THE SCHOOL EDUCATION CONUNDRUM
On August. 2, 2024, the Supreme Court of India pulled up NTA for lapses in conducting the NEET exam and mandated to overhaul NEET-UG on a deadline.
July 2024
The year 2024 dealt a rude jolt to the school education scenario and the systems to evaluate the merit of the school-leaving (12th standard) students in India. Allegations of malpractice had been in existence for a long time -- well, not prescient, but sadly accepted now.
At last, after a series of interactions and arguments on the NEET (UG) 2024 saga, the Supreme Court of India concluded that : there is no need for a retest as there was no systemic breach in the sanctity of the test, and the counselling may go on with the re-revised list after re-evaluation of the answer to a question in the physics paper which brings down the number of toppers from 61 to 17 (67 to 17 as per the first iteration before the 'grace marks' were rolled back).
The Supreme Court has acknowledged that question papers were leaked at Hazaribagh and Patna. Unprecedented charges were made of paper leaks, giving out the wrong question papers, damaged answer keys, impersonation by students, and an unusually high number of toppers from certain centres -- a string of bad news. Police investigations led to arrests in some States, and the CBI is looking into the possibility of a national network's involvement in the case. Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Karnataka passed resolutions seeking to scrap NEET and revert to old systems. Meanwhile, the recommendation of the Justice D. Murugesan Committee which includes : scrapping of entrance exam of any kind and "banning" coaching centres was submitted to the government in Tamil Nadu on July 1, 2024.
What is bad about the old pre-2016 system of entrance examinations, and what is good about NEET ? The old system is beset with problems such as students having to appear in multiple exams for different States, varying test standards, and a lack of transparency -- that's the bad of it. The goodness of NEET is that it can create an equitable and accessible system that would provide a standardised test to select the brightest from across the country. The question now is about the credibility of its integrity, sanctity and transparency about which the police, CBI, Supreme Court and the committee headed by K. Radhakrishnan are looking into. The irregularities that had surfaced gave currency to the demand of going back to the old system.
While the Supreme Court had denied to RETEST, there is a need to clean the Augean stables. The solution to the problem may lie in fixing the present system by the committee set up under K. Radhakrishnan to reform the NTA's systems and procedures and keeping an eye on global best practices. Or it may just be a cosmetic exercise. Whatever it may be, the fabric of the society, in general, is coloured with corruption, and people would find loopholes in any system.
-- Dr. T. Rama Prasad
Now, let's rewind to the last month:
On June 4, 2024, the results of the NEET-UG exam were announced. 67 students celebrated for getting 720 marks out of 720; 1,563 students got "Grace Marks" ; allegations were made about 'question paper leak' and some other irregularities. A volcano erupted from underneath the placid waters of the 'National Testing Agency (NTA). There was a hue and cry from the public and some political parties. Amid the row over alleged malpractices in the holding of the NEET-UG, on June 27, 2024, the President of India, in her first address to a joint session of Parliament after the constitution of the 18th Lok Sabha, said : "My government is committed to a fair investigation. and ensuring strict punishment to the culprits."
On June 28, 2024, both Houses of Parliament witnessed dramatic scenes and multiple adjournments with opposition parties pressing for a debate on alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG exam. And, on the same day, the Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted a resolution, moved by the chief minister, urging the Government of India to immediately give assent to the NEET Bill which has been pending with the President's office since 2002. The chief minister said that "the rest of India is now resonating with the Tamil Nadu's demand to scrap NEET."
On June 22, 2024, the Union Government removed the Director-General of the NTA from the post. With the NTA embroiled in multiple controversies, the Ministry of Education, on June 22, 2024, constituted a seven-member committee of experts to provide a roadmap for an overhaul of the NTA and its processes, led by the former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
On June 23, 2024, The Central Bureau of Investigation CBI) registered a case of alleged irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG, and started investigating. It made some arrests including that of the principal and vice principal of Oasis School in Jharkhand.
Towards the end of June 2024, with the stakes and tempers soaring high about the alleged irregularities related to the NEET-UG examination, the Union Ministry of Education in India called for a CBI investigation and formed a high-level committee headed by former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) K. Radhakrishnan to reform the National Testing Agency (NTA) which is responsible for conducting massive exams such as the JEE, CUET and NEET. We hope that the committee would have in mind the standards of GRE, TOEFL, Equity 2000, Pacesetter, Transition 2000 and the Medical College Admission Test of the US; the China's Gaokao; the UK's University Clinical Aptitude Test; etcetera which are among the global best practices to select candidates. 'One Nation - One Test' may be good as a concept, but the demographic diversity of India must make the committee bold enough to foray into the domain of equitable decentralisation, a broader way of finding merit, and blending school and competitive exam scores, not just making the system of NTA examinations, of a few hours of ticking the boxes, error-proof. The ISRO spaceman should choose between the exam-cracking capabilities of tactful humanoids and the critical and creative capabilities of the future citizens of India. The system should be student friendly, not overloaded with stress and strain of the 'coaching factory model of teaching'. Four students killed themselves within 48 hours of announcement of the NEET results for not scoring high marks, and many students and their parents are reported to be rushing to psychiatry clinics. Where else in the world is this happening ? Let us hope that the 'space researcher' explores the larger space of 'School Education' in addition to 'course-correcting' the NTA. Meanwhile, the recommendation of the Justice D. Murugesan Committee which includes : scrapping of entrance exam of any kind and "banning" coaching centres was submitted to the government in Tamil Nadu on July 1, 2024.
