Ramona Crasto

We humans are astonishing creatures. One day, someone with a lot of time on their hands decided, now that we have categorized caste, tribe, sect and beauty, let's categorize education. Because the world wasn't divided enough, we had to divide education into good colleges and bad colleges. When I was in 12th grade, I was under a lot of pressure to score high marks not because I wanted to but because I needed to get into a good college for which my parents had been saving money since I was born.

Turns out I wasn't a very bright student after all and I couldn't make it into the Harvard or Stanfords of Mumbai. And now there was a huge drama of whether I will get a good job before I had even chosen my field of interest because according to the society, "Only if I go to a well-known college, will I get a good job, whatever that means." I ended up in a 7 storey college probably at the end of the world because I could never make it on time for the lectures with a so called bad crowd and a name I couldn't spell for over a month. It sure did not have great scenery or a garden or a huge library the size of a stadium but guess what it had?

A great faculty of teachers who educated me and helped me become what I am today and I did graduate with secondary colors, same education and affordable fees. This college took me in without breaking my self-esteem, giving education and not judging a student on the basis of their financial background was its priority.

Everyone deserves a chance to be educated, some cannot afford while some can. I sure scored less in 12th and I was judged on the basis of a mark sheet, my future clinging on that single piece of paper, but guess what after graduating from that so called "last resort of a college" I am now a news editor at Kuwait Times.

So many students force their parents into getting them into a good college even though they have scored lower marks so that they don't end up in colleges like mine, and these parents end up paying "donations" - also known as extortion money (because if you don't pay, your child won't get a seat) and reserving seats with the power of money, stealing seats from those deserving candidates who have worked really hard to get into these prestigious colleges while some of them borrow and spend their entire savings on such colleges so that their child gets a chance at a better future.

Others, like me, we live in this illusion of being unsuccessful people if we didn't make it into a good college and some of us end up taking the wrong step. My point here is that it doesn't really matter which college you go to, education is above categorization. If a company judges you on the basis of your college and not your skills and talent, it's their loss. Don't force your parents into spending all of their life's savings on a big name university.

By Ramona Crasto