survival of the fittest or fastest in some case.’
With the ‘spot admissions’, the ‘cut-offs’, the ‘first-come-first-serves’, the concept of ‘Knowledge for one and all’ might just take a backseat. Only those with the marks to show off will move ahead of the race.
The simple one liner here is “You have to be the best to be in the best…for the best is only for the best…Best of luck!”
Meghalaya does not believe in a common entrance examination, hence marks obtained in Class XII are a passport to higher studies.
Weighed down by school bag
Education in this country and state is both expensive and heavy. At this rate the backs of students will be bent in no time as their spine can hardly take the weight of the school bag. We are talking here of those students who use public transport and are not chaperoned by orderlies and maids.
We have emulated several models from the west but not that of having closets where students can keep their books in the school and not cart everything to school in the morning and back home in the evening.
The Supreme Court guidelines regarding weight of school bags are flouted by all schools.
And with the present breed of teachers who frowns at students for all the wrong reasons, these students are wary about not leaving their books at home.
The sight of the books are enough to put off any student. No wonder most students are ill motivated to learn.
CMJ fiasco
The worst nightmare for most students enrolled in the controversial CMJ University is to be told that their certificates (BA, Masters and PhD degrees) are worthless pieces of paper.
Several years of work and much money has simply gone down the drain. Students are writing in to the Governor through this newspaper to rescue them from the mess.
But how does anyone turn around a bad deal?
Someone from South India wrote in to tell us about the glorified adverts about the CMJ University and its sprawling campuses when actually most classes are carrying on in different parts of the city in rented accommodations.
Many, however, wonder why parents and students did not do due diligence before enrolling in this University.
The Government too has only now put in place a Committee for the management of private universities when some universities have already touched the seven year mark.
Private universities usually do not get state funding to under-write their expenses hence their fees are higher and commensurate to the expenses involved in paying teachers and for general maintenance.
But having charged the requisite fees these universities should give value for money.
It takes several years for a scholar to complete his/her PhD as it requires intensive and extensive research which involves field trips and guidance by accomplished mentors.
If a university is giving PhDs by the hundreds annually then it definitely suggests a scam, a university professor said.