By Jitendra th Das
The growth of a society depends on the growth of the intelligentsia. Students and youth who nurture their ability and skill to reach the highest level of excellence are the lamps who light the way to advancement. The biggest boon for any community is to see their children achieve utmost degree of recognition and climb the ladder of success. The individual achievement of meritorious students goes a long way to bridge the gap between societies. One such example is that of Mr. Armstrong Pame, the first IAS Officer from Zeme tribe of Tamenglong district in Manipur. In 2012, the news of Mr. Pame constructing 100KM road connecting Tamenglong with Assam, Manipur and galand generated a lot of interest among masses.
The realization that growth of a community depends on the growth of its students, aspiring individuals and children, has grown. Yet North-East consists of the most heterogeneous distribution of literate demography. While it has states like Mizoram and Tripura, where literacy rate is as high as 91.58% and 94.65%, there is Aruchal Pradesh, where literacy rate dwindles at 66.95%. According to 2001 census, the total literacy rate in the region is 68.5% which has grown higher in recent times. However, the growth in literacy rate is not getting translated into achievement envisaged.
A research conducted by Arun C Mehta of NIEPA, New Delhi on “educatiol Development in the North-Eastern region of India” shows that the per capita budgeted expenditure on education, (except Aruchal); per pupil expenditure (elementary); all are quite high in North-eastern states than the tiol average. This huge expenditure on education should see the youth fairing in every field of academics. Yet North-East fails to churn out the number of successful students in competitive exams compared to the states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where literacy rate is lower than the tiol average.
According to a data from Personnel Ministry in 2010 out of the 4.443 IAS officers, 671 that is 15% of the officers came from Uttar Pradesh and 419 that is 9.4% officers were from Bihar. Tamil du contributed 290 officers, followed by Andhra Pradesh where 269 candidates cleared the exam. List shows that Hindi-speaking heartland generated large number of officers, though many states on this list have awkwardly low literacy rates. The list shows that Delhi produced 233, Rajasthan 233, Punjab 228 and Maharashtra 222, Harya 158 and Madhya Pradesh 152. In that year Manipur, Meghalaya and galand Jointly had contributed around 20 officers to the service.
The Grim situation continues to highlight in the results of other coveted competitive exams such as IIT-JEE. In 2012, 151 students from our region had cleared the examition while in 2013 the performance was better and the number shot to 191. The rise in the number may look like an improvement, but the fact that Guwahati boast of IIT-G and yet fails to generate plump results is discouraging.
A region which has over 15 central and state government universities, a region which spends more on education than rest of the tion fails to produce IAS, IFS, and JEE-IIT toppers is an issue which needs a lot of introspection. The participation of the students of North-East in prestigious Competition like tiol and Intertiol Olympiad is also minimal. What makes the students of the North-Eastern state different from another state? There is no dearth of talent and good educatiol infrastructure. Yet, we find too little motivation in students to compete in competitive examitions. One reason could be the lack of environment for such exams.
The IAS churning baskets of India such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil du and lately Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have lot many youths who opt to study for such exams. These places have coaching centers located in every nook and corner. Few of them provide free coaching and are aided by the government fund. An instance which lately hovered in most local newspaper needs to be highlighted here. The news boasted about 16 students who cleared the IIT entrance exam in 2014. They were reportedly offered free coaching classes in a programme engineered by Oil India limited. Most of them hailed from remotest parts of Assam and Aruchal Pradesh; their poor families couldn’t even conceive the true meaning of such an achievement.
The fact that good coaching centers provide a better approach to students cannot be undermined. The competitive exams are different from exams student undertake in school and colleges. Here students do not compete to score passing mark but they opt for the best possible answer from the list of options. These exams test their alytical skills, aptitude for the subject along with their intelligence. As such customarily it is believed that a person appearing for these exams need to study excessively not only related jourls but also magazines.
The coaching center simply makes the intensive preparation more planned, strategic and exam oriented. The three ways a coaching center helps a student plan better are:
• It helps a student prepare strategically in planned and systematic manner through qualified guidance and relevant study material
• It helps the student with time magement which is necessary to crack these exams.
• With growing competition, the exam authorities change the pattern regularly. Through mock test, assessment test and regular interceptions coaching classes prepare students for such a scerio and keep their preparation to highest possible degree.
Understanding the importance of coaching classes, students from North-East travel to other states where quality coaching is available. While choosing a coaching center, these students end up paying a hefty amount. However, this is not a practical approach to increase the number of students participating in competitive exams. Until we have well-established, reliable and quality coaching center in our region the aptitude for such exam will never grow.
NPS in its effort to help its student get the guidance in JEE and Pre-Medical exam has planned an integrated classroom contact programme in collaboration with Resonce, a renowned education magement institute of our country who help prepare the children for competitive exams along with coveted competitions such as Olympiad. The aim is to provide the coaching by reputed faculties of Kota within the school campus and during school hour so that students get the proper guidance at the right time.
Preparing for coveted exams early is a mantra to success, by collaborating coaching classes with the school syllabus the School hopes to answer most of the worries of JEE and Pre-medical aspirants. It is a unique experiment that hopes to pave the way for a large number of youth participating in competitive exams. The interest in competitive exams has to be generated amidst the students and the best place to do it is the school. Through orientation and counseling students will have to be encouraged to take up challenges and develop a competitive outlook. Without facing the competition the region cannot dream to succeed and when the youth will be motivated for the challenges they will bring fame to North-East.
(The writer is a Director, NPS Intertiol School, Guwahati)