Hi Jan,

Just to give you some insight as to why such billboard exists at lot of places all over India. This billboard is not outside a software development school. It is definately outside a coaching institute which gives training to aspiring school students to clear entrance exams for Graduation in Medicine. In india after schooling, to get into engineering or medicine one needs to clear entrance exams.
The course from which the questions are asked in the entrance exams are beyond the boundaries of what one learns in the latter stages of school life. Usually, an aspiring student will take 1 to 2 years of coaching from these institutes to sit for an 3-hour long entrance exam. The institutes providing coaching are like business houses or tution centers and not educational instituions though they help you get in primier educational insitutes in india. They charge hefty amounts, and the sole reasons for their success is the number of successful students who would have taken coaching from them. The rankings on the bilboard are of students who would taken coaching from them and then cleared the entrance exams for the preimer medicine colleges in india. These rankings are valid for an year and are an indication of how the students of the coaching institute would have performed in the previous year. The rankings are given by the School of Medicine to which thousands of students apply.

Another starkling thing is, some of coaching institutes have an established brand name. The number of students applying to them is very high, and in turn these institutes take entrance exams for aspiring students and for these aspirants there is another level of coaching institutes which trains students to clear their entrance exams. Its is vicious cirle and in the end world is making money on the name of good education which again the world feels helps you earn money to lead a happy life.

Let me know if you have any queries about the context of the photograph.

Cheers
Apoorva

Thanks Apoorva,

> This billboard is not outside a software development school. It is definately outside a coaching institute which gives training to aspiring school students to clear entrance exams for Graduation in Medicine.

Correction noted.

Couple of questions:
- How long will the billboard remain up with the same faces?
- Why does one face appear twice?

With thanks,

Jan

Hi Jan,

Well, there is no concrete time span for which the billboard should remain up the same faces.
The entrance exams are held every year and hence every year there is a new batch of students joining the coaching insitute. When students join they look for the performance of students of the previous year. If you will look at the billboard image, the rankings are of year 2005, in 2006 the exams will be held in early may and by june the result will be there, so the institute should change the billboard with fresh results. Also, since its mainly for advertising, some institutes also show results of many years to show a comparision and progression in their performance. Alternatively, if the insitute plans to shut down or move to another location, then I guess they will have to take the bill board with them too ;-)
Second question, one face is appearing twice becuase the rankings displayed are of entrance exams of two different graduate schools of medicine. The bigger images are of AIIMS etrance exams. AIIMS is the best in india for graduation in medicine. The smaller images are of PMT-AFMC they other good institutes in india for medicine. One person must have got a rank in both AIIMS and PMT-AFMC entrance exam hence the image twice.

Cheers
Apoorva