At present, only the entrance exam scores hold the golden keys to the higher education citadel. Some are considering to think of returning to the old time-tested system of admission either with only the final school marks or a combination of them with entrance exam scores.
In India, the National Testing Agency (NTA), an autonomous agency under the Education Ministry, is tasked with conducting the nationwide crucial examinations such as the JEE, NEET, UGC-NET and CMAT to centralise entrance examinations to higher education institutes, with the goal of 'One Nation - One Test'. The examination (NEET-UG) for 2024 for entry into medical and allied courses was conducted on May 5 and the results were declared on June 4, and the NTA has come under severe criticism, amid allegations of irregularities, inflated marks and question paper leak. Amid nation-wide outrage over the NEET-UG fiasco, news and opinions caught the headlines in media. And a battle of words between the ruling party and the opposition party has started.
A friend in the UK told me that the news of allegedly providing NEET-UG 2024 question papers and answers for several lakhs of rupees in India didn't surprise him. The NTA's claims of tamperproof, smooth conduct of exams for 23 lakh medical aspirants went poof once results showed inflated marks, clustering of toppers from specific tuition centres and an amazing 67 toppers -- 720 out of 720 (there were just 2 in 2023; 2 in 2021; 1 in 2020). The number of students who scored 650 and more out of 720 in 2024 is 35,000 whereas the figure in 2023 was a mere 7,000. The figures seem to be of a statistical improbability unless the questions were "easier" and the coaching of the students is better, compared to those of 2023.
Added to this, is the ambiguity and allegation about addition of "Grace Marks" as a compensation for giving less time to answer due to a fault in the system. 'Teething issues & tech glitches' come handy to the 7-year-old NTA, but difficult to convince the Apex Court. It is alleged that the mess is extended to CUET and JEE also. Some students approached the Supreme Court about various irregularities and 'statistical impossibilities' connected with NEET 2024. Convinced by the stuff in the petitions, the Supreme Court felt that "THE SANCTITY OF THE NATIONAL EXAM HAS BEEN AFFECTED" by the allegations, and so, on June 11, 2024, it sought an explanation from the NTA, and posted the case for hearing on July 8, 2024. Just two days later, the NTA decided to deprive the 1,563 students of the "Grace Marks" but gave the option to them to write the test again on June 23, 2024 for a fresh assessment, or to retain the already scored marks without the "Grace Marks."
Around 23 lakh students who took the examination conducted across 4,750 centres in 571 cities including 14 cities abroad are anxiously waiting for the verdict about the larger issue on question paper leak. We do not yet know whether the issue is genuine or not, and if true whether it is just a one-off the case of an aberrant nature, or of a plague in the systems. There are several unanswered questions. Why some centres distributed the 'back-up' question paper instead of the 'primary' paper ? Were they accessed from bank's strong rooms or another reserve, simultaneously ?
The Bench of Justices, however, turned down the plea to 'stay' the 'counselling process'. Also, there is a plea to quash the exams due to a 'paper leak' in connection with which police allegedly arrested some of a "paper-solver gang." The reported arrests made in Gujarat and Bihar raised eyebrows and left the NTA red-faced. The alleged malpractices and mismanagement have caused an upheaval in the lives of over 13 lakhs of qualified students and their families. A re-exam seems to be impossible for the entire country, but, it may be done in a limited way if it is proved that the malpractice occurred only at a few centres.
