Lack of online information, access on career options hurts rural students

In last year’s JEE (Mains), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana together accounted for over 18,000 JEE (Mains) students, while Tamil Nadu (where over eight lakh students take the Class 12 Board examination), saw only 3,700 candidates sitting for the JEE. Most of them are from the CBSE and other boards. 

This does not seem to be any isolated data set. Today, almost all the entrance tests –BITSAT (used for entry to BITS-Pilani and its other chapters), NATA (the  architecture aptitude test used for B.Arch admissions); the specialised tests for design schools or the Centralised Law Admission Test (CLAT) for entry / admission to premier law schools across India have something in common. While the number of takers from Tamil Nadu for these tests is pretty low compared to most of the other States, the entire process for these tests is done fully online. 

So, most of the students who come from the hinterland suffer from twin disadvantages: one, lack of information and secondly, the lack of access. When the entire application process is online, the student-applicants have to depend on either wireless or wireline broadband connection to get a stable internet connection, to accomplish the long task of applying online and paying the required fees using online payment gateways. 

Here’s where Tamil Nadu’s rural students suffer badly.  

A Madurai based entrepreneur who runs IT training courses in the smaller towns says few students in rural schools seem to 

have any idea about the various entrance tests. “It looks like many of them do not even know that so many options are available for them, instead of only depending on the predictable route of applying for Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) authority for a BE or BTech course,” he notes. 

Jayaprakash Gandhi, who conducts career awareness programmes – incidentally who also does such programmes on behalf of the State Education department - says: “The problem lies at several levels. One, the Class 11 syllabus is not properly taught, and almost all the private schools tend to leapfrog directly into Class 12 syllabus because schools are only bothered about pass percentage in Class 12.” They hardly lay emphasis on things outside the Class 12 curriculum. 

Several institutions including deemed universities conduct entrance tests. As the application process is only online, rural 

students hardly get to know about them. “I will lay the blame squarely on the school authorities. Instead of only chasing pass percentage, cannot they spend a few hours every months, to give the students clear guidance on career options? There is no scientific method to assess the students’ aptitude and attitude, competence and passion. Nor is there specific information being provided to the young students on the various courses offered by different colleges and universities across India,” Gandhi notes. 

This lack of method or scientific information dissemination channel for career guidance, deprives the poor rural students any opportunity to look beyond the obvious. Today design, theatre, visual communication, media, arts and humanities are offering great career opportunities to everyone, but are students being made aware of all these options, is the question.

Private university administrators says that in this day and age, almost every school in Tamil Nadu has internet connectivity, if not in all student’s home or rural pocket. It is time this is put to optimal use. Officials at the education district level should ask the teachers to use the communication infrastructure to gather information and conduct awareness sessions for the students. “At least they can project the information in class on the various entrance tests, provide information on the websites dedicated for application and conduct of examination, help the students apply and pay fee using the gateways,” the Dean of a Deemed University near Chennai notes. It is the least Tamil Nadu can do to increase awareness and thus help more students apply to the various all India level examinations. Otherwise, the state will have very little representation in many top level technical and medical schools across India.