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Student factories

V. Rishi Kumar

MOVE over educational institutions. It is now time for `student factories'.

From the big eating the small, the world has now moved to the fast eating the slow. Naturally, educational institutions have adapted themselves to the new paradigm of student-guru-institutional relationships.

Liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation are responsible for this rampant commercialisation, which is producing not scholars but student-robots. Education is becoming expensive and only the rich can access it.

Pressure is mounting and it is taking its toll on both students and parents. Never has competition been so intense, with parents, students and `educational factories' constantly trying to outdo one another. In the process, reason has taken the back-bench .

The hype surrounding the opportunities for engineering students is responsible for this frenzy. And educational institutions are making the most of this opportunity.

However, a growing body of parents is becoming concerned by this trend. These people feel that there is more to life than mere studies. Students need to acquire a well-rounded personality, which most educational institutions seem to ignore in their quest to make money.

There are over 100 engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh and the number is set to swell to over 150 by next year. With everybody looking at engineering as a career, are we heading towards a situation where there will be more engineers than we can employ ?

Meanwhile, the Government needs to step in and bring in some semblance of order to protect the interest of the students. Recently, a student left a prestigious institution protesting about the back-breaking approach to teaching. ``Is there no life other than studies?,'' he asked.

Last year, several cases of students, unable to take the academic pressures, committing suicide were reported in residential colleges. But the Government is unmoved. How long will this continue?