Sunday, December 13, 2009

"Prometric A Big Failure For CAT"



This year for the first time CAT (Common Admission Test),the test for admission to IIM's(Indian
Institute of Management)was conducted ONLINE and PROMETRIC,the part of US based Education Testing Service(ETS)was hired by the IIM's for conducting the CAT and unfortunately prometric failed miserably on its part to conduct CAT successfully and they came up with a master excuse for its FAILURE which is known as the COMPUTER VIRUS.According to them computer virus enterd the main computers of their test centres and prevented from taking the exam. now the question arises a firm like prometric which conducts exams like GRE,GMAT,TOEFL how can it be so careless about viruses,which is a very big point of concern for any computer related matter.Is prometric lying?is it reluctant to accept its failure?if we go through the history of  ETS,we get to know that,                                                                                    

In August 2008, The Guardian reported that the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority of the UK had ended its five-year contract with ETS Europe after "serious problems with the administration and marking of tests". ETS, on its part, blamed the authority.

In December 2008, Pakistan daily, The News International reported that students in Lahore "suffered due to frequent power outages and poor Internet connection while attempting a test (TOEFL) conducted by ETS".

"Why did the IIM's and the government allow a firm with a history of failures to conduct CAT?" a student who didn't want to be named said. Pankaj Chandra, director, IIM Bangalore, said: "This is not the right time to comment.
IIM Ahmedabad director Samir Barua has said Prometric should have ensured error-free deliverance. After all prometric was paid around $ 40 million for conducting CAT . 

All the readers keep your views and comments on this issue and let me know what you people think about IIM's and PROMETRIC's this fantabulously failure job.




  

Monday, December 7, 2009

"ILLITERACY IN INDIA"


Every issue that our society faces is like a link of a chain. Each issue is connected to another, either directly or indirectly. The chain of issues in this society that we live in, the strongest link of that chain is ILLITERACY. Illiteracy is the mother of all issues as it gives birth to many other issues like poverty, unemployment, child labour, Female foeticide, population burst and many more.
It is very hard to digest that the land of the Vedas is one of the countries with the highest illiteracy levels and shows the inability of our government to utilize programs like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, national literacyMission. Even countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and the like have achieved, in lesser time, a much better percentage of Literacy is a reasonably good indicator of development in a society.
Spread and diffusion of literacy is generally associated with essential trait of today’s civilization such as modernization, urbanization, industrialization, communication and commerce. This fact can be clarified as all the developed countries like America and Canada have very low illiteracy rates, whereas countries like India, Turkey and Iran have a very high rate of illiteracy. World bank studies have established the direct and functional relationship between literacy and productivity on the one hand and literacy and the overall quality of human life on the other.
A person aged seven and above, who can both read and write with any understanding in any language, is treated as literate. As per 2001 Census, the overall literacy rate of India is 65.38%. The difference between the highest and the lowest literacy rate in India is very high. Kerala has the highest literacy rate which is 90.92 %, while Bihar has the lowest with 47.53 %.
Illiteracy in India is characterized by wide gaps between the urban and rural populations. The rural population depends mainly on agriculture and the rate of illiteracy is high, while the urban population is more of the ‘employee class’ and also more educated. Even amongst the male and female population, there is a wide disparity in literacy. The male literacy rate is 75.96% and female literacy rate is 54.28%. The social system in India promotes education for the male gender while the female population, especially in the deep interiors of the country, is kept away from schools.
India is developing but at a very slow rate, this is not the fault of a corrupt government; it is due to this problem of illiteracy only. Literacy enables a person to think rationally, to be understanding, to be more responsible and to make his/her own decisions. A literate person is aware of all his fundamental rights and duties. Literacy is the ultimate solution to fight problems like communalism, terrorism and under development. Our government is of the people, for the people and by the people, but what is the use if people can not even make the right choice?

So reader's my kind request to you all, try to contribute a bit of your part of education to those who can't even write their own names and many a times get exploited due to their illiteracy and nothing else, so friends to make india literate don't be on the backfoot , lets come on the front foot and start the "EACH ONE ,TEACH ONE" MISSION,hope you people will contribute towards this noble cause by teaching the illiterates around you.