Pressure cooker schools and colleges

HYDERABAD: "If you got 90 per cent or more in class X and haven't yet decided what to do with your life after school, count yourself lucky. Most other high scorers have had their decision made for them — not necessarily by their parents."
Cram schools hunt & trap students, 2 Jun, 2007 l 0220 hrs ISTlMRIDULA CHUNDURI, TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Come examination time and results, it's cramming all the way for millions of students. Board exams are a nightmare in our system with percentages determining everything and 1 mark slipping a student down by 10,000 ranks, especially in the Board of Intermediate and Eamcet examinations. One can well imagine the amount of stress an average student is subjected to, in such a scenario. High School and intermediate education (plus two or grades XI AND XII) badly need reforms. The emphasis, for the past several years, has been mainly on cramming and more cramming, regardless of any understanding of concepts.

From the time that the Intermediate results have been out, the newspapers have been flooded with full-page advertisements with each junior college flaunting its own list of 'toppers'. Most of these 'colleges' are pressure cookers where students are made to grind away, by cramming for hours on stretch. These colleges thrive on a system that glorifies and has institutionalized memory-based modes of learning that leave no space for individuality or creativity. Also, they're geared to 'bring the best' out of the 'creme de la creme' of students. Kids who are either average performers in terms of their grades (as reflected in their marks) or are backbenchers, as some inevitably are, can take a hike under the existing system. The colleges in question are essentially money-spinners with an ever-expanding network and enjoy such clout that it is widely believed that they determine just about everything from syllabus structuring to the pattern of exam papers and the continuance of the EAMCET exam....When will things ever change in India that is Bharat, or nearer home for Hyderabadiz and Andhra Pradeshis.....

See also:

'Pressure cooker' schools warning