POLITICAL WAR
Though ‘NEET’ made an entry years ago, it is yet to be accepted by all. It gained a lot of political colour and traction, especially after the General Elections in 2024. After the formation of the new government in 2024, the voices against NEET had become more strident in some quarters. The Opposition Leader slammed the Prime Minister over alleged irregularities in the NEET test, and promised to be the voice of students in the Parliament. And, the DMK government had appointed the 'Justice A.K. Rajan Committee' to study whether NEET-based admissions to medical courses have adversely affected the social, economic and federal polity, and poor students. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu shared the Committee's Report in nine languages with other States for a nationwide opposition to NEET. The Union Education Minister dismissed allegations of paper leak in the NEET as those without concrete evidence and politically coloured (The Hindu, June 14, 2024) while students, their parents, some of 'Indian Foreign Medical Students (IFMS)' and 'Indian Medical Association Junior Doctors Network' went on a protest march to the 'Education Ministry' to put forth their demand for a retest, a CBI inquiry and action against the alleged irregularities; Bihar police "said they had evidence that the papers were leaked" (Sunday Times, June 16, 2024); the Congress General Secretary flung a barb claiming that "NEET under this regime is more like CHEAT -- Central Hyped Entrance Admission Test" (The Hindu, June 15, 2024). On June 16, 2024, the Union Minister is reported to have said that two types of irregularities were noticed in a handful of examination centres (out of 4,750) and that the government has taken the issue very seriously and that strictest actions would be taken against those proved to be involved (TOI, June 17, 2024).
Over one month, the NTA has been caught in a string of controversies, starting with the row over irregularities in NEET-UG. This was followed by the cancellation of the UGC-NET examination for research scholars and university teachers, after inputs that the integrity of the exam had been compromised, and then the postponement of the joint CSIR-UGC-NET examination over "unavoidable circumstances and logistic issues". "It was reported that the paper for the UGC-NNET exam, which has been scrapped, was leaked on the 'darknet' for RS 6 lakh" (TOI, June 26, 2024). There seems to be an organised foul play behind the NEET fiasco. The NEET muddle couldn't have been witnessed if the system is of the standards of the international testing agencies like Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
On July 8, 2024, the Supreme Court observed that the question paper was leaked but the extent of the leak is yet to be determined, and that cancellation of the test would be an 'extreme last resort' if separation of the wheat from the chaff is not possible.
BEST BAROMETER
The NEET controversy has once again brought the subject of measuring the intellectual strength of a school student. There is no meter which can do that. There is no single system which can be called the BEST. NEET is one of them. Academic excellence apart, various factors like socio-economic circumstances, equity, necessity and politics come into play.
Different countries follow different methods -- in the US, a holistic evaluation which includes school grades, extra-curricular activity, standardised test scores, recommendation letters, and a personal essay is followed; in Britain, a two years of advanced study with 'A-level' exam guides the entry into a college path; in France, competitive entrance exams and highly selective grand 'ecoles' lead to vocational license or a degree; in Singapore, the selection is based on "A Level' / 'Plus 2' marks and a strictly impartial interview to test the aptitude and the orientation for social service; in Finland, there are no standardised tests until the college entrance screening; in China, a high-stakes national college entrance exam, 'gaokao', is to be faced; in Korea, school records, a college scholastic ability test and universities' entrance exam determine the further course of study; in Japan, a two-day. common university admissions test and individual university requirements play a part; in east Asia, the exam drill is brutal - 'shaken joguku' meaning 'exam hell' - cramming and coaching centres; ads of 'toppers'; stress and suicides; cheating and scandals; and what not !!! It's all dynamic -- some 1,800 colleges in the US, including Harvard and Stanford, had dropped the requirement for test scores, and some had gone back to them. So, there is nothing like the BEST which suits all the countries. For example, the system of holistic evaluation of the USA or the partly interview-based assessment of Singapore is most likely to be grossly misused in India to favour undeserving candidates. We have already tasted the "marks only" system. Which is better ? Bad DEMOCRACY or good DICTATORSHIP ? We don't know !!!
School education in India is one of the most difficult conundrums. At State and national levels, many quality improvement strategies have been conceived and implemented which didn’t yield the expected results. Revolving around “Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)” took us nowhere. By and large, we have an institutionalised and highly regimented type of education in the conventional mould that suppresses innovation, creativity, enthusiasm and risk-taking ability. Creativity quotient gets blurred due to the Indian education's centralised regimen of defining what and how a student must learn.
The Ground Reality :
The MBBS degree is considered as a STATUS symbol and a stepping stone for PROSPERITY and ACADEMIC excellence, in India. That’s the reason why it has become a very expensive 'commodity'. And, a speciality is chosen by many for its potential to generate name, fame and money. And, especially after the introduction of the NEET system, the medical student is considered to be academically at a high level at the national level, though many at the lower ranks in the NEET examination may become 'nobler professionals', if given the chance to study MBBS. NEET evaluates only one aspect -- theoretical knowledge through rote memorisation to answer multiple choice questions in a few hours. It doesn't assess the aptitude, attitude, kindness, empathy, commitment, caliber and dedication to serve the humanity which are more important to make a "noble professional." 720 marks out of 720 may not mean a potential Nobel Laureate or a good doctor; he may even become the 'infamous principal of the RG Kar Medical College' about whom you may read in the following pages ! The system seems to cultivate a generation of scholars more adept in passing examinations than at pushing the boundaries of a noble service. Then the challenge is to cultivate a system that recognises and nurtures the full range of talents required for a 'noble service'.
