Until recently (I am seeing some change offlate) almost every Indian middle class family wanted their children to have an engineering degree, didn’t really matter if they learned nothing about engineering, get the US stamp in the passport and land safely in Yankee land. Taking cue from the march of the lemmings to grab the printed and stapled papers announcing course details sold at an obnoxiously high price, the sector was opened up for private players who immediately obliged keeping in mind their commitment to nation building. Thanks to the uncontrolled flurry of private investors, the technical education sector India witnessed an unprecedented growth of shacks with the engineering college label.
For about two decades starting from 1990 the Universities in India, reminding the general public of hyperactive minks, littered the country with engineering seats that increased from around 50000 to close to 10 lakhs. The industry stood dumbstruck at the subject expertise and talents of the technically qualified youngsters manufactured at such massive scale; and consequently we had legions of engineers out on the road selling dog shampoos and insurance products. Some others had the rare opportunity of enriching their vocabulary with truly local words from other continents that you won’t find in the dictionary, when people totally unknown to them congratulated them for stealing their jobs and talking in a phony accent. So much for four years of tech education!
Last week Indians witnessed a shocked and outraged MHRD minister when a college in India’s capital fixed the admission cut off as 100 percent to some programmes for students from other disciplines. While nobody could understand the logic of such a cut off the ones who did manage to get 100 percent thanked God, because the college didn’t ask for 110 percent. Now I am not saying that cut offs are