The above quote is one of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein.
This also sums up what I am trying to tell here, in this post.
I am not against NEET. It is OK to have a National Eligibility cum Entrance Test.
But I just wonder.. Shouldn't we prepare everyone across the nation before testing them through a common exam? Isn't that how the system should work??
Though India is a single country, we have 29 states and 7 union territories which are different from each other in many aspects.
Let me take just two aspects here, relative to this topic.
Educational boards :
There are 55 boards of education in India (visit Boards_of_Education_in_India for complete list). Of all the boards of same level, no two boards have same syllabus. Every board have their own unique syllabus. When syllabi/boards are different from each other, is it fair to have a exam based on one particular syllabus?
Now, since the exams are based on one particular syllabus, people have no option but to follow that syllabus!
Till May 2016, number of CBSE syllabus based schools in India are 17,093 only (Here is the list of Schools_affiliated_with_CBSE). Is it enough for a country with population of 1.3 billion?
Let me take Tamilnadu for example (Tamilnadu because it is easy for me to collect data).
There are 55,667 Government/Private schools in Tamilnadu (By 2012), out of which 5660 schools are higher secondary (Proofs at TN_Schools_per_district and TN_Education_Report). All of them have same higher secondary syllabus as your higher secondary mark is used for college admissions across state.
Now, if we take CBSE schools in Tamilnadu.. There are only 499 CBSE schools in Tamilnadu (By 2013-14), out of which 122 are present in Chennai itself (FYI : Apart from Chennai there are 31 districts in Tamilnadu). The ratio of CBSE schools to stateboard schools is almost 1:112.
So, among 113 schools, students of 1 school have little privilege that the students of other 112 schools have (I am not saying they are 100% privileged or only they can crack NEET, but they have better start / better chance). Is it fair?
Social and Economic Status :
When there is not many CBSE schools available, and the chance to crack a national level is hanging in balance, next stop is coaching centers.
Now, there is a huge economical and social difference in this country. I don't have to present the data for social difference as well all already know that every region has it's own caste/religion differences. I will just share some data about economical difference.
Per capita income in Goa is 4,66,632 whereas the per capita income in Bihar is 63,200 (visit List_of_Indian_states_and_union_territories_by_GDP_per_capita for more details). Percentage of people below poverty line is just 5.09% in Goa, 7.05 in Kerala whereas it is 39.93 in Chhattisgarh (visit Indian_states_and_territories_ranked_by_poverty).
My question is simple. Can the students from Chhattisgarh/Bihar have same chance in getting proper coaching as like students from Goa/Kerala?
When people are from different education system, different social and economic backgrounds, there is no point in testing them using a common exam.
My opinion:
Equalizing social/economic status is almost impossible, at least for next couple of years. But equalizing education is possible!
Every state's syllabus is based on various factors specific to that state. For example, if Tamilnadu students ready about Bharathi in detail, Bengal students will read about Tagore in detail. So changing the state syllabi is like destroying their identity.
But.. For the sake of this national level exam.. Why can't we have a high standard, good quality, higher secondary syllabus, common across India?
Let the students study their state oriented syllabus till 10th grade. Then, let them study a common syllabus for next two years and appear for a common exam (NEET or any other such exams that might pop-up in future). This will provide every student in this country a common platform to develop themselves before they take a test to pursue their dreams.
Common education. Common exam.
Sounds fair?
Then sign the below petition regarding the same :)
Petition for Improved Common Syllabus for higher secondary
Before starting anything, I would like to clarify that I love animals and I oppose cruelty against animals strongly. Below is my stand against a single organization based on facts, which are also mentioned below.
If you are in India, you would have surely heard about PETA by now.
PETA was all over the news for multiple sensational news related to Jallikattu (Tamilnadu), Rekla race (Tamilnadu/Kerala), Kambala race (Karnataka) and Bailgada (Maharashtra). These are not the only reasons PETA hit the news in India. They were consistently fighting for so-called cruelty against animals.
But.. Are they really against cruelty of animals??
PETA is very well known to kill animals. Yes, you read it right.
According to multiple sources PETA has killed more than 34,000 animals from 1998 to 2016 in just one state of USA.
Let's get down to some real numbers.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), as part of monitoring animal shelters, monitor the details of all animals taken in by the animal shelters there and what is the fate of them afterwards.
Below the numbers published by them (VDACS) regarding PETA :
Transferred - Transferred to other Virginia releasing agencies like animal shelters and animal control.
Adopted - Adopted by somebody.
Killed - Killed in the facility accidentally, or during transfer, or euthanized.
If you see the kill number and kill percentage in the above chart, it is alarmingly high.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is actually behaving like People for the Euthanasial Treatment of Animals!
When questioned about the kill rate, PETA always kept mum. Recently, last year, they opened up to media saying that they didn't find enough recipient for all the animals they received.
It is not so easy to believe the above statement. In a city of 8,382,993 (according to 2015 survey), they couldn't find 2000-3000 (approx) people to adopt animals ?!
Come on PETA. Come up with some better lie next time!!
According to some PETA employees, PETA's employees are made to watch videos in which animals are abused to great extent, in order to make them believe that people are incapable of caring animals, and 'PETA is doing what was best for animals'. This is clear brain wash and completely idiotic belief!
According to a state inspector in Virginia, PETA facility where animals are imbounded, was designed to house animals for no more than 24 hours. So any animal they caught, or as PETA says, any animal they receive, should be transferred from their custody within 24 hours.
Any sane human can understand that finding a recipient in 24 hours is not possible. So how can PETA expect that to happen?
When Poorva Joshipura, CEO of PETA India said that they don't have enough funds to carry out operations (Read her full interview here), I was wondering whether that is the same reason why they designed their animal shelter house with such low facility, leading to crowded cages, diseases and euthanasia.
But stats say otherwise!
Below is the fund information of PETA :
It is clearly visible that they are not in shortage of money. So it led me believe that they have low facilitated shelter house because they don't believe in animals right to live.
I was not surprised when I came across the below postcard from Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder and head of PETA.
PETA is an Animal rights organization which don't believe that animals have the right to live?!
An organization which is against it's own purpose is having so much popularity! It hurts deep down!!
If the above animal adoption/kill statistics for one state itself is this cruel.. How will their whole world statistics will look like?!
Nobody knows !!!
As said by Nathan J Winograd, director of 'No kill advocacy center' and author of 'Friendly Fire' - book on animal ill treatment, and I quote, "You either love animals or you love PETA, but you can't love both because the two are mutually exclusive".
When I decided to write this article, I was having an idea of proposing a regulation which will strictly monitor PETA's animal intake and their fate, in India.
But when I dug further and deeper, I feel like.. there is no purpose for organizations of this type to be functioning at all.
This organization is full of animal blood and it should be washed off!
Sources of Information :
