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India has a population of 110 crores. Gujarat’s population is 5.45 crores. Gujarat has approximately 5% of the country’s population. Yet Gujarat has an abysmally poor record of representation at the top institutions of learning and in jobs where entry is through competitive examinations.
The Indian Institutes of Management have some 2000 seats in their six institutes. 5% of 2000 is 100. Do 100 students from Gujarat get into the IIM each year? No way! If six or seven students from Gujarat make it to the final list, the newspapers splash the news on the front page. And, lo and behold, quite a few of “Gujarat-based students” who make it to the Indian Institutes of Management are really non-Gujaratis studying in Gujarat. Some solace that is!
You can count, on your fingertips, the number of Gujarati candidates(or even Gujarat based) who make it to the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service, National Defence Academy, the Armed Forces Medical College, the Indian Military Academy, the State Bank of India Probationary Officers, and such other top jobs/institutions where the entry is through razor-sharp competition. |
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Has anyone ever asked this soul-searching question as to why is it that Gujarat has such poor representation at competitive examinations?
In the days of yore, Gujarati people, serving in government organizations and in the private sector, under men from Indian states that were (and still are) way behind Gujarat in terms of prosperity, used to murmur that the Gujarati medium was the spoilsport. But is that a valid excuse? Did we not have Saint This School and Saint That College and an All Princes College and so on from the Raj days in Gujarat?
Is it because of English that students from Gujarat lag behind? Certainly not! Gujarat has English-medium schools in its every nook and corner: in the cities, in district headquarters and in mofussil centres. Gujarati-medium students may find themselves to be fish out of water when it comes to writing competitive tests conducted in the English medium. But what about students from English-medium schools that have started ruling the roost in Gujarat? Where do they stand? Nowhere! And why?
Is it because Gujarati people do not have the level of intellectual sharpness or strategic skills that others have? Anyone who replies in the affirmative should be punished. The Gujarati people are renowned the world over for their business acumen. And success in business is impossible without strategizing and sharp wits.
Is it because the Gujarati people would rather do business than study in the top institutions of the country? Then why is it that 7800 aspirants took the Common Admission Test of the Indian Institutes of Management in 2008 from Ahmedabad centre alone? Were they writing this examination for gaff’s sake? And why is it that the State Bank of India, for instance, books ten colleges each year in Ahmedabad alone for their Probationary Officers’ Examination and only one or two aspirants make it to the final lists and the top echelons of the SBI in Gujarat (leave alone in other states) have hardly one or two Gujaratis, if any, of course?
Is it because there are not enough coaching classes for the CAT and the GRE and the GMAT and the Civil Services in Gujarat? Such classes have been mushrooming in every city in Gujarat ever since the early nineties, their promoters rubbing their hands with glee when gullible Gujarati students walk in for their “Crash Courses”. Had their training programmes been meaningful, would the scenario be as dismal as it now is?
Where does the problem lie? The problem lies in the fact that as a people Gujaratis are interested in short-cuts, in short term preparations, if at all. Have long term preparations ever yielded results? Yes, of course! In Gujarat itself! A fair number of students from Gujarat made it to the Indian Institutes of Technology in 2009, cracking their Joint Entrance Examination with élan. Why? Because those who did make the grade, started preparing from as early as in Class IX; that is what most of them told interviewers who published their success stories in the dailies. The writing on the wall is clear: there is no short cut to success; if Gujarati students start preparing timely and prepare meaningfully, nothing can stop them from realizing their true potential.
YUVA CHETANA is a concept of Ahmedabad based “PRERANA SARVAJANIK Trust”.
Main objectives of YUVA CHETANA are: |
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Bringing about a sea change in the scenario obtaining today when Gujarat has an abysmally low representation in the top institutions of learning and in top jobs where entry is through cut-throat competition |
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Kindling the competitive spirit among the Gujarati and Gujarat based student community by making the students aware of the need to start preparing early for competitive examinations and |
| (C) |
Showing students how to prepare meaningfully for competitive tests in the genre of the CAT, which are essentially tests of logic alone. |
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YUVA CHETANA proposes to achieve these objectives by having eminent speakers, authors, and trainers talk to students in different colleges across the length and breadth of Gujarat, the idea being to make Gujarati & Gujarat based students realize that these tests are absolutely within their reach and to make them realize that it is only a matter of starting early and preparing meaningfully in right direction.
PRATHAM Educare Pvt Ltd is proud to be associated with YUVA CHETANA |
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