What Depresses me even more about the state of Indian Education since I left it

 It was bad enough to have a centralised examination system at the University or State level. The logic or even the reasonableness of a person having greater merit just because he or she got a mark extra in an exam is beyond my comprehension. 

Applying that rule to a central entrance exam for jobs or admissions just breaks my heart. Blaming the students and their parents for desperately trying to find an alternate option is even more heart breaking.

The absurdity of the system would not matter if there were enough opportunities, which obviously are just not there in India. 

What is merit any way or its importance? I can't think of any better way than listening to Dr. Michael Sandel explain it. A critical issue is the recognition of luck in our life.

If we accept luck as a critical component of our life, and if we accept that there aren't enough opportunities for all, what would be an appropriate way to select candidates for admission? It is easy to imagine that the current system of admission will cause stress -more likely, severe stress. Here is  very short introduction to what it can do to the human body. If we further accept, as Dr. Sapolsky argues, humans have no free will,  we need to worry as a society about the impact of failing the admission tests by a massive number of candidates.

The fact that the number of seats is limited cannot be avoided. Nor can we avoid selecting a small number of candidates to fill the seats. We need to accept that there is no fair or equitable or perfect way to select the winners. So, why not follow what happens anyway. Use luck.

1. By all means use a test but only to determine competency for the course/job.
2. Optionally, use information which seems appropriate to assign a weighting score to each candidate.
3. Let a system select the candidates randomly using  weighting score as a bias.

Will it be a perfect selection? Obviously not but neither is any other system at present.

Implications:

1. Will  the winner be proud of his meritorious achievement. No. He will realise and accept that he has been lucky. (I for one won't miss the ads by coaching shops advertising the candidates who cleared the exam from 'their' center.)
   
2. Will the loser conclude that he was not good enough or a failure or had been cheated. No. He will accept that he was unlucky and had no control over what happened.
   

I can expect a large number of people who lose the lottery will have well connected parents or relations. Wishful thinking - they may well be motivated into creating additional opportunities for young people within the society instead of what we are convinced happens today.