And, the history of Indian education is replete with incidents of ignominy ... various malpractices in examinations including copying, influencing, corruption, etc. The March 2018 jolt was that of the leak of question papers of the CBSE examinations. Some say that "these are all usual practices, everyone does it in all the fields ... so what's the big deal ?" Yes, Australians did it in the cricket field (Captain Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft - 'sandpapergate ball tampering' - March 2018 !!!
Whatever be the reason for such a huge demand for the MBBS seats, 23 lakhs of students appeared for the NEET examination in 2024 for around one lakh seats. What could be the reason ? Read the reprint below of a page from a book:
Is the “HERD PRESSURE” due to “MONEY PRESSURE” ???
Many (or most) parents in India, for socio-economic reasons, love their children to become huge 'money-making-machines'. In the process, they apply enormous pressure on the young minds (a kind of mental torture) to score high marks to enable them to gain entry into study courses which have the highest potential to land them in high-revenue-yielding careers. Landing them abroad is more cherished. No amount of spin or gloss would hide the bitter truth. Read my writings titled "Run on Money (
)" and "Bringing up Children (
." and "To Live in INDIA or ABROAD" (
The Ground Reality : However hollow or shallow it is, the MBBS degree is considered as a STATUS symbol and a stepping stone for PROSPERITY, in India. That’s the reason why it has become a very expensive commodity. And, a speciality is chosen by many for its potential to generate money.
To know more about it, go to :
ECONOMICS of "buying" MBBS seats
There are around 20 lakh NEET students competing for around 50,000 seats in government medical colleges and another 50,000 seats in private medical colleges. The education in the government medical colleges may cost around a few lakhs of rupees whereas that in the private colleges (many of which are not of good standards) may cost as much as some crores of rupees. So, the stakes are very high for those who can leak question papers and bring students into the 50,000 seats in the government colleges. The business sense of the people make it a very good
bargain to pay several lakhs of rupees for a copy of the NEET question paper or some other malpractice rather than spending crores of rupees in a private medical college. The issue has kicked up so much concern nationwide that the master of satire writing, G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor of THE HINDU, penned a satirical article loaded with humour suggesting some 'Ideas to improve NEET' -- give industry status to the twin businesses of paper leaking and question paper solving to make them legal; auction officially a limited number of questions through the NTA with a centralised app; etc !!! (THE HINDU Magazine of June 30, 2024 -- https://www.thehindu.com/society/neet-g-sampath-scam-2003-the-telgi-story-entrance-exam-satire/article68327210.ece )
NEET is brought in to standardise evaluation of the merit of school-leaving students for admission into various study courses nationally. It is alleged that this standardisation has promoted inequality of opportunities between the poor and the rich. The NEET system grades the students only according to the marks scored in a few hours of the exam. The richer class has the means to have expensive 'NEET coaching' and hence has a better chance to score higher marks than those from poorer classes. The core of the argument against NEET system is that in course of time doctors will be mostly from richer class and that there will be a wide inequality of opportunities between the rich and the poor, leading to gross social injustice. Of course, even before the introduction of NEET, the disparity was there, as only the rich can go to expensive private schools to score high marks in
the qualifying exams.
These seem to be the reasons for the recommendations of the Justice D. Murugesan Committee which include : scrapping of entrance exam of any kind; "banning" coaching centres; more State investment in education to upgrade schools and colleges; enforcing ban on collection of capitation fee or exorbitant fees by private institutions; taking marks obtained in Class XI and Class XII as the basis for admission into all courses in higher education. The committee's report was reported to be submitted to the government of Tami Nadu on July 1, 2024 (THE HINDU, July 2, 2024 -- https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/committee-recommends-scrapping-of-entrance-exams-banning-coaching-classes/article68355995.ece. )
School education, in India, has mostly become an exercise of training students to memorise subjects and parrot back information under duress at theoretical examinations to achieve stellar results, often at the cost of true education. It adversely affected the social, economic and federal polity and the poor students. The plague of rote learning devoid of understanding leads to a disconnect between education and life. Scoring high marks at the school leaving examination has become the barometer of high intellect.
The ‘only marks’ criteria of our system to select candidates for higher education is the cause for the malady. The system produces ‘centums’ sans sense. And, centums have become common in subjects other than maths and science too. And, do the brains which scored 720 out of 720 in the NEET deserve to be cloned !!!
Some universities like the Delhi University announced cut-off marks for certain courses at 100% ! The proverbial copros hits the fan ! Pundits wear hair shirts and sing the dirge of academics ! One scores a centum in English but can’t write or speak a few sentences in English correctly.
