One of the most acclaimed move of the former BJP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh to improve the standard of education in UP was foiled by the students. They voted the party out. Raising the standard of education and bringing disciplines back to the temples of learning was in the interest of the students themselves.

The high percentage of results based on large scale copying and adopting other means devalued students of UP in the employment market. If they acquire knowledge they have fair chances of giving a good performance in the competitive examinations and interviews.

A young man securing high percentage of marks in the examination by adopting unfair means of copying and bribing the examiners is good for nothing. These practices show that the students want only degrees and not knowledge. Realization comes only when they come to the employment market. It is too late to repent then.

There is a small fraction of students who come from business community. They have not to enter the employment market. They have to join their business after the period of education. For them degree is just £ showpiece. It would decorate their visiting card and letter head. It would give them a status in the business community. That is what they feel when they are in a college or a university. It may be true of those who have to share a small business. But if they have to be business executive or sales executive they fail badly when they take up the job in their own establishment.

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A business executive has to talk to a number of people, has to deal with officials and has to study the intricacies of business. It all requires knowledge and not a degree. Even a man with foresight and knowledge having no degree can achieve great heights. Gujar Mai Modi, that industrial tycoon belonged to this category. But these are exceptions. In general, knowledge counts. The sons of Modi are highly educated in different disciplines. They have attained even what their father could not.

But it is this small fraction of rich mediocre in colleges who sometimes spoil the atmosphere and lead the students to nowhere. Their pockets full, they have a good following. The sycophants move round their nucleus-the rich boy and ultimately lose the ground. These ten to fifteen per cent students who come to college not to study but for fun grow as student leaders and won’t allow teachers to engage classes. The teachers too gradually become reluctant. They are shown the way to prosperity by the guardians of the rich students.

Some good teachers bitten by the old rules of morality lose the ground to those who have readymade material to let the student get through the examinations.

The whole system has become a vicious circle of people who would practise shortcuts, preach and teach shortcuts and those who have to use the shortcuts. Colleges and universities have rather become centers of corrupt practices leading to degrees that serve no purpose.

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With the aim of securing degree some students even become mafias. They rule the roost. No one dare oppose them. For a reasonable amount of money they would manage everything for one who can pay. The result is that sessions are extended and sometimes zero years are declared. It is a general scenario in schools, colleges and universities in Bihar.

Now Uttar Pradesh may have a lead over Bihar in this degree manufacturing spree. The malady is now spread to the South too. A couple of years back a large number of examiners at the post graduate level in Bangalore refused to do evaluation. They did not want to face students who would demand first class marks at the point of a knife or a gun. Revamping of the whole system has become imperative. Let the students feel that it is in their interest to have knowledge before having a degree.