Is JEE the correct way to judge a child?

Knowledge is a thing of the Gods. Since the day dust became bone, it has been passed from the teacher to his worthy students, and from him to another and so on. Knowledge was imparted on those who were willing to know the value of life, willing to discover the reason behind every phenomenon, willing to learn the practicalities. There was no materialistic aim behind education, no eye for gain, only a desire for enlightenment. Back then, there was no hustle-bustle, and everyone went through lessons to morph into a proper person.

The recent scenario tells a different tale. Parents want their children to qualify the examinations so that they can grow up to get filling jobs, a prestigious position in the society the ensuing luxury in life. For this purpose, most of the children are admitted to renowned coaching institutes where they are prepared in such a way so that they can easily be selected for colleges through JEE. These expensive institutes give various facilities to their students by solving the questions that generally come in the test and making them go through tests in the mock- JEE environment. This puts the equally capable children coming from average earning families in a fix. Their pockets don’t run that deep, hence they fall back on the things taught at such centers. They don’t get the right guidance and thus cannot pass the wrongly formatted JEE. Teachers no more teach to develop skill and knowledge in an individual and students no more study for intellectual development. Today education is isolated from career and both are seen in different lights. Over-pressurized children tend to miss the classes in school and attend coaching classes and prepare rigorously for the competitive examinations. He ends locked up in his coop all day, basking in the light from the table lamps his father has bought him. This hampers the social skills of a child drastically. The environment and every other interaction that is required are not received by the child. He doesn’t experience the normal school life like any other child. He doesn’t interact properly and later develops into an unsatisfied person. The objective questions format of JEE in someway favour luck or probability. Few children mark the answers in a random manner and many a times these answers turn out to be correct. Hence the ones with Lady Luck in their pack win the game, while the rest lament at getting up at the wrong side of the bed that morning.

Two papers on three subjects, duration of six hours and that decides a child’s future. If he qualifies the cut-off then life is a bed of roses for him and if he doesn’t then “Life on rocks”. A child who is capable of performing well might falter on the day of the examination due to various mishappenings. Ultimately examinations are just a method to judge one’s superficial knowledge. One test at the end of two years cannot decide someone’s ability. A thorough overview of the child’s capability throughout the year is required. This one judgment day is not enough to judge a child’s potential.