However, some of our schools having affiliation to CISCE / ICSE & ISC, CBSE, IGCSE, etc. seem to be of good standards having a comprehensive syllabus and an activity-based system of learning and teaching, with personalised supervision.
On the whole, the scenario is a sea of mediocrity with a few islands of excellence. It would be a Herculean task to clean the Augean stables of school education.
OVERLOADED SYLLABUS
No doubt, the present generation of school students have information on subjects equal to what college students of previous generations had, thanks to the mind-boggling and excessively detailed syllabi. Here is a sample question from a maths sample paper of Class XI. “Prove that the coefficient of x in the expansion of (1+x) is twice the coefficient of x in the expansion of (1+ x).
Or, evaluate: ( a + √a – 1) + (a –√a – 1).” Some symbols are missing in this question which this computer itself could not exactly copy. Is this complex mathematical knowledge at school level with differential equations necessary or useful for most of the students for further studies or life ? Should we have a theory-oriented syllabus for brainy students and a practical-oriented one for work-loving pupils ? Read http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-educationplus/the-dropout-conundrum/article8265001.ece . AMUSING
And here is the question posed at the ‘Physical Education Exam’ for Class IX students at Chacha Nehru Hindi High School in Bhiwandi suburb of Mumbai (2016): “Who is Virat Kohli’s girlfriend ?” So, it matters a lot in the classroom !!! Funnily, the examiner included the name of “Anushka Sharma” (who parted ways with Kohli months ago) in the multiple choices !!!
DESIRABLE PERSPECTIVES
A student who ‘reprints’ information best on paper and scores ‘centums’ need not be a person with good knowledge and wisdom to learn life skills and problem solving. To inculcate creative thinking processes in children, some schools provide new perspectives through ‘lateral thinking skills’ using ‘thought cube’, ‘thought abstract’, ‘language drill’, ‘Active Teaching Images’ courses (www.pearsoned.co.in), etc. They encourage the young mind to ‘think outside the box’ and go beyond the obvious and the known. Even this is within the boundaries of ‘assembly-line production’ / ‘factory-school production’ of ‘merit’.
The child must be made to earn confidence cognitively through constructing her/his own justifications. To achieve this, our pedagogy has to learn to respect the child as a person, not as an object to be cut and fashioned to fit into the teachers’ ideology and parental aspirations. This is possible only when the pre-service and in-service ‘education’ of the teachers is thoroughly overhauled to be in tune with ‘real education’ resting on foundations of being human and participating in democratic life.
A recent (2016) nationwide study by ‘Chrysalis’ with a specific focus on CBSE schools revealed that only two per cent of teachers are aware of the actual purpose of ‘assignments’ (‘assessments’) which is to help children learn, not to judge their performance as in tests (examinations). The very purpose of bringing in the ‘Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)’ to bring down the number of tests (to make education more ‘child-centric’ than ‘exam-centric’) is defeated. The overall findings of the three-year survey is to be tabled before the Ministry of Human Resouce Development by the first quarter of 2017. Massive changes are to be made to repair the old malfunctioning educational system in the country; mere modifications or cosmetic changes would not lead to radical progress.
“Every child is a genius ONLY to be
converted into an idiot in school.”
--- Noble Laureate Alexis Carrel
WHAT SCHOOLS ARE THESE ?
Empty edifices with no human core ? A seven-year-old child was allegedly murdered and probably sexually abused at the Ryan International School in Gurgaon (2017). Within a few days from this incidence, a five-year-old girl was raped in a Delhi school and an eleven-year-old girl was made to stand in the boys' washroom as a punishment for not wearing a proper uniform. These are not the only such cases. There are plenty across the country. The social depravity seems to run deep and wide. Court-monitored CBI probes may follow, but they are not sufficient to stem the rot.
MARKS-ORIENTED SCHOOLS & COLLEGES
Our examination system has long been a serious bone of contention. In the process of proving ‘excellence’ in producing ‘toppers’ at the ‘Plus 2’ school level, a different kind of schools which intensively focus only on scoring ‘super high’ marks have evolved charging Rs. 4 lakhs for the last two years of study -- like the 'Corporate Schools & Colleges or ‘Super Schools & Colleges’ as they have come to be known. Are we producing robots without mind ? Are we pumping in information without insight, and thus reducing students to mere production units coming out of a conveyer belt with little or no room for holistic development ? Just run on profit motives and chasing rankings ?
The resultant stress lead to widespread student suicides - almost one death every other day in some regions. Fifty students were reported to have committed suicide in just two months (2017) in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana alone, due to 18-hour-a-day gruelling pressure and harassment at private colleges and hostels. To know about the conflict of interests which smacks of confusion at best and confusion at worst read http://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2017/oct/23/student-suicides-andhra-the-new-kota-as-corporate-colleges-tighten-the-squeeze-1680227.html . An 18-year-old girl, Jasleen Kaur, from Hyderabad allegedly committed suicide on June 5, 2018 by jumping from the 10th floor of a commercial complex purportedly as she was upset over her performance in NEET examination. One more girl, Pradeepa, allegedly committed suicide on June 4, 2018 after failing to clear the NEET (TNIE, June 6, 2018).
