tell you what... its a CATCH 22 situation COACHING CLASSES are good.. but not in INDIA.
just imagine 3 american school kids and 7 african school kids taking part in a running competition for top 3 places.
(please don't quote irrelavant examples like how ethiopian runners outperform US runners at olympics.)
that is exactly what is happening in india thanks to coaching classes.
kids who can afford expensive coaching classes definitely have advantage over those who cannot.
still there are some extraordinary minds who make it without coaching. for example, guys from my batch (1998 JEE) Rajat Raina(AIR 4), Gopi Krishna (AIR 49) , Mudhakar Srivatsa (AIR 77) .. these guys made it without coaching. and they are exceptionally brilliant.
but at the same time, due to these coaching classes, there are lot of IITians who are not really exceptional. even average tom dick harry end up getting into IITs... only because their dad spent huge amounts on coaching.
Again, COACHING is definitely GOOD if given to everyone. and level the playing field.
ok, whats the solution for this divide?
There are two inter-dependent problems we are trying to address.
1. Groom future scientists who can benefit India and the World through high quality training. 2. Choose the right candidates who have the right aptitude and inclination for Enginering.
There are two "inter-dependent" "orthogonal" problems we are trying to address.
Problem1. Groom future scientists who can benefit India and the World through high quality training. Problem2. Choose the right candidates who have the right aptitude and inclination for Enginering.
we are trying to address the problem with respect to one parameter - COACHING. this parameter can take three values. 1. coaching for none 2. coaching for few (which is the current case) 3. coaching for everyone.
lets analyse the affects of each of these values. 1. coaching for none this miserably fails to address Problem1 but it works well to address Problem2. since, even with the aptitude, the kids will not have trained knowledge to solve real-world problems(or, in this case making them ready for IIT). but since the playing field is levelled, you can easily filter out and select the right candidates.
2. coaching for few. this option works to a certain extent to address Problem1 but fails miserably to address Problem2 since the competition is unfair and you will not be able to select the right candidates.
3. coaching for every one now, this is the option which would address both problems perfectly.. since it prepares the kids well to take on the world and solve Problem1 and level the playing field to solve the Problem2
so here goes my "impractical solution" to this problem.
MAKE CHILD EDUCATION FREE FOR ALL TILL CLASS 12 and GOVERNMENT FUNDED.
