Sunday, October 02, 2011

An appeal to Mr Kapil Sibal to stop the blatant misuse of the word like “ National” and “Olympiad” by private bodies


 
National word should be used for the exam conducted by the government bodies. However these days observed that this word used by private bodies to meet their vested interest. There are lots of private bodies such as Science Olympiad Foundation. Unified Council and even private coaching which conduct various talent search examinations and used restrictive words like national, Olympiad
etc.Below please find the details :

S.No.
Organization Name
Exams Name
1
Science Olympiad Foundation
National Science Olympiad
National Cyber Olympiad
International Mathematics Olympiad
International English Olympiad
2
Unified Council
National Science Talent Search Examination
Unified Cyber Olympiad
3
Computer Literacy Foundation
International Informatics Olympiad
International Olympiad of English Language
4
FIIT JEE
National Science Talent Search Examination

The general perception about these exams in public is that these are conducted or supported by government bodies which lead to the inflated participation in all these exams. Unfortunately all these exams are neither regulated by government nor supervised. The certain facts which I want to highlight about all these exams are as below-
  • None of these exams is conducted for Hindi medium or regional language students which clearly reflect actual intention of all these organizations. The use of the words such as “Olympiad” and “National” gives the feeling that all the students across the nation irrespective of the background are eligible to appear in these exams. However, in reality these organizations target group is studying in English medium schools.
  • These examinations are not conducted in professional environment which leaves lots of scope for manipulation. Examination papers are sent to the schools at least a week in advance and school conducts the examination as per their convenience of date and time without any supervision from conducting body. At time it has been observed that same paper has been conducted on different dates in schools. Thus the very basic purpose of identifying or rewarding the talent gets defeated. Many times the deserving students are not recognized which results into the stress an emotional burnout into students.
  • Despite using the words “National” and “Olympiad” all these exams are not transparent in nature. None of these organizations give any information through Right to Information (RTI) Act. Access to copy of the answer sheet is also not allowed. These organizations don’t have grievance redresses mechanism in place.
  • In the absence of regulatory measures these organizations are keeping the names as per their convenience and there by confusing the students, parents and teachers. For example Unified Council and FIIT JEE both organize the exam NSTSE.
  • Students are charged heftily for participation in these exams, in order to motivate students to take part, teachers and principals are also given cash prizes and rewards. Because of the financial rewards schools don’t promote govt. examinations like NTSE (National Talent Search Examination) conducted by NCSERT or NSEJS (National Standard Examination in Junior Science) conducted by HBCSE which are more transparent and credit worthy.

  • Typically a student spends close to Rs.1000 in a single academic session for appearing in these exams. Students also spend lots of money for buying the books separately for each exam.
  • These examinations start right from grade 1, at one side you are removing the exam in order to make the learning more enjoyable. You will be surprised to know there are at least 25 examinations which a grade 2 student can appear which leave the school and parents confused. Your ministry has been advocating of coming with single entrance examination, however at other side a student is appearing in many talent search exams. We need to have some regulatory measures to stop this menace.


In view of the above facts I would like to urge you to put regulatory mechanism to stop exploitation of the students, parents and schools.MHRD should put some regulatory measures in this.

7 comments:

Dr. Poonam Harlalka said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dr. Poonam Harlalka said...

I totally agree with Nilesh Sir. by using the word Olympiad, these money making organizations have managed to confuse students and parents who are unable to distinguish these misleading Olympiads from the actual ones conducted by recognised authorities like HBCSE (which really allows international participation) .
Ironically at times students and schools give a slip to the real Olympiads as they have already had an over-dose of the misleading Olympiads.
I appreciate Nilesh Sir's initiative in taking up this issue. Most of us are merely silent spectators and are being taken for a ride. Thank you Nilesh Sir for your courage in exposing this wrong doing.

sandeep Changlani said...

ya totally agree with you. they are deceiving the innocent parents and their children

also they are decreasing credibility of Govt Exams

Abhishek Chandra said...

Agree with you sir. These exams should be taken in control and strict action should be taken.

mgrocks said...

sent !

Anonymous said...

yes, efforts made by Mr.Nilesh are appreciated .In the name of national/Internal level exams conducted by private institutes should be stopped and warned under rule .i.e cheating the public/students.These are growing day by day in India due to innocence of parents and thier children.

jee 2013 said...

I appreciate Nilesh Sir's initiative in taking up this issue. Most of us are merely silent spectators and are being taken for a ride. Thank you Nilesh Sir for your courage in exposing this wrong doing.