'Jack of all' should be delivered by the school education

India is following the 10+2+3/4/5 education system in which students study a variety of subjects up to 10th standard, then they need to choose a specialized stream e.g. Maths, Bio, Commerce etc. in 11th standard and continue with their choice in 12th standard as well, which completes their schooling. For joining a 3/4/5 year graduation/dual degree UG-PG programme in premier institutes, the outgoing school students need to appear in various competitive Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) based examinations of their chosen streams. Apparently, the job guarantee after course completion makes the life of successful students very smooth, but those large number of students who could not cross the barrier, have to struggle hard, perhaps very hard. The statistics shows that several students of premier institutes prefer to switch to a different profession as compared to their area of specialization. It gives an indication that blocking the choice of profession just after 10th standard is too early. It has many serious long term consequences as well. It seems that the current 10+2+3/4/5 system has failed to address the basic requirements of our society, in fact it has created new problems, and hence we should think /debate for developing a better education system e.g. 12+3/4/5.

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) based examination for selecting the candidates is another serious problem. Although MCQ is a quicker way of evaluating the candidates, which is a primary need for entrance/selection examinations, but its fundamental limitations are causing some serious intellectual and social problems. The ability to quickly pick the correct answer from the given options is needed for qualifying the MCQ examination. Hence, coaching classes are teaching several shortcuts to the students instead of comprehensively explaining the fundamental concepts, which is usually an integral part of school education. For countering it, the examiners are increasing the complexity level of the problems and/or span of syllabus but it has further enhanced unnecessary burden on innocent children and boosted coaching class culture. Keeping everything on stake our children are spending more time on learning the skills of quickly solving MCQs without fully understanding the problems. The private coaching classes are fooling the people and making huge money; Government should either ban or ask them to operate as non-profit NGOs.

More important aspect of the problem is that our children are losing their golden years of schooling wherein they could have studied many fundamental subjects; learnt the qualities like sportsmanship, leadership; participate in co-curricular activities and gained crucial skills for handling the real life problems. This huge cost is being paid for learning a skill which has no use at all in the life where no options as solution are available for the problems. Moreover, it is counterproductive too as the rigorous over-training of solving MCQs ruins the natural talent of using analytical analysis in finding out of box solution for the problems and/or elaborates their thoughts with appropriate justification. Shouldn't we abandon MCQ and develop a new framework for conducting entrance examination using Information Technology?

The candidates who have undergone specialized training at coaching classes perform better in MCQ exams thus more or less it has become a compulsion for all parents to send their child to these coaching classes. It has created additional financial burden on the parents and ultimately tremendous pressure on children. Those who failed in the qualifying examination starts feeling that they have lost everything as people refuse to acknowledge their sincere attempt. Majority of those candidates who get admission in premier institute also face many problems as they were not properly groomed due to skipping of regular school education. Further, instead of sincerely learning the core issues and design aspects of various technologies, they just want to qualify the subjects and devote their time in preparing for placements as they have to pay back the money spent by their parents on them. They are unknowingly preparing themselves for becoming servants/slaves as they are not learning the skills needed for becoming innovator/entrepreneur/leader.

The overall evaluation suggests that 10+2+3/4/5 system is creating a generation which has very less opportunities of developing fundamental personal qualities of building a good character and gaining emotional maturity. This may be one of the reasons behind significant growth in depression cases. The parents, teachers, the society and the governments need to share the blame of ruining the capabilities of our children. We all should act immediately for initiating discussions/debate on appropriate platforms and build pressure on the government for including this issue in its priorities. To begin with, I want to share an underdeveloped proposal for positive criticism in order to develop a robust framework for educating future generations.
Students should study all subjects up to 12th (instead of 10th) standard, then there should be a single entrance examination for all types of graduation/UG-PG dual degree (4/5 yrs) programmes of all the institutes leading to various professions like administration, politics, defense, engineering, medical, commerce/accountancy, management, journalism, law, sports etc. The students who fail to qualify (or gets dropped out after getting admission) should be associated with various ITIs/Polytechnic/NGOs/Social organizations, etc. for learning various skills at highly subsidized rates. And yes, the Information Technology can give us the platform for facilitating all the aforesaid functions. However, designing of new UG programme e.g. in administration, in defense etc, bringing suitable changes in curriculum/grading system of schools, etc. many more relevant issues need thorough discussion and application of mind of the experts and eminent people.