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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Privy league vs. Ivy League

There has always been a perennial debate on educational reforms in India. And it has been perennial because the infrastructure and the resources allocated have always been on a different plane from each other, not to mention the other minor factors such as beaurocratic delays and red tape which function at the topmost level of their efficiency. The results do not startle anyone.Around 20% children devoid of their primary education and 15% do not see the secondary school.
Since the platform was corrupt, the problem got compounded at the undergraduate and post-graduate level. About a decade back, the private sector foresaw an untapped business opportunity in educational institutions and took a plunge resulting in the construction of professional colleges wherever they could lay their hands on. If the figures are to be counted for, then there are close to 100 private engineering colleges in Uttar Pradesh alone producing lakhs of engineers per annum yet the industry cries out loud being under a technical talent crunch. The blaming goes ceaselessly but no answers are sought out. And this is partly due to the fact that no layers are exposed beyond a certain limit as that would expose the naked truth that is draped in careful bandage of white lies.
Why is it that even after having more than 1000 engineering colleges in India producing more than 4 lakh engineers per annum, the government feels that more colleges are required? This is because the private institutions are not only having a major chunk of the so-called unemployable engineers, but also because the government cannot do anything about them. These institutions although being under the umbrella of governing bodies like the AICTE lack the infrastructure that is a pre-requisite for a development which is not only theoretical but also applicatory.
The full blame cannot be put on the college authorities too. With a handful of corporate houses investing properly in education, the burden of providing adequate facilities falls directly on a bunch of small business owners who form trusts and committees to run the colleges and to fill their pockets both at the same time. Although the AICTE norms are met, it is usually too less for the students who are shelling out a hefty amount for a professional degree.
Starting with inadequate infrastructure and untrained faculty, the problem gets aggravated at every level. Such colleges have passed out students as faculty members who don’t even have a master’s degree. Moreover, with no immediate authority to exercise control on these institutions, they are slowly turning out to be intellectual black holes of India with a long chain of corruption embedded firmly at its root.
All this while, the government plans to build new IIT’s and IIM’s to meet the ever growing pressure from the industry.
A better solution would be to meet the needs in an evolved manner. Institutions of the genre of IIT’s should be kept at the top most level of the educational pyramid with the autonomy that they enjoy, so that the burden does not fall directly on the shoulders of the technical capitals of India.
Tier 2 institutions could be the REC’s and the NIT’s and they should be brought up to the level of IIT’s in terms of improved infrastructure and research facilities.
The Tier 3 colleges could be the private engineering colleges which should have some amount of government interference and investment. Construction of new colleges should be checked and the allocated resources should be directed to the already constructed colleges which are taking undue advantage of their autonomous nature and are busy sucking money from students in the name of an engineering degree. The point is to capitalize on the fact that new colleges started from scratch would eat up lot more resources than these already running institutions.
The ultimate goal is to have a new educational order where all the tiers are aiming to reach at the next level under the eyes of a watchdog so that the future of India is not left at the mercy of those who are converting the educational institutions into money minting machines.

4 comments:

ashishkr said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ashishkr said...

The main reason is the shortage of skilled manpower. You yourself has witnessed that college pass outs and freshers are taking job as lecturers.

And virtually all of us know why freshers opt for teaching...... when a fresher didn't get any job outside. And again all of us also know why they didn't get jobs. A type of system is created where sometimes the worst comes into teaching line, most of the young generation keeps away from teaching. Now how can we think of learning something from them who themselves never learnt anything. They come with books and notes and somehow they complete the syllabus but they can't inspire us to do something new. A type of system is created where the worst are ploughed into the best field.

The chief reason that many good ones keep away from teaching is that they can't showcase their talents, their knowledge is not utilized in the private colleges where the main concern is money rather than research and development. Leaving alone IIT's and some colleges, there is no scope of good work in any other colleges. They lack the basic equipments and infrastructure.

This can be changed to some extent if private firms start adopting colleges. They will bring money and provide research area for colleges and to its lecturers. Teachers can then give small projects to group of students which will allow them to understand the current and future scenario of the industry. This will improve teaching as well as knowledge of the students. Perhaps in the near future we can see this trend emerging.

GaUtAm sHaRmA said...

i agree wid u on d pt dat "d ppl in power"shud concentrate more on d grass root level of education - promoting basic primary n secondary level education...but they are too busy colecting "mat" from d "janta"

i'd also like 2 pt out - whats d need of quota system in india? it is d need to "stay in power" which allows masses to take PRIDE in thinking dat they are "crippled" because their fore fathers were'nt treated well; were'nt given what was rightfully deirs.

i say, instead of making reservations for dem, make dem able enough to compete wid d others

Jack Reylan said...

Ivy League universities are not good at getting students jobs, only grants to be commie nutty organizers. No business should trust such left wing graduates. They don't believe in capitalism and become crooks because thy think everyone else is a crook and they are out to "punish" others through their own crookedness. The universities consider real jobs and competition beneath them, so they want their little sissies to live off grants, even in the hard sciences or business. How many of their engineering professors have Professional Engineering certification? Almost none! They love foreign students because they slave up and don't expect professors to actually work, like American students do. No middle class parent should consider sending their kids there, because these schools will destroy your entire family.