Vinod Tawade: A failed Education Minister or an Amateurish Experimenter in Education System?

                                                  By Kishor Satwick

Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawade has again bowled a bad delivery. Under his initiative, the HSC Board has proposed two sets of test papers for Std. XII exam to be conducted in 2019 – A tough question paper for those desirous to pursue medical and engineering degrees and an easy one for the rest. The new paper pattern is already being implemented for class XI.

According to the changed pattern, students will be given fewer choices on questions thus making it tougher to omit to study chapters or topics from a particular subject. The aim was to follow the CBSE pattern and prepare students for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Exam (JEE).

The justification given by Vinod Tawade is: – “In NEET and JEE exams, you don’t have the option to choose what topic to study. You have to study everything. But if you are not going for these exams, then you could perhaps leave out certain topics. Out of roughly 15 lakh students who appear for class XII exams, only 5,000 go to medical colleges and 60,000 to engineering colleges. The rest go for a BSc degree. So, I have made this suggestion and the educationists are deliberating on this. We will take a decision on this before the next academic year begins.”

It is known fact that level of examination depth in HSC is less than that in CBSC. Hence, students passing from HSC find it difficult to compete in NEET conducted by CBSC. The same goes for JEE. To increase the competitiveness of the Maharashtra Students is the call of the day. Earlier Congress/NCP Government had realized this and they had made the exam pattern competitive. However, the present Education Minister has been diluting even the syllabus ever since he has occupied that Chair.

A bizarre idea has come to the fertile brain of Education Minister. The Learned Education Minister of Maharashtra further concludes that only 5,000 students go for medical degrees and rest do not go. The Learned Minister does not understand that it is not the case that only 5,000 students opt for medical education; rather the situation is because in Maharashtra, only 5,000 medical seats are available for admission, only 5,000 students can go for medical degrees. Instead of increasing the medical infrastructure in the State so that more students can go for medical education and fill the vacuum in health sector, the Minister is tinkering with the examination pattern promoting mediocrity. If one sees the admissions in engineering colleges, the figure of 60,000 quoted by Vinod Tawade is far from reality. As per DTE, Maharashtra, about 1,20,000 students took admissions in Engineering colleges in the Maharashtra State in 2017 as against the capacity of 2,10,000 seats. That left about 42% of the total seats vacant. According to DTE, while more students appeared for the MH-CET this year, compared to the past few years, there weren’t too many top scores when the results were announced on June 3. Just 1% of the applicants scored above 75% in the exam. This clearly shows the syllabus and the exam patter need to be redesigned to increase the intelligence and the competitiveness of the students and not to make them mediocre.

This move is strongly opposed by the Academicians.

Anil Deshmukh, president, Maharashtra State Federation of Junior College Teachers’ Organization says: “How can there be two papers? Asking students to decide if they are going to give entrances at the time of giving HSC is not a cogent suggestion.”

Dr Ashok Wadia, Principal, Jai Hind College pointed out, “Students only know they have to give exams. The coaching class lobby has raised the bogey of failures as they streamline their coaching to how students can get more marks by studying most likely topics. Students have to study everything. Can a physics student say I can study the topic of ‘light’ but not ‘heat’?”

But Learned Education Minister of Maharashtra thinks Yes; a student can learn ‘light’ but not ‘heat’. Considering this danger, the SC took away the medical entrance from the States to Centre and there is one NEET conducted by CBSC. If left to the likes of Vinod Tawade, we would have Neuro Surgeons who had left brain as option in their medical education.

Mr. Vinod Tawade, the syllabus – whether for SSC – HSC or Engineering – should be such that it produces knowledgeable students/professionals. Industry is already complaining that 60% of the BE/B.Tech degree holders are unemployable. It is simply because of people like Vinod Tawade who encourage students to leave the topics for option thereby weakening their basic educational foundation by producing mediocracy.

It is said a mediocre produces a mediocre. It is high time we had some professional as Education Minister in Maharashtra.

(The author is a Mumbai based Chartered Accountant and Social Activist)