Shashi Warrier | How Certificates Can Become Big Business

Former professor Raghavan arrived one evening looking worried and despondent. “What’s up?” I asked, sitting him down and bringing him a large drink.

“I don’t think we will ever have a good education system in this country!” he said.

Prita joined us with snacks. “From where?” he asked as he helped himself. “You have seen how successful graduates of our better universities are when they go abroad.”

“They are exceptions,” Raghavan replied. “These are mostly the best products of IITs. These are the top one percent of the top one percent. The average degree holder from an average Indian university is unemployed.”

“Hasn’t it been like this for the last fifty years?” asked Prita.

“Yes,” Raghavan replied. “But the system is getting worse. You know that NEET question papers are being leaked.”

“What will be the 2020 New Education Policy?” he asked.

“People think the new policy caused the leak,” Raghavan said.

“How can this be?” asked Prita.

With the new policy,” Raghavan said, “the government has introduced centralized exams like Neet and CUET. This has led to the emergence of a new set of institutions that coach students towards these exams. More and more people who can afford it and those who cannot afford it are moving to private schools and centralized curriculum coaching classes that specifically train young people for these exams.

“The NEP said it was about testing ‘core competencies’, whatever they are, not ‘memorization’… But it actually went away and what was done was create more coaching classes. And of course, they are more competitive than ever.”

Just then the doorbell rang and when I opened the door I saw Murthy on the doorstep, walking towards the whiskey with his nose as usual. “I was passing by…” he began.

“Come in.” I said, interrupting him. “Raghavan is already here, sad and consoling himself as usual, and I will bring you your drink right away.”

“Everything was very difficult,” Murthy said. “Let’s see what we can do about Raghavan’s problem.”

While Prita and Raghavan informed Murthy about Raghavan’s complaint, I went to the kitchen to bring drinks and a glass for Murthy. As I handed Murthy his glass and napkin, Raghavan started telling us why all this was happening. “Education policy has reversed this,” he said. “We should have started with schools before moving on to universities. If your educational standards are bad, there are no policies to ensure a good university education.”

“But who decides what schools teach and how exams are conducted?” Murthy said. he asked.

“State governments,” Raghavan replied.

“That’s part of the problem,” Murthy said. “Unless states generally follow a uniform school education policy, how can the central government implement a functioning higher education policy across the country? So it is not that easy.”

“Not like that,” said Raghavan, “so what do you suggest we do?”

“I have not offered anything and will not offer anything,” Murthy said.

“From where?” asked Raghavan.

“Because no education policy is perfect,” Murthy replied. “We live in an electoral democracy, so the opposition will always oppose any education policy. You see, people vote for politicians they like and generally get what they want.”

“What do you want to say?” asked Raghavan.

“What I mean is that people want to finish school and university without any problems,” Murthy said, “and at the end of their education, they want to get a job with good wages, with health care, regular salary and eventually a pension… No party or leader can provide that.”

“For this reason?” asked Raghavan.

“A functioning education policy teaches kids to think,” Murthy replied, “and they’ll figure it out for themselves and maybe vote for someone different. No politician wants that. So there’s no way you can get an education system that makes students capable of critical thinking.”

“What about the problems of the current system?” asked Raghavan.

“Do you remember the Roman poet Juvenal?” said Murthy. “He said that the emperor gave the masses enough bread to survive and kept them entertained with circuses. Well, this Neet newspaper leak is one of the circuses…”

“What do you want to say?” asked Raghavan.

“Only a few people, dedicated teachers like you and maybe a few journalists and others,” replied Murthy, “want a better system. Others may want it, but they prefer distractions like the Neet scandal or the clash in Patna between the founders of the two most popular coaching centers in the city. It’s the big circus. The public is wondering who will win: Khan Saheb or Roshan Anand. It’s like a cricket match.”

“But this is mob violence!” said Raghavan. “What does this have to do with education policy?”

“Where there is money, there is mafia,” Murthy replied. “Their touts work in coaching centres. A few days before the exams, they spread rumors that the paper has been leaked and can be obtained for a huge amount of money. Anxious parents pay huge amounts of money to fraudsters who give them papers that look like the real thing but are not. The problem is that these parents cannot go to the police later because that would mean confessing that they had paid for a leaked paper…”

“So how do you think we can handle this?” asked Prita.

“We can’t,” Murthy replied. “Mafias are adapting faster as policies change… But parents may start touting for proof that the papers are real, when there is none… There was a time when people could get pensions for being freedom fighters if they could prove they were imprisoned by the British. Now the touts will give their parents a certificate that they were in prison for leaking documents to prove their papers were legitimate.”

“And then we will have an industry counterfeiting these certificates!” said Prita. “Business as usual.”