Does PUC cause an uprooting?

Do some students feel uprooted as they shift from 10th grade to PUC into a new institution? If yes, are the consequences harmful? Is it possible to minimise the harm, if any?

Admission time to PUC appears to be a time of great excitement among many who have cleared Class X. But the excitement displayed by many PU aspirants should not be misconstrued to mean actual excitement when it could be a smokescreen for anxiety.

Many students of +2 systems such as CBSE/ ISC are spared of this needless anxiety because they know their high-school is a continuation in the same institution unlike others who opt or are compelled to join the PU stream. To such, the jump from school to PU can create a sudden and deep sense of isolation because old friendships are lost and new friendships, hurriedly made, may be too tenuous because the race towards a good score/IIT-JEE/CET begins even before I PU classes begin.

Also, many PU institutions have a culture of their own which can prove to be very unsettling for many. No sooner have the classes begun that many students, particularly those who come from state syllabus background, find the new topics difficult and teaching indifferent. So-called ‘bridge courses’ have helped little. All this actually prepares their psyche for the uprooting to begin to take root!

Suddenly they do not know what is going to happen next, and this happens at a time when fear ought to be least of emotions to grip their psyche. Parents of such children become even more panicky. Hardly anything can bring a smile on their faces save PU admission into some obscure college.

Families of students who performed poorly in 10th grade hardly have a week or ten days to come to terms with the possibility that their child may not enter PUC. Should our children be made to go through this ordeal? Is this in line with the fact that our SSLC/10th is simplified to ensure maximum pass percentage? How many students who perform well in 10th grade disappoint at I & II PUC?  

Dealing with uprooting

There are two possible ways to ensure smooth transition from 10th grade to PUC;
n Why can we not have a scheme to encourage schools to open their own PU divisions so that some of their students can be assured of admission?

Few such institutions do exist and are called ‘composite’ PU colleges. We need more of them. Is it too hard to expect at least 60% of their PU seats be reserved for students from their own school particularly those who underperform? When RTE has guaranteed reservations in elementary schools why not at PU level also? The PU division may be housed in a separate complex or be neatly segregated from having any influence on school children.

n If for some reason schools find it hard to begin their own composite colleges why can’t they link with PU institutions so that their 10th graders can be more or less assured of admission, and they will also know where they can continue PU in one of the linked institutions? Will this not bring some relief?

When it is permissible for Indian colleges and universities to ‘tie-up’ with obscure US universities via so-called ‘twinning programs’ (where students can study UG course in parts in India and later shift to US only to help reduce fee), why should it be difficult for
state PU departments to permit schools to ‘tie-up’ with PU institutions of their choice?

Each such ‘tie-up’ may last for a fixed period (at least five years) after which the schools may be given the freedom to de-link or change their ‘tie-up’ to other PU institutions with due advance information to that effect.  When many PU institutions are ‘permitted’ to start their own in-campus tutorial centres and charge high tuition fees, why should it difficult for PU department to help reduce stress during PU admission by allowing such linkages?