Indian Youth Denied the Right to Education

(Debate)

Well! A hearty morning to all of you. My name is Harshita and I am here to speak in favour of the topic- “Indian Youth Denied the Right to Higher Education”.

Prior to taking strides towards my opinions in context of the topic, I would like to appreciate my opponent’s firmness and courtesy with which he portrayed his views and also his confidence which he had in his arguments. Truly speaking, no sycophancy, his way of jumping from one point to the other and then justifying them was quite impressive. But despite all these glittering points, I am still vague with his ideas and candidly, he could not convince me!

Just think for once, why is it so that even a 95% scorer finds it a hard nut to get admission in a decent college? My cousin, he scored 63% in XII grade and poor chap, all colleges shut their doors for him. He did not get admission anywhere.

Now tell me, aren't the students indirectly denied the right to higher education!!

Now you all must have stretched your slingshots to aim questions at me that why couldn't my brother go for correspondence from the college? By the way, I don’t believe myself to be a forgetful person. I very well remember Ansh’s emphasis on the open courses. But my point is that why correspondence?? If a student wants to be a regular college student but his marks don’t meet the cut-offs, then s/he is compelled to be a non – attendee.

Government says that Delhi University is not the only university in the world. What if a student doesn't get admission in D.U., we have many more like Amity, Sharda and many more privately run universities. But just imagine, can an auto rickshaw driver’s son afford such costly universities? The answer is big NO!

You all must remember that in the yesteryear, we had C.A.T.E. No matter, if you are scoring 35% or 99%, you could appear for that entrance exam for English honours. Only, those having an aptitude in English used to get admission on the basis of their merits. Now, this has been dissolved. Only the one scoring  95% and above gets admission in English Honours. It happens that a 70% scorer has far better English than a 96% scorer. So, in this case as well, the right to education has been denied to the Indian youth!

Hey friends, did you happen to watch the movies ‘F.A.L.T.U.’ and ‘Accepted’? The movies are like air under the wings of my views as these two points out the fact about what higher education has been missing these days is an equal opportunities. My dear opponent, Ansh, also highlighted a few points regarding online courses. But the hassle is that those universities with greater reputation still carry out the admission based on the same convention and standard as the normal admission. Therefore, it is difficult to argue that our education system is fair, equal and all about opportunities.

All in all, this conclusion raises the question in my mind- IS EDUCATION REALLY FOR ALL?

Statistics shows that 78% of the India’s population is intermediate. The students either out of economic crisis or because of the cut-throat competition, with which they are not able to get admission in colleges, find it a cake walk to pursue their higher studies.

No doubt, education in India is secured till XII class. All the mid-day meal schemes, free elementary etc are till the school level. But what after twelfth? Does the world end after this?

Do ponder over this!

Thank you.