Latest
DU Beat – Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper
Tag

IIT

Browsing
DUB Speak

Why I’ll never approve of the ‘coaching classes’ culture

By

I distinctly remember when I entered grade 8 of school, coaching institutes were wooing their potential candidates, lecturing children as young as 12 and 13 on ‘success’ and how one achieves success by cracking an ABC entrance exam after which they gets a nice ‘package’ and settle in life. It was all aversive to me, how people would pay so much to sit in a cramped classroom where mock tests decided your self worth.

What I saw was very obvious to me, but it wasn’t to my fellow schoolmates who did decide to sign up for coaching. My parents’ anxiety loomed each day as I continued to refuse coaching classes. I get where my parents’ anxiety comes from. It is indeed very hard to get a respectable, good earning job in this country without stomping on thousands of others, including your peers. ‘Cutthroat competition’ although a buzzword today, quite effectively describes the situation.

This anxiety is omnipresent and coaching institutes, vicious enough in their business strategies decide to tap these anxieties to squeeze out money from the masses. A lot of those include people from poor backgrounds, without means to access proper education who only seek a better life after investing hard earned life savings.

Coaching institutes which boast of guiding students to gain the top ranks in exams seek to reduce the individuals to their most marketable essence. The totality of their existence is judged by the decimal digits that follow 99 and they are confined to their passport sized photos on a large banner along with their All India Ranking (Much to everyone’s suspicion, all the toppers seem to be associated with all the coaching institutes)

Coaching culture is so widespread and accepted that most of actually consider it a basic necessity in getting an education. That explains the sorry state out higher education system is in, where school and college teachers wouldn’t ever give a damn about a student’s further studies.

When I learnt that earning money is not just the end motive but the soul motive of coaching centres, I refused to acknowledge their credibility. Why do I hear about people who crack Civil Service exams, only to quit their jobs after a few months to teach a class where they earn in lakhs? Why do IIT graduates, instead of giving back to the government that invests so much in them, vow to make you the next IITian?  

Education in India is not a transmission of knowledge but actually a very strategic trade. Coaching institutes are seemingly the throne bearers of this trade.

 

Kartikeya Bhatotia

[email protected]

 

Keep Reading
By
DUB News

iOTA – An Initiative To Change The Lives Of Specially-Abled Artists

By

Not everybody has the gift of art, and of those who do, not all are lucky enough to get their share of fame and recognition. This is where iOTA enters the frame. iOTA is a platform linking specially-abled artists to their prospective buyers.

Conceptualised by Megha, Preena, Pranidhi and Prateek, this is an endeavour promoting the art of differently abled artists with brilliant skills. As they rightly believe in ‘Canvassing Lives’, their motto, this group of young enthusiastic undergraduates from SRCC, Delhi University and IIT Mandi step in to redefine the lives of thousands of such artists by channelising their talent towards the deserved platform.

iOTA is entering the market by holding India’s first crowd -funded Exhibition for differently abled artists. For the same, they are putting up their campaign on the crowd funding platform ‘Desired Wings’ to raise funds for their maiden themed exhibition to be followed by theme based art exhibitions in multiple cities. iOTA is also developing an online bidding platform for artworks to remove the international barriers and attract art lovers from all over the world.

The artists that they have on board are from various sections of society, longing for the appropriate bargain for their artwork along with a respectable name. Here’s a small introduction of a few artists they have, besides others.

Sheela Sharma: Paints the world right with her left foot; her work defines empathy, love, bonding amongst others.

Shreekant Dubey: A renowned artist, he always carries the go-getter instinct and has his unique way of painting.

CV Surendran: Hails from Kerala, he paints with ball point pens and doesn’t let his paralyzed body affect his soul.

Amita Dutta: She suffers from bilateral hearing loss. Her style of coffee painting is one of its kind.

Vipul Mittal: An offbeat artist. Mute lips and silence is his world, but his art speaks a lot.

Shivraj Singh: A veteran artist, his well-crafted sculptures make up for his cramped legs.

Neelesh Ganesh: A 23 year old autistic kid, who paints music and god in his work.

Their crowd funding campaign will go live on www.desiredwings.com/iota on 1st February 2015 and the money will be used to organise their first exhibition.

Keep Reading
By
Features

Technology with a Heart: A Rendezvour with Jeff Lieberman

By

Jeff Lieberman needs little introduction. He is the host of Discovery Channel’s “Time Warp”, who holds four degrees (two B.S. degrees, in Mathematics and Physics, two M.S. degrees, in Mechanical Engineering and Media Arts & Sciences and is currently pursuing a doctorate at MIT’s Media Lab) behind him. He has headed the design of the Cyberflora installation, a robotic flower garden that senses and responds to people in a lifelike manner, and the Motor Learning Robotic Wearable Suit, a robotic suit that teaches motor skills (dance, sports, rehab, etc). One of the most successful roboticists in the world, Lieberman is currently on an India tour that he kick- started with a lecture at Tryst, the Technical festival of IIT Delhi, on Sunday 3rd March.

Lieberman spoke about the intersection of art, science, technology, human perception, learning, passion and consciousness, enlightening students through the use of numerous videos from his show. Most of us tend to overlook the most subtle aspects of our humanity, as we are what our mind makes us believe. The human brain is the most malleable as well as the most important aspect of our being, and Lieberman made this complex theory appear so simple that students were left in awe.

Lieberman talked about some really interesting experiments, for example, if one wears glasses in which the world appears upside down, after a few days when one removes the glasses, the world actually appears upside down to our eyes! Lieberman also showed some clippings of the effect that a drop of water makes on water, the effect of sound waves on drums, and many more. Using expensive cameras and high speed technology, Lieberman and his team have managed to show the world how beautiful waves are, since they are mostly overlooked by us as we do not have the infrared vision that would have enabled us to see them. Lieberman encouraged all students to follow their passion and pursue their weirdest dreams. He managed to show the students how they could strike a balance between art and technology, by creatively employing their technological expertise to come up with wacky ideas.

It was a wonderful session, with students staying engrossed till the end. Lieberman truly managed to make most students change their perception about technology, and those students belonging to a non- engineering background too marvelled at the spectacular inventions of Jeff Lieberman. This year, Tryst had some amazing guest lecturers with scholars like Kazutaka Kurihara speaking on acoustics and Chittaranjan Andrade speaking on the habit of nose- picking! However, Lieberman’s lecture was the most awaited event of Tryst, with the seminar hall of IIT seeing a packed audience. Tryst ’13 indeed inspired students to bring out their innovative and wackier side, and students are eagerly awaiting the next years’ fest!

Keep Reading
By