CAT couldn't catch the mice…

Online CAT day 2: 23 centers cancel test(

www.ndtv.com)

The

online Common Admission Test in around 23 centres across the country was cancelled on Sunday to allow necessary repairs to be completed at the labs where technical glitches disrupted the exams on Saturday. ...

 

 

 

This was expected. Issues to do with bandwidth and the administration were not handled properly. Its unfortunate that Prometric an American company has been awarded this program. Why doesn't this happen to SNAP, XAT which  are online exams with no crashes.

Even, we at dheya have manage simultaneous logins of more than 1000 and have never faced crashes.

This I guess is an immature way of handling by Thomson Prometic.  Its exactly what we call as THE WHITE SKIN EFFECT, overconfidence on firangi companies and no confidence on Indian companies.

 

The importance of the CAT exam has got diluted and a funny situation has cropped up where the Education minister has to embarrassingly answer to the media.

Its important to re-look at the technology partner like Prometric and may be helping Indian companies build capacity would be a solution. Prometric earlier also had no good record for their conducting various certifications anyhow. 

 

My worry is about how blindly our government, administration lay their faith on agencies like Prometric. Could it not be tested before its launch. Every software/ website does that.

 

Now this is funny: Prof Satish Deodhar, Convener of the CAT exams from IIM Ahmadabad says…..

"This is the first day of the first on-line test. Such an attempt to take an on-line test of 2.41 lakh students in the span of 10 days is being carried out for the first time in the world,"

  

 

"We must understand that there are bound to be some problems on the first day of such a huge exercise, but the exams are going on and it will go on for the next ten days".

 

 

 

  
Its really painful to the students. I am sure there are better ways to manage this.

 

Lets hope we learn from this

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75% Indian engineering students unemployable: Report

Discussing a report by software industry group Nasscom which says that 75 percent engineering students in India are unemployable, education experts here on Saturday said that the Indian higher education system must give skill building and practical training equal importance as academics to give them an edge.

In their latest report released in the last week of October 2009, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said that Indian IT firms reject 90 percent of college graduates and 75 percent of engineers who apply for jobs because they are not good enough to be trained.

We have been talking about unemployability and education. the mismatch between the academic processes and the its true application. Today we are teaching students in subjects that will not be required in future. Today with a gross enrollment ratio of Higher Education being 12. ie .. out of 100 eligible people (18 yrs to 24 yrs) only 12 take up college education, other 88% don't. among this 12% the employability ratio is 10% to 25%. Its sad and is a reflection of the effectiveness of the Indian Education System.

Its not important just keep approving central universities and colleges or just increasing the education infrastructure, its highly important to work on the effectiveness of the outcome of education towards economic and social goals of the country.

I guess we as a nation will never learn. We will keep doing superficial stuff and actions just to show that we are doing something. The quality of education need to improve. Youth need to appreciate the value of education. Majority of the youth do not see value in education. So do not opt for higher education. The condition is even worst when we see the figures relating to female enrollments in higher education.

Then whats the solution. Here is some action points suggested by Dheya to the Government of India:

1. A substantial effort needs to go into revamping the curriculum from Grade VIII onwards to link the curriculum and the occupations and jobs of the future.
2. Help the students to understand themselves and plan their careers for a horizon of 10 years
3. Equip the students with skills that would make them focussed and employable starting from the age of 13.

Hope they listen...

Anand Desai

Founder - Dheya

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