Reforming India’s Entrance Exams: Towards Equity and Student Well-being

In India, every year millions of students are trying to get a few undergraduate places, and such entrance tests as JEE, NEET, CUET, and CLAT remain in the center of the academic environment. The result has been a high level of competition fuelled by a huge coaching business with such problems as mental health crises, economic inequality, and unfair meritocratic practices. Recent scandals involving coaching centres, student suicides and exploitation put the current system of entrance tests in India into serious consideration, in terms of fairness, equity, and student welfare.

Key Points:

• Coaching Crisis and the effect of coaching crisis:

  • The huge coaching business is capitalizing on the dreams of students, charging astronomical prices on the two year programs. Young students, as young as 14 years old, have gotten into a vicious cycle of learning, giving up all-round development in favor of exam-driven learning. This causes psychological strain, depression and loss of childhood and some people may not be able to handle the heavy burden.

• Unrealistic Entrance Exam Standards:

  • The existing system which sees 15 lakh students seek 18,000 IIT seats requires extraordinary performance when there are only relative differences in the academic scores. This overqualifies the students and puts up artificial hierarchies which disadvantage less fortunate students. It also increases the imbalance of regions and gender and classes, with more well off students able to afford coaching.

• Social Inequities and Illusion of Meritocracy:

  • The crisis in coaching has resulted in a sense of meritocracy whereby more prosperous families can use coaching to their advantage whereas being left behind are deserving students who have come with a disadvantageous background. The system, according to a philosopher Michael Sandel, propagates a poisonous culture of individual excellence and disregards the aspect of privilege and chance.

• International Reform Models- the Dutch Lottery System:

  • Based on the example of the Netherlands where a medical school admissions system based on a weighted lottery has proven to be successful, India can proceed to a more equal system. Students with a set of standards in their academic performance could take part in a lottery that puts their names on the list of assigned seats to minimize the bias and alleviate the stress on students.

• Reforms for Equity and Fairness:

  • By facilitating the admissions process with Class 12 board results as the main criterion of B.Tech readiness the process may be fair. The weighted lottery system could assign the seats according to the academic performances, gender, regional and rural reservations. In addition, IITs may introduce rural seat reservations and faculty exchange to allow integration, diversity, and equal academic standards.

Conclusion

The system of entrance exams in India, its high level of pressure, and exclusivity has resulted in a culture of competition which is unhealthy and contributes to mental illnesses among students and encourages social disparities. With the transition to a lottery-based system, India will be able to proceed to a more equitable, inclusive education system in which all qualified students will stand in the same, regardless of wealth or privilege, and will stand the same chance of success. This would enable students to concentrate on whole person development so as to create a more balanced and healthy society and also provide equity in access to higher education.