There is a cyclic effect of tutions wherein students don’t get lectures at junior colleges and so need at least someone.

It was fairly common in my time to see the same lecturer not teach at the junior college but teach at one of these tution classes.

Do you mean to say that given a good set of textbooks, an intelligent boy who can’t afford ‘coaching’ can get into IIT ? Having appeared twice for the JEE, I can vouch for the fact that its not just the appreciation and understanding of the subjects that matters in JEE. You need to have a lot of experience solving a million models of problems, so that you can answer a question lightning quick and move on to the next. No matter how intelligent you are, if you haven’t attended any tutorials, you’ll be thrashed by a boy who has gained a vast experience solving the similar type of questions a zillion times in a million ‘practice tests’. In fact if you care to take a statistic of the proportion of students who get through the JEE without any ‘tutorial or coaching’ programs, I’m sure it will be very very very close to Zero. Even rural middle class students are ready to invest huge amounts of money for these tutorials as JEE is the only chance in their lives to make it big. I personally know many rural people who went as far as to sell their land to send their wards to coaching classes.

On a different note, in the following bit of conversation you seem extremely avuncular. The real bengali term I would have liked to use is ‘jyatha-marka-kotha-barta’. The kid must have been thorougly scared or thoroughly irritated.
*******
M: I suppose you have heard of these things called “books.” Did you know that you can actually learn stuff by reading the books?

SS:
********

Anyways, let me wish…. oh wait. Let me wish in your shubho-noboborsho post rather.

i know one of my cousin and a few friends who moved out of india while they were still in schools. in all the instances, they performed brilliantly after they continued study in US. in fact it should have been difficult for them being called average students here but ironically (i was really surprised when i knew this) with the ‘credits’ they achieved there, they won exemption and could literally skip a few months (or year(s)). they were directly promoted to higher standards.

i don’t know from where it starts but till we know the root cause, we won’t be able to solve this… but at the same time, i am sure its not only the education system.

”even when we all know the problem we don’t change it. we don’t act. it sounds cynical, but, its the truth that i cannot do anything about it. they say vote them out or vote them in… but i don’t see any political will to bring change in any of the parties. i am looking for some opportunity to get into politics but a fear of being alone haunts me. how far will i be able to go? so i won’t act. ”

right or wrong, this is the thought in every indian’s mind.

so the kid learns very early that by ‘not eating’ or by ‘not studying’ or by ‘not behaving properly’, they can manipulate the parents behaviour. i have always believed that kids are very manipulative. and when they get a success at an early age, this manipulative behaviour becomes a part of their character for the rest of their lives.

And I don’t think the system of education is to blame for this (at least not squarely). The peer pressure is what is leading the boy to make these demands initially, and then what is born out of love (with all good intentions) is soon transformed into something beyond the parents’ control. So one place to find the root of the problem is not just the boys parents but the collective whole of parents of his friends or his peer group who buy them expensive gifts indiscriminately, and thus unleash a vicious circle.

Unfortunately, for those fortunate enough to have their parents’ businesses to fall back on, they’ll tide over and live like the nobles of yore — blissfully unaware of where or how the money comes from. For some, however, this realization dawns later on when they have to settle for a lot less simply because they don’t have enough capital behind themselves to keep the show running. So what should one do?

But I completely agree with you on the point that the kids aren’t the problem.

I personally was educated in government schools of worst possible quality, sitting on floor, leaking roof sort of schools. I too had passion for gadgets which my parents could not afford.

I never believed in traditional education system. As a student I skipped lunch to save money and spend it later in cybercafes.
I helped innumerable students doing their final year projects and for thesis for masters students.

Difficult to say where exactly knowledge resides, whether just inside 4 walls of school, whether it is outside school, inside books or outside books. I am still searching an answer to this question.

While I attended an engineering college and got my degree there I am still hungry for getting education from a top college. I answered GATE so many times and despite coming in top 3% all the time I could not get admission into IITs.

But I doubt even those institutions to be something ideal.