LLTT

The title refers to Look London Talk Tokyo and is indulged in frequently by journalism.

This is such a piece.

The title is ambitious, "Do our institutes connect with the real India? ". However it has nothing to do with discussion on the cost of subsidies provided to institutions of higher educations and benefit arisding out of it, but it does nothing of the sort.

Instead it is just a disingenuous attempt at obfuscating the issue of reservation.

The writer asks in the most otherhalfish fashion, "Could a more diverse student body work more broadly in the national interest than it currently does?"

Answer is, to a overwhelmingly large extent no, as I have pointed out earlier, students irrespective of their caste pursue higher education for self interest, indeed it is foolish for someone to expect that a student will spend considerable time and effort for altruistic motive.
Student even if he hails from a tribal or backward community after completing his degree would aspire to a high paying job and not to return to his village. Sure there will be always be a certain percentage who will indeed go back and work but it will be so miniscule so that cost of education is not justified.
From another point of view I think it is rather unfair to expect that only students from certain castes have to work in villages.

The writer continues with his ill thought and biased tripe. "The national institutes produce computer programmers, dam builders and investment bankers, and fine ones at that. But perhaps a more enlightened investment would also produce managers of farming co-operatives and social movements, and young engineers designing check-dams and inexpensive power generators for remote hamlets."

Again the answer is no, students from IIT and IIM (or for that matter anywhere) will seek highest rewards. This means that unless constructing check dams and managing co-operatives offers more rewards (significantly so considering that these jobs are of physcial nature and demand more stamina than your average desk jobs) than other options available, no student (whether he is General/SC/OBC) is going to join them.

This I am not saying without knowing the facts, 80% of IITians irrespective of their departments either
1) Go for software
2) Go for IIM/XLRI/ISB/SPJ/Others
3) Go for MS in US

Hence it is a sheer waste of tax payers money and the only solution for governments is to stop subsidizing IITs.

Indeed if writer was sincere, with little though he could arrived at the real nature of the problem
which is two fold

1) Artificial shortage in higher education - Due to unnecessary restrictions placed by state on private investment in field of higher education.

2) Skewed demand - While due to globalization there is a demand in IT and BPO, bureacracy corruption and red tapism ensures that manufacturing and infrastructure which holds promise of progress for backward areas remain stuck.

Further the writer argues that compostion of students effect the composition of the syllabus,

"This disconnect comes not just because of the demands of the curriculum, but also because there are very few students who have been displaced by construction projects. How different would the classroom be if tribal students from the Narmada valley also present? "

Answer is not much. I have met many students who hailed from backward areas. And yet while they were aware of the ground reality by and large they remained ignorant of the possible solutions parroting the tired spoon fed rhetoric of utopia through entitlements.

Another peace of chicnary,

"Cynics will argue that tribal and lower caste students are incapable of engaging issues at a sophisticated level like those who enter through merit. But that means that we must question what merit means, and whether the wisdom of the current system really works."

Actually no one argues that. Critics of reservations argues (with justification) that benefits of adopting reservation as a policy does not justify its cost. Further by providing reservations it provides a cop out to that percentage of OBC which is part of middle class (urban or rural) and ends up with lion's share of benefits.

It is reasonable to ask what has been the benefits to SC and ST after five decades of reservations.

If it turns out that results have been less then what was expected, it is not reasonable again to discuss the reason for failure and propose an alternative solution.

It is disgusting (but not suprising) for writer to imply that those protesting reservations are casteists.

And I find this constant and deliberate over what constitutes merit most annoying.

Merit can be your aptititude, reflexes, language skill, interpersonal communication depending on the job requirement.

A journalist require a skill set than an engineer, hence in the context merit also differs.
One can argue that the examination to measure merit is flawed but this doesnt make merit irrelevant on the contrary it only means that examination system needs to be corrected.

Rest of article is pointless and light on facts in similar veins such as,

"Similarly, medical researchers from an Adivasi background might be able to share the medicinal traditions of their tribes in a medical college, debunking the myth that treatment always comes in a pricey little pill. This is not an easy task. We have a deep-rooted suspicion of traditional knowledge as not being 'scientific' and overcoming this suspicion along with discomfort with tribals who propagate it requires significant change in mindset."

Reading this kind of tripe makes me think that there should be some cut off for bovine manure in media

 

Category : India, Society, Media, Politics