Laakhon Mein Ek: A Web Series On The Harsh Reality Of The IIT Coaching Industry And The Great IIT Race
Created and written by famous stand-up comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath, 'Laakhon Mein Ek' (One Among Millions) is a web series about the harsh reality behind the IIT Coaching Industry and the great Indian race to book a seat in an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology).
Please note that this is not a review of the web series. I'm not a critic but all I can say is that I really loved the series and I would recommend you to watch it.
So, I'm writing this post to share some of the issues highlighted in the series with some of my own opinions having myself been a part of that race.
Overview
The story revolves around Aakash, a 15-year-old teenager, who is forced to join Genius Infinity, an IIT coaching institute by his dictatorial father.
The series begins with Aakash mimicking Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan while shooting a video for YouTube which reflects his interest in acting and mimicking.
Aakash is shown as quite an average student who had scored 55% marks in Class 10.
His mother informs him that he had been admitted to an IIT coaching class and off he embarks on a journey to fulfill his parents dreams of their son graduating from an IIT and making them proud.
At the coaching class, he is unable to concentrate and cope up with the intense pressure. He continuously falls behind the syllabus and scores very poor grades despite putting in his best efforts. He crumbles under the pressure of disappointing his parents and shattering their dreams. He is so stressed and depressed that he reaches a point where he is about to jump off the terrace of the hostel.
So, let's try to figure out what could be some possible reasons for a 15-year-old jolly teen to be so depressed that he writes a suicide letter and reaches one step closer to committing suicide.
Indian Parents And The Typical Mentality
If you are an Indian you might relate to this too. Parents making career choices and deciding what is good and bad for the future of their kids is quite common in India.
For most Indian parents, the only career options available after Class 12 are engineering and medicine. Their mindsets are limited to only these two career options because these were the two main career options available at the time they were growing up and they've heard success stories of people who pursued these fields and made millions. To put it honestly, we Indians are obsessed with engineering and medicine and it is evident when Aakash's father doesn't inform him about his selection in a commerce college as commerce and arts are considered streams of lower value and importance in our country.
Parents pressurizing their children to follow a career path because some acquaintance followed that path and achieved great success is quite common in India without ever considering their child's passions and interests. Most parents tend to thrust the burden of their dreams and expectations of things they were unable to fulfill themselves upon their kids' shoulders.
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| Carry must I, the weight of dreams my father failed to fulfill. |
Encouraging their children to discover their interests and pursue them is probably something very few parents care about. Following the herd is a much easier option than taking a risk and following a different career path. Each and every parent wants their kid to become an IITian even if they might not have the capability to.
Aakash's parents' dream of seeing their son graduate from IIT and making them proud drives him away of things he had an interest in.
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| Make him follow the herd, even if he has the mindset of a lion. |
Parents are ready to keep their kids in faraway towns at such a young age when they are still immature and not ready to be independent, needing constant support both emotionally and physically from their family.
Many of the students enter the IIT race right from class 8 when they are hardly mature to make their career choice, one of the most important decisions in life.
A few months ago, the CBSE Class 10th Board Examination results were announced and it did not take more than a week for my father's colleague to send off his 16-year-old son who scored 97% in the examination off to Kota; the coaching factory of India, to spend the next two years of his life preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) after which he'll be competing with 1.2 million applicants for around 32,289 seats in IITs, NITs and IIITs; the best engineering colleges in India. This means that he has the probability of 2.69% to secure a seat in one of these prestigious institutes. What if he fails? What would happen to the 5 lakh rupees investment his father made for his future? Was he really interested in engineering in the first place?
The Coaching Industry In India
The coaching institutes in our country function more like factories than educational institutes. I've never been myself in one, but from some of my friends' point of view, it is nothing short of hell. Each day 7 to 8 hours of torturous lectures with no respite in addition to regular extra classes, weekly tests, daily homework sheets is quite common in these institutes.
Students are deprived of all their freedom and not allowed to use mobile phones. There are some classes which even prohibit the students from using social media and watching television as these would waste their time.
