Poor show worry in all-India exams
Students from Odisha, which is taking giant strides towards becoming an
education hub, are performing poor in the all-India level examinations.
Of
the state’s 46,096 students, who took the JEE test this year, only
3,202 (6.95 per cent) qualified for the JEE Advanced — much less
compared to states such as Andhra Pradesh with 18.6 per cent and Delhi
with 19 per cent. Only 20 aspirants from the state cracked the civil
service exams this year.
Also, there is a controversy whether
Odisha students should take JEE Mains this time or should the state
revert to the OJEE. The state government finds itself in a quandary with
private engineering colleges insisting on Odisha JEE, because
participation in JEE Mains, as it happened last time, deprives them of
the opportunity of filling up their seats.
The Telegraph spoke to a cross
section of people, trying to assess the reasons behind the poor
performance of Odisha students in the all-India exams.
Civil services
Sudhir Kumar Nayak, who runs a civil
services coaching centre at IRC Village, argued that while the number of
applicants for the all-India level exams from Odisha was less compared
to other states, the socio-political and economic factors were also a
reason.
“Our students prefer corporate jobs while
those in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar vie for the government ones. Odisha
candidates are equally talented, but they give up easily,” he said.
Director of another coaching centre S.S.
Nanda seconded Nayak. “While they have the option of taking tests in
Odia, there is no study material available in the language. So our
students are disadvantaged as they are compelled to give the exam in a
language they are not well acquainted with,” said Nanda. He said that
most Odia students prefer to go to Delhi for preparations.
Nanda’s claims appear justified when one
meets the likes of Jyoti Prakash Bhujbal, a 28-year-old IAS aspirant. On
completion of his postgraduation in zoology from Utkal University, he
moved to Delhi to prepare as he had felt that there was not enough
exposure in the state for the all-India level competitive examinations.
“We do not have quality coaching centres
here, and the lack of competitive spirit is another factor why we are
not doing well,” he said.
Dhenkanal district collector Roopa Roshan
Sahoo, who is a 2006-batch IAS officer, feels the syllabus for all
subjects in humanities, a popular stream among the aspirants, in Plus
Two, Plus Three or postgraduate level are not updated.
Balasore district collector Aravind
Agarwal, who is a 2007-batch IAS officer, however, feels that results
from the state have improved over the years, but the lure of private
jobs continues to hamper the race for civil service jobs.
Higher education minister Pradeep
Panigrahi said: “We will restructure the syllabus to bring it at par
with the national standard. We will also try to upgrade infrastructure
in higher education. More importance will be given on filling up the
vacancies in colleges and universities. Besides, teachers will be held
accountable for poor performance of the students. We are also planning
to integrate preparation for competitive examinations with regular
course of studies.”
Many educators stated that the Utkal
University curriculum was different from the more IAS-friendly syllabus
followed by University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University. Utkal
University has also not made any headway yet in setting up the proposed
IAS coaching facility on its campus that was planned in 2011.
Technical courses
Apparently, among the top 25 in the merit
list of this year’s civil services examination, nine had engineering
background, while three had medical background. Another nine were from
commerce, humanities and other social sciences background.
But are Odisha students from engineering
and medical streams coming forward to take the civil services exams?
Former head of the political science department in Utkal University
Narottam Gaan feels the students here prefer to keep pursuing
comfortable jobs in the medical and engineering sector.
Poor performance of students from Odisha
in the JEE Mains has led the state government to plan integrated
coaching for competitive examinations as part of the regular syllabus of
the state-run Council of Higher Secondary Education. But, experts feel
the problem is more with the system than with the students. “The
teaching quality at the Plus Two level must be improved. Besides, since
most entrance examinations are council driven, it must change its
syllabus accordingly,” said IIT Bhub-aneswar registrar B.K. Ray.
|
| The Telegraph - 5 November 2014 |
No comments:
Post a Comment