It is a bleak time to have hopes of entering academia in India. This might be met with a disagreement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, during the recent inauguration of Nalanda University’s new campus, stated that he wanted to see India re-emerge as the “most prominent knowledge centre” with an “advanced and research-oriented” higher education system.
For many students hoping to pursue research in India, however, this centre cannot hold, and things seem to be falling apart. Most of the discussions about academia and competitive exams in the country hover around the topic of reservation—as if that’s the sole bearer of the deep fissures in our current education system, and the prime perpetrator of the murder of merit in India.
It takes little effort to extend the discussion just slightly further and question why, to begin with, there are such few seats, meagre research funding and fellowships, and an acute lack of equipped faculty to handle varied areas of research in most of our ‘reputed’ central universities (which in themselves could be counted on one’s fingers).
This abysmal lack of attention and funding is a more urgent concern given the cutthroat competition among students, and the termite corroding whatever we understand as merit at the moment. The same merit that has been heeded no attention through exams like the UGC-NET, which remain fundamentally flawed in judging a student’s academic capacity, research aptitude, and creativity or passion toward opening newer horizons for the academic world.
The same merit that is also supposed to showcase itself amid the labyrinth of chronologies of authors and their works, mugging up of countless dates, publishers, and details with no relevance to what you have learned over five years of specialising in a subject, and certainly no relevance to the field of research at large. One that is disregarded amid the confusion of newer education policies, which, even if well intended, have only been subject to haphazard implementation and unclear communication with students.
Testing methods are regressing
I have personally attempted NET three times – the first time I did not qualify, the second time, that is, December 2023, I did qualify, yet found my hard work rendered redundant when varsities such as the Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University put out notices saying they would only consider results of the June 2024 NET for entry into their PhD programmes. The June 2024 exam was my third attempt, and, as we all know now, a massive blunder by the National Testing Agency. The disastrous paper leak aside, the June 2024 NET brought in countless complaints from students regarding the quality of exam centres allotted.
Many had to travel long durations to places without public transport connectivity and proper roads. A disabled student took to X (formerly Twitter) to disclose the horrors she experienced at her centre – no facilities for ramps, wheelchairs, or even personal vehicles to come in. In a scorching, debilitating heatwave, many centres did not have adequate air conditioning or even water available.
Most importantly, the June exam saw a surprising shift from the usual CBT (Computer Based Test) format to OMR (Optical Mark Recognition), wherein students have to fill in answer sheets manually. This baffled many due to the apparent regression in the manner of conducting the test – going from an advanced manner of collecting answers (closer to the aspirations of Digital India) to one that’s outdated in comparison. It adds unnecessary middlemen to the process, increasing the chances of human error and lapses.
Physical sheets could be damaged, mishandled or misused—which could all be easily avoided through a testing system already in practice until this year. Additionally, a three-hour exam in CBT is not the same as an OMR-based test with regard to time management. The former allows students to mark questions for review, move on to other questions, and re-visit them later. It also provides all the relevant information on screen, including what questions remain unanswered or marked, time left etc. OMRs, on the other hand, are known for causing students anxiety due to the ever-looming possibility of misnumbering one answer, and as a consequence, ruining the rest of your exam.
They also take more time, not only due to the process of having to manually fill in answers but also because one cannot afford to skip a question or return to it later. Why have our testing methods regressed? We are moving away from processes that are clearly advanced, time efficient and reduce risks of malpractice. Computer-based examinations prioritise students, reducing any stresses and anxieties apart from the existing, inevitable ones.
Technological divides within the country certainly cannot be a counterargument to the above from the concerned authorities. PM Modi has, time and again, spoken about the digitisation of India, which has reached the corners and crevices of the nation in a whirlwind of advancement. “In the last nine to 10 years, India and its citizens have leap-frogged with the help of technology. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that India achieved, in a matter of few years, what took other countries a generation”, he had said last year.
Also read: Great Indian exam scandal: NEET, UGC-NET & now CSIR-UGC NET, frustrated students say NTA ‘incapable’
Students forced to look West
The aptitude of countless students, which had been deemed worthy as per the system’s standards in December, seems to have become dissolvable for entry into PhD programmes within just six months. A timeline that is absurdly short to even acknowledge, if not appreciate, the educational merit we go on about. Such treatment forces the disillusioned student to turn elsewhere for opportunity. I have had professors advise me, with utter honesty and good intentions, to look abroad if I wish to enter academia and be valued.
Even if you do manage to finish your research at a good university in India, your future as an academic remains on thin ice, they have said. Academic records have become irrelevant as faculty members in reputed institutions like DU, for instance, are losing their jobs despite adequate experience. If not that, they are forced to continue on an unstable, ad-hoc basis ages after starting their teaching journey.
The decision of an Indian to study outside their country, however, must be a strategically calculated financial investment. Getting funding for a PhD in most countries outside India is not an easy feat. Varsities offering funded PhDs in, say, the United States, require at least a six-to-seven-year commitment. Thus, when things at home seem so discouraging, the dilemma of the Indian PhD aspirant is magnified.
Being an outsider in academia in another country comes with its own challenges, but there’s still some light at the end of that tunnel. Till these damaging cracks sustain themselves in our country, brains are fated to be drained. With the NET exam cancellation sandwiched between the NEET-UG fiasco and NEET-PG postponement, it is safe to say that the credibility of the Indian education system is in ruin.
But ruins can either be rubble, or offer an opportunity to rebuild. In the spirit of the naïveté of youth, I hope for the latter. I hope that for future batches, the misery of PhD is restricted to the nature of the degree itself, and not systematic incompetencies and a lack of resources in their field. The re-building must begin with the education system recentering its focus on students as living, breathing individuals with their own hopes and aspirations, not assets to be built for the country’s bright future. This will only remain a superficial dream if the youth are not attended to, provided for and valued.
Nandini Joshi is an MA English graduate from EFLU, Hyderabad, and a PhD aspirant. Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)
Well said Ms. Nandini….politicians of past and present wants to color and distort our education…they all speak about our glorious past but how are they shaping the young for a glorious future – no one knows in India, we are on our own, find your own path where you will get a free feeling education free from spectacles.