Most of these institutes have very high fees, which adds extra pressure on the kids to score good grades or else they'd be simply wasting their parents' investment. They are so hungry for profits that they are willing to give admission to any student thereby giving a false sense of hope to the parents and the kids. When a student from their institute scores good grades in the exam, they ensure that it features on the front page of each newspaper, to rake in more students to increase their profits.
They give it their best to create the misconception that getting admission into an IIT is the only path for achieving success and guarantee a bright future, and their coaching institute is the best way of reaching that goal.
The levels of stress, anxiety, and tension among students are quite high. The use of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and medicinal pills to stay awake all night is quite common among the students.
In the last two months alone, more than 50 students have reportedly committed suicide across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh (50 Suicides In 60 Days: Dark Reality Of Andhra, Telangana Coaching Centres).
In the year 2016 around 17 students committed suicide in Kota and at least 12 students have already committed suicide in Kota in 2017(Student suicides only a minor hiccup as coaching hub Kota marches on).
Most of the suicide letters written by these students are about apologizing to their parents for failing to fulfill their dreams and disappointing them.
"I won't get into IIT and my life would be ruined.", says Aakash in a scene.
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| Aakash is so depressed for having failed to fulfill his parents' dream that he reaches the terrace of the hostel to jump off. |
Suggestions
1. It is the time that Indian parents change their mentality and stop making important decisions for the future of their children without their consideration.
- Parents need to get rid of this obsession with engineering and medicine. They need to realize that kids should have the freedom to decide a career option for themselves according to their own passions and interests. By deciding career options for them they are setting them on a path which they might regret having walked upon someday in future. By making that important life decision for them they are doing them more harm than good.
- Parents need to stop thrusting the burden of their dreams and expectations on their kids' shoulders. Kids are not meant to satisfy their ego and fulfill their unfulfilled dreams.
- Arts and commerce are equally important fields as science and they should be given the due importance.
- There are more career options available today than ever before. Only the internet itself provides a million new career options. So, they need to give up this 'one-size-fits-all' mentality as each kid is unique and it is not possible for each child to be a genius in a particular field or subject. Each year around 1.2 million students appear for the exam and it is not possible for each and every one to finish at the top.
- All parents wish for a good future for their children but they need to realize that the IIT tag is not the only ladder to success. They need to allow their kids to choose their own career path and take risks. As Jim Carrey once said,
"You can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love."
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| Millions have come to get that IIT tag and you too are one among them. |
2. CBSE and the various State Boards should ensure the following things:
- There should be a strict regulation over the coaching institutes and the methods of learning practiced by them. Also, there should be a regular feedback from all the students to ensure that no kid crumbles under the intense pressure or goes through depression.
- CBSE and the respective State Boards should ensure that equal importance is given to both the Class 12 grades and the competitive exam scores as by not doing so(which they are), they are encouraging these coaching institutes to tie up with local colleges where the students are enrolled for the namesake while they spend all their time in a coaching class.
- The CBSE Board curriculum and the State Board curriculum should be given more weightage in the competitive exams as those students enrolled in schools and colleges without joining any coaching class are at a disadvantage.
3. Students need to be smarter and make life decisions according to their own passions and interests.
- Even I had a dream of someday studying in one of the IITs but not because I'd heard about the huge packages offered to some of the students or because some of my distant relatives had been very successful after studying there. I have always loved computers and honestly, IITs provide the best facilities, the most experienced teachers and the highest standard of technical education in India. I didn't manage to get into an IIT nor an NIT nor any of the top private colleges. My college probably does not rank in the top 150 engineering colleges of India. But that does not really matter to me as I'm not pursuing engineering just for the sake of a good job or a degree but because I love computers and I would love to learn as much about them as possible(though the majority of the curriculum is obsolete). Getting a job is secondary.
- In the end, it is your life. So make that decision wisely because a large percentage of people regret their career choices and reach a point where they can't quit their jobs. So, put some thought into it. I hope this video might help.
That is all with the post. Your suggestions are welcome in the comment section. Don't forget to subscribe the blog for more interesting posts. Until next time:
Keep reading and keep smiling:)
'Laakhon Mein Ek' Trailer
Images Source: Amazon Prime Video
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So true
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