YES, stress kills. two fathers (aged 47 & 49) who accompanied their children to NEET examination centres met with sudden death around the time of the examination on May 6, 2018 (TNIE, 07.05.2018). More commonly, stress shortens lifespan slowly by damaging systems in the body over a long period of time. Nothing is more needed than the serenity that a tranquil mind provides in today’s frenetic consumerist age of intense stress, consumer-oriented economic expectations, urban lifestyles, high academic expectations, insufficient family support structure, long working hours and fierce competition. Stress kills – kills the ‘real’ quality of life. Modern society lives in stress and in the hypocrisy of ‘unreal’ good quality of life. People love to pretend that their life is exciting. We seem to be manufacturing a brand of a mentally deranged and depressed school and college products.
To read a very memorable article related to this subject, click on:
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/unable-to-just-be-looking-back-on-a-lived-life/article27698371.ece
(The Hindu, June 9, 2019). A real life story with a telling argument against a certain Indian scenario of life, art and education. "... No one stresses the importance of happiness, equanimity, self-confidence, sensitivity to nature. Only 96% (marks) counts. Sad indeed, isn't it ?" ... after reading this article, one would realise how sad our situation is. And the pity is that most of us are forced to undergo this due to the prevailing circumstances. Circumstances -- created by need or greed ? Societal compulsions ? Material mindset makes the circumstances a compelling need.
In contrast, children in some of the developed countries carry less baggage of books and are less forced to memorise, less punished and less stressed. Everyday, they look forward to go to school without being goaded. The system is such that it is a pleasure for them to learn more and more voluntarily with an enquiring mind. Credit scoring is given for knowledge and skills in games and sports; voluntary observation and learning in institutions or factories; voluntary social service, etc. They come out with creative and innovative thinking, not just with text book information stored in the brain and a certificate in the hand to testify that.
BAD ECONOMIC COMPULSIONS
The craze for marks and wealthy careers has a bearing on the general socio-economic level of the country. When the socio-economic level is low, it is natural that people crave for economic security and the struggle starts from the kindergarten level, and finally when one becomes a professional the priorities would necessarily be for personal financial stability rather than professional ethics, values or service. Deplorably, this trend has crept into the ‘noble profession’, the medical field, also.
‘FIVE-STAR’ EDUCATION
The general impression in our country is that ‘five-star’ comforts, sophisticated facilities and high fees in educational institutions mean high quality of education. Some of such establishments boast of having centrally air-conditioned ambience, multi-continental cuisine, 24 hours hot water supply, cable TV connected ‘home theatres’, broad-band connectivity, western-style accommodation, five-hole golf course – the list is endless.
These students often come out with an air of arrogance, ego, pride, superiority complex, indiscipline, undesirable snobbery, needless elitism, conspicuous consumption and insensitivity to the plight of the down-trodden and disadvantaged. Culture and character take the back seat. Idiots come to the fore. Some degree of comfort and convenience is necessary for living and learning, but going overboard to uber-luxury is detrimental. The westernization has influenced not only in external things like attire and communication but also in the way of thinking. Respect for elders, concern for the family system, and caring for values, ethics, ideals, sentiments and morals are on the decline. Too much of goodness is bad.
What a contrast with the relatively recent Tagore’s Shanti Niketan and our ancient ‘gurukul’ system where ‘sishyas’ (students) lived a simple and tough life -- sharing the home of ‘guru’(teacher); doing all the household chores including cooking for him; sleeping on floors (not spring-loaded ergonomically designed ‘intelligent’ mattresses as in ‘five-star’ institutions) ! Do the ‘intelligent’ (as advertised) mattresses infuse intelligence into the hard heads that seek the softest feather-filled pillows ?
Indian mind, because of the colonial experience, regards modernisation and westernisation as one and the same. Japan and China had no such colonial influence and as such excelled in modernisation without losing their cultural identity. While modernisation took place, Japan followed the Neponisation route while China embraced capitalism – yet, both didn’t lose their identities. Without losing our cultural ethos and heritage, we should be able to imbibe the best modernisation practices of the West.
The younger generation may not know that we have a glorious past, with awesome achievements by our forefathers, near and remote. We are heirs to the rich Indian culture, values, morals and aesthetics. Most of our schools do not teach these qualities but concentrate on examination-result-oriented schemes. Most of the young get guidance for values, morals and lifestyle from the ubiquitous television and the cellphones, not from teachers or parents who are too busy with their struggle to reach their goals. The Western/American ‘way of life’ has jeopardised the lives of 850 million Indian citizens who are young or very young, most of them below 16 years of age. They are growing up, unable to be handled by their parents.
