Education could not be more ludicrous

She has scored 444 marks and topped the merit list of arts stream of class XII in the examination held under the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB). The local television channels would naturally swarm in, in this age of publicity, to interview the girl Ruby Ray. But her answer to the question, what the subject political science is about, took everyone by surprise. She answered that the subject is all about cooking. Even she could not correctly pronounce the word, 'political' she pronounced it 'prodigal'. 

 Saurabh Sreshtha, the boy who obtained the highest number, 485, out of a total of 500 from the science group also fumbled when asked about some elementary chemistry questions. He had no idea if there was any link between H2O and water and also answered that the most reactive element in the periodic table was aluminium. Saurabh scored 98 out of 100 in chemistry and Ruby scored 91 in political science.    

Embarrassed by this incident, the education ministry there has ordered a special test for all the 14 toppers. Against widespread copying in public examinations in Bihar, the incumbent government claims it took strict measures to stop assisted cheating in examination halls this time. How futile it proved is best explained by the exposure of the result scam. Some muted voices have been raised, though, in favour of the rest of the top achievers who, according to them, are suffering for the fault of those two. 

At home, a similar interview session arranged by a TV channel with a group of GPA (grade point average) 5 achievers did prove no less embarrassing for the education boards, ministry and the country. The GPA 5 achievers do not know what GPA stands for. They do not know the dates of the International Mother Language Day, the Independence Day and the Victory Day. Their ignorance about Newton's theories taught in class X and Pythagoras may even be excused but if they do not know about the basic facts like those, what kind of education are they pursuing? Not all students at this level are likely to be proficient in general knowledge but that is no excuse for them not to know the name of Nepal's capital, particularly after the devastating earthquake a little over a year ago. 

Any comparison between the two sets of questions asked to the Bihar college-passed students and the passed-out SSC students in Bangladesh will be foolish. As the authorities in Bihar rightly suspect that either there were proxy examinations or answer scripts written by someone from outside were inserted or exchanged. Responsible there is the examination system for the fracas. Once Bangladesh also had to deal with similar malpractices when legions of copy suppliers scaled walls and trees to help examinees in exam halls in adopting unfair means. 

There is no reason to feel elated by, as appropriately coined by someone, the 'cooking scam' in Bihar. The failure on the part of GPA 5 achievers to answer to the simple questions they were asked by the TV reporter is definitely a cause for serious concern. The standard of learning by students cannot be so poor. Once again, the systemic weakness of education has been grossly exposed. Teachers cannot think out of the box and they draw heavily from guidebooks for setting question papers. Students are clever enough to know this secret and consult guidebooks. Thus they miss the wood for the trees.