Lost Man Years and The Cost of Misalignment
Dear Friends and Students
A few days back, one of my friends forwarded the left side of the picture above in the context of market sentiment and fluctuations during this period. After going through this picture deeply, I want to align this with a different perspective. I added something different on the right side now!
Indian competitive examinations are the toughest in the world. UPSC Civil Services Examination selection rate is between 0.1 to 0.3%. The National Defence Academy (NDA) success rate is 0.1%. UCEED (common entrance for Design) success rate is 0.7%. The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced for IITs success rate is 1.5%. The Common Admission Test (CAT) success rate is 2%. The National Institute of Design (NID) Entrance success rate is 3%. The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) success rate is 4%. National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) success rate is 6 to 7%. The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) success rate is 15-17%. The Chartered Accountant (CA) success rate is 25%. If you think Bollywood or Tollywood's success rate, they are less than 0.01%. This career success would be much tougher than other competitive examinations!! This data might vary here and there but the intention is to showcase the shrewdness of the competition.
In a country of 140 crores population, if there is a small mistake in the preparation or aspirational mismatch, it costs heavily. More than to the individual, it costs the Nation’s aspiration and economy. If one student wrongly makes a choice, would cost him a minimum of 2-man years of effort loss. E.g. this year 11,70,000 students prepared for JEE for 2 years. We all know only 1.5% of them would go to IITs. The rest of the 98%, covering 23,00,000-man years of the effort is futile. Assume 10,00,000-man years go for genuine learning, useful in future applications and individual learning. The rest of the 13,00,000-man years of wrong selection of aspiration is completely lost!! If you sum up all competitions together, this number would be astronomical. Nearly two dozen students have taken their lives in Kota in the past eight months (The Hindu, 07, Sep 2023). It is because of a misalignment of aspirations or an inability to see beyond this line.
Why this is happening? It is a clear mismatch of knowing our strengths and weaknesses! If one selects a career aspiration based on individual socio-physical-psychological nature or natural intelligence, the same lost man years would become the most productive man years (As shown in right side of the picture), and constructively Nation can capitalize on this. NEP-2020 is all up for this game change.
1. A Head Smart student should apply for JEE but not for NID/UCEED!
2. A Hand Smart student should apply for Skill based job but not for Civil Services
3. A Heart Smart student should prepare for his/her startup but not for GATE!
4. A Heel Smart student should prepare for NDA but not a long-sitting office job!
It requires a lot of societal changes and thinking. The left of the picture teaches us a great lesson! We need to identify whether our kids are Giraffe or Rabbit and push them to the “Water Pool of Competition”.
Do You Agree?
Ravi Saripalle
Dr. Ravi Saripalle
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