Son: What is marriage, dad ?
Dad: Marriage is just an adventure of adopting a grown up girl who can no more be
handled by her parents !
THIS IS AN ABRIDGED TEXT OF MY ‘SCRIBBLING’. FULL TEXT WOULD BE POSTED LATER. -- T. Rama Prasad |
The following is a list of some (more than 100) of the titles of my 'scribblings' on my blog. A click on any title would open the corresponding 'scribbling'. Start the “VOYAGE”with the title “RAMAYAAN”which is at the end of this list. These are only scribbles for the general audience to pass some time, not for experts. The expressions may be biased and the narration may be a crashing bore on negative aspects. Taste a bit of the bitterness before leaving.
-- Dr. T. Rama Prasad
· https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2023/01/artificial-intelligence.html
o ▼ April (111)
§ REIKI and BIO-ENERGY
§ OUR HANDWRITING
§ DEEPAAVALI
§ Science and Nonsense about COVID
§ AMC BATCH 1959 (revised)
§ Nurses Day 2017
§ FOOD, EXERCISE and SLEEP
§ OMICRON -- a paper tiger ?
§ World TB Day: TB and COVID
§ INDIAN ENGLISH
§ MY QUOTES & JOKES
§ COVID, SCHOOLS & CHILDREN
§ LOCKDOWN MEDICINE
§ Death Penalty
§ COVID CROCODILES
§ Number 13
§ WORLD CANCER DAY ..February 4, 2017
§ CORONA VARIANTS
§ PERUNDURAI is the GEM
§ Covishield or Covaxin ?
§ GRADUATION DAY -- 2018, Perundurai Medical Col...
§ "AHIMSA"
§ STAFF & STUDENTS. -- photos
§ SINGAPORE
§ BRINGING UP CHILDREN
§ HAPPY 2018
§ Dr. T. Rama Prasad
§ OMICRON
§ QUOTES
§ POLLUTION, Disease and Deepaavali
§ CESAREAN DELIVERY
§ DOCTORS' HANDWRITING
§ RAJYALAKSHMI and SPB
§ PONGAL FESTIVAL
§ SILENT, ISOLATED and INSULATED
§ To live in INDIA or ABROAD ?
§ THE HINDU newspaper & ME
§ KMCH
§ FISHES
§ RICHNESS and HAPPINESS
§ YELLOW NAIL SYNDROME
§ BIRDS and DANGEROUS DRUGS
§ ABDUL KALAM
§ SUNDAY LUNCH ... Dec 3, 2017
§ VINAYAKA chathurdhi 2017
§ BAHUBALI
§ COMPLEXION
§ DENGUE, ZIKA and MOSQUITO
§ FOOLED TO BELIEVE
§ DIABETES
§ TUBERCULOSIS in India
§ MY ART
§ CIVIC SENSE & MANNERS
§ SMILE and STRESS
§ CANCER
§ DOGS
§ GOD-MEN
§ CODUP
§ LOCKDOWN MEDICINE -- too toxic ?
§ GOD, RELIGION & UNIVERSE
§ CORONA and CHARLES DARWIN
§ YOGA
§ HCQ, IVERMECTIN, CORONAVIRUS and FRAUDS
§ INDIAN SUPERBUG
§ SWINE FLU -- A (H1 N1) influenza
§ NIPAH & ZIKA viruses
§ SOPHISTICATED CHEATING
§ PERUNDURAI MEDICAL COLLEGE & SANATORIUM campus
§ RAJYALAKSHMI RAMAPRASAD and PLANTS
§ MY REAL AWARDS
§ GIRL CHILD : GOLDEN CHILD ; WOMEN POWER
§ ASTHMA, ALLERGY, COPD and ILD
§ TEST-TUBE PUPPIES
§ CREATE / KILL a baby
§ ONAM 2017
§ OPEN AIR DEFECATION
§ DRESS SENSE
§ SEXUAL HARASSMENT
§ RAPE
§ THE CHANGING WORLD
§ MARRIAGE and MATING
§ TEA, COFFEE and COMMERCE
§ DEVALUED DEGREES
§ SCHOOL EDUCATION
§ INCREDIBLE INDIA !
§ MARKETING TRICKS & INNOVATIONS
§ INTERNET EFFECT
§ RURAL ARE THE REAL
§ MEDICINE IN RURAL INDIA
§ RUN ON MONEY
§ MEDICAL CONFERENCES
§ Dr. Peon, PhD
§ MODERN MEDICINE -- the Good, the Bad and th...
§ YOU ARE NOT OLD
§ MOTHER-IN-LAW
§ SHIVA, KRISHNA, Ramanuja & Ramanujan
§ BETTER HALF
§ OUR LOVE STORY & good old days
§ 'PAY WHAT YOU CAN' Clinic
§ ABOUT ME and MY SCRIBBLINGS
o ▼ May (2)
§ FICUS trees and GODS
§ Post-Omicron Peregrination
· ▼ 2019 (1)
o ▼ January (1)
§ AMC batch 1959
· ▼ 2020 (3)
o ▼ February (1)
§ OVER-HEALTHCARE
o ▼ April (1)
§ RAJYALAKSHMI RAMAPRASAD and RADIOGRAM
o ▼ June (1)
§ CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)
· ▼ 2022 (1)
o ▼ October (1)
§ VCW Rajyalakshmi, BLOG
· ▼ 2023 (1)
· https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-noble-profession.html
o ▼ August (1)
§ RAMAYAAN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR,
Dr. T. Rama Prasad
“ Dr. T. Rama Prasad is the WORLD RECORD holder of authoring 28 articles related to COVID-19 in 30 months, published in a medical journal (The Antiseptic – www.theantiseptic.in -- Indexed in IndMED), and reporting in the same journal the WORLD’sFIRST CASE of ‘Yellow Nail Syndrome’ associated with COVID-19, PT & DM (https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/yellow-nail syndrome_28.html ). Interestingly, he reported the first case of YNS from India in an American medical journal long ago in 1980. He wrote his first article in the premier journal, The Antiseptic, four decades ago. Many of his articles written over half-a-century may be accessed at https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/dr-t-rama-prasad.html & https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/my-in-newspapers_28.html & https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com . He is the former MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT (Special) of R.T. Sanatorium & Perundurai Medical College and Research Centre.”
Introduction | In the words of Prof C H Sivaraman, FRCP (London): “ ... Dr. T. Rama Prasad belongs to a distinctly different and unconventional species of doctors. He speaks sparingly and does not even display his qualifications or merits, but his innumerable published writings (he calls them ‘scribblings’ though they are ‘pearls of wisdom and knowledge’, sprinkled with a bit of humour and sarcasm) which received wide acclaim talk eloquently for him. The ‘Pay what you can’ Clinic where services are available for which one may pay whatever one can is a facility run by Dr. Prasad for a very long time which could be a world record. Dr. Prasad is called a ”god” by his patients, and many of them named their children after his name “Prasad” -- that is the height of recognition of goodness of a human being... “ |
Interests | Journalism, Ornamental horticulture, Aesthetics, Social responsibility. |
Dear Dr. Rama Prasad
I am sure the world will be a better place, if people understand your writings ... ‘EXCELLENT’ is the word. I cannot find any other word in this language to describe what you have written without any pretensions. You have brought out some home truths to those who care to read your website ... You are a great thinker, writer and crusader ... As usual, your messages are incisive, to the point and make lots of sense, much better than my articles …
... You are not only GREAT, but are a true missionary in medicine. May your tribe increase for the good of mankind. ….
Love,
-- Padma Bhushan Prof. B. M. Hegde, (awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2021)
MD, FRCP (Lond), FRCP (Edin), FRCP (Glas), FRCP (Dub), FACC (USA), FAMS, Former Professor of Cardiology, Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London, UK, Former Vice-Chancellor, Manipal University, India, Affiliate Professor of Human Health, Northern Colorado University, USA, Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of the Science of Healing Outcomes, Chairman, State Health Society’s Expert Committee, Govt of Bihar, India and Padma Bhushan awardee of 2010. www.bmhegde.com
Professor Hegde, the veteran medical educationist, author and orator, wrote a book titled “WHAT DOCTORS DON’T GET TO STUDY IN THE MEDCAL SCHOOL.” Every medico needs to study that book.
COVID medical literature – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Author : Dr. T. Rama Prasad
Rama Prasad. T., COVID medical literature – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The Antiseptic, 2022 September;
Vol. 119; No. 9; P: 07-19; Indexed in IndMED – www.antiseptic.in
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/03/medical-literature.html
AA
In a very rare gesture of appreciation, the EDITOR of the journal published the following note at the end of my article:
“ From the Editor........
The Editor wishes to suggest to the Readers of ‘The Antiseptic’ who are interested in having correct, complete and comprehensive knowledge of the current literature on Covid, to read the above article by Dr. T. Rama Prasad, written as is usual, in beautiful, flawless and inimitable English, with numerous apt quotations.
He further wishes to thank Dr. T. Rama Prasad profusely for choosing to publish all his ‘very interesting to read’ articles on Covid in ‘The Antiseptic’ and hopes that he (Dr. T. Rama Prasad) continues his benevolence. ”
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