Let us help rid the education system of rots

Representational image. Pic/iStock

A college professor was recently arrested for allegedly cheating 12 students on the pretext of securing admission in the college for them, a report said. The accused gave the students assurance of admission and took Rs 1.5 lakh each from them. The victims complained when they did not secure admission and the accused also did not return original documents collected from them for this so-called admission.

There have been other cases with somewhat similar modus operandi, professors or former professors, and even those running coaching classes promising admission to students. These are usually sought-after colleges offering particularly hard to get in courses. Then, we have seen admissions have not happened and the money given has simply disappeared. Not all students and their parents file police complaints or pursue the matter to the end, for their reasons too.

It is time to take the strictest action against these frauds, but warn students too that admissions cannot be given outside the bonafide method through college. Only fulfilling all requirements and merit will get you into college. One cannot try and secure admission through ‘influence' or ‘pulling strings' or tapping into such individuals who prey on desperation.

As the Ukraine situation has forced us to look at the medical academic admission scenario through another lens, it is time to broaden this to other admissions and our entire system too.

Why do students and parents feel the need to tap these persons promising admission? Is there a rot within, that warrants weeding out? Awareness and warnings about paying persons and parting with original documents for ‘admissions' must be disseminated. Let us work on ridding our academic programme, riddled with so many problems, of the admission rot. This is just one aspect of a very murky picture but let us take our first steps towards a cleaner system overall.