It is an unfortunate fact that a huge gap exists in the kind of education that is provided by schools in India today. Some of the so-called exclusive schools in Delhi NCR do not promote CBSE results as a mark of competence in the CBSE exams because they are more interested in sending their students to study in Universities abroad. Such 'exclusive' schools are merely rooting for admissions in foreign universities, many of which are in effect driven by the paying capacity of the students' families! If success as a school is determined by the number of students they send on paid seats abroad, then school rankings are merely meant to create commercial opportunities for such schools.
Unfortunately, what makes a school successful is not the number of students that they send to study abroad! What makes schools competent is their ability to get their students to join good colleges and institutions in the country itself, like IITs. IIMs and other premier institutions in the country. A majority of the so-called 'premium schools' of the country merely push for students to join universities abroad based on admissions that are driven by the parent's ability to shell out vast sums of money for paid seats. It is unfortunate that the so-called rankings of schools in India don't take into consideration data related to presenting a correct picture of how many of their students are able to get admission into the premium institutions of the country.
The success of a school is driven not by data that speaks of how many of its students have gained admission into foreign institutions (thanks to their paying capacity) but rather a data that speaks about how successful their students have been in gaining admissions into the premier of their country, thanks to their ability to ace the entrance exams.
It is unfortunate that most of the so-called premier institutions of the country are driven by their ability to send their students to study abroad, something that is driven not by their students' ability to ace competitions but rather by the paying capacity of their parents to fund the fee structure of universities abroad. The success of a school cannot and should not be determined by the number of admissions that their students are able to achieve in universities abroad, thanks to the financial capabilities of the parents but by the ability of the students to achieve high scores in their entrance exams to premium colleges and universities in the country itself!
I remember, many years ago, when I was working at the Dhanpatmal Virmani Senior Secondary School in room Nagar, Delhi, the then Manager of the school, Mr Anil Virmani would always ask the principal of the school how many student had got admitted to IITs, IIMs, colleges of medicine, how many had qualified as Chartered accountants because for him success meant getting as many students into premier institutions in the country.
While many might argue that the nature of ‘success’ might differ from school to school, most will agree that success in board exams, success in entrance exams and admissions in good colleges are what count for success. However, in today’s times, there is much more to success than just the points mentioned above. To be more specific, successful schools prepare students who are future ready, students who are equipped with 21st century skills, students who are aware about the meaning of digital citizenship, students who are able to use technology to enhance their abilities and skills.
Successful schools nurture students to be honest, and yet smart, inclusive but not gullible, they create students who can fend for themselves in difficult circumstances. Good schools teach students to fend for themselves, they empower students to be problem solvers, creative thinkers, divergent thinkers and deductive thinkers. Unfortunately the very effect of spoon-feeding students with tons of PPTs, copy-pasted materials, handholding them and mollycoddling them has the opposite impact. Most of the so called ‘premium’ institutions end up spoiling their students so much that it takes them months to adjust to the rigours of a college or a university.
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