SRCC's 100% cut-off questions education standards: India Inc

NEW DELHI | MUMBAI: The human resource development minister has decried it as irrational . It’s unfair on students, but don’t blame the college — instead blame the education system and the inability to create capacity to absorb top class students.

That’s the reaction of honchos from India Inc to Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) demanding a perfect score from noncommerce students keen to graduate from the institution with a commerce degree. As per Delhi University’s first list, the cut-off for admission to SRCC for noncommerce students is an outlandish 100%. At a few other colleges, the cut-off is 5-10 % higher than a year ago.

Doubtless the cut-offs will decline in subsequent lists but, Mr Minister, there is certainly a problem. “It is a wake-up call to the education system,” says Sanjeev Sanyal, an economist with a foreign bank who graduated from SRCC in 1992. “There is a huge demand for tertiary education in India. It is not a college-specific issue but a reflection on India’s education system,” he adds. “I think it is a demand-supply situation and the best solution is to increase the number of colleges and seats and make sure there is no dearth of good teachers and right education for students,” says NR Narayana Murthy, cofounder and till recently chairman of Infosys.
Clamour for Private Investment in Education

Manish Sabharwal, chairman, Team-Lease Services, points out that in 1987, 10 lakh students took class XII exams and SRCC had 800 seats then. In 2011, 1.1 crore students wrote class XII exams, but SRCC has the same number of seats. “We need more colleges, more competition,” says Sabharwal, who graduated from SRCC. This may also be a perfect opportunity for those clamouring for private investments in education to make their voice heard. Shantanu Prakash, MD, Educomp Solutions, thinks a 100% cut-off is a reflection of an urgent need for capacity building in higher education. “There is a need for high-quality institutes so that meritorious students are not left out in the cold. This is where private participation becomes important,” adds Prakash , who is from SRCC’s class of 1986. Several industry heads criticise India’s ‘exam and marks’ system which puts pressure on students and parents .

“Who are the children who get 100% anyway?” asks consumer markets strategist Rama Bijapurkar. “If anybody can get 100%, I think the exam itself begs a revision,” she adds. CK Ranganathan, chairman & managing director of consumer goods company CavinKare, dismisses the move as “brand-building exercise” . “What the college is trying to do is send out a message — we are a premium college and it’s not just the MBBS colleges that can demand such high percentages.” A section of CEOs also believes that scores don’t matter. Neither does the college you pass out from — especially when the demands are so high.

Murthy makes the larger point that “you don’t have to go to the best college to succeed in life. Students who study from average schools and colleges work harder and smarter and show higher personal initiative than students from better-known institutes” . Adds Anand Mahindra , vice-chairman & MD, Mahindra & Mahindra : “The key to success is doing something that you passionately enjoy. If you have passion , you will excel no matter what your academic scorecard looks like.” Harsh Agarwal, director of Emami, says he would never force his children into such institutions.

(With inputs by Lijee Philip and Sagar Malviya)