Mission admission

The results have been floating around for quite sometime now and the season of college admissions has now arrived. It has been really hard to score good despite the stress and peer pressure on young brains. But the hope to get way into a prestigious college exists, though only until the cutoff lists are out.
Heard of those golden times when somebody passing XII would eligible to be a school principal! Think about it today, even a student scoring 95% finds it tough to secure a seat in the 'temples of knowledge'. Doubt it? Check out the table below. 

My mind doesn't allow me believe that some student could be perfect enough to score something more than 99% marks. But the cutoffs demand this! Average students, perhaps, have no place to exist in this scenario.
I wonder if this happens due to a large number of applicants for limited seats. Although there are some non-conventional courses which get fewer applicants, we know only about 10% students of the country have access to higher education. What would have been the situation if all of them applied, a question bit difficult to answer.
A bigger question is - are we heading in the right direction? Aren't we stressing young minds to do what everybody has been doing for long? Appear for exams and score big howsoever be it possible.
Thousands of students study exactly the same subjects. It's like feeding same dish to over a billion population, even when this dish is expired and is largely irrelevant today. And there are almost no questions raised as a denial to follow the tradition would mean challenging the well established institutions of education.
The child was hardworking and well focused for the entire year. But had mild fever on the exam day, couldn't perform well on exam day. Whole year went in vain. Just a day is enough to judge the entire year and marks are considered the only basis of his performance.
When are we going to relieve the stress on the younger generation? Or things are well planned to keep them running behind the marks for years. Hope this rat race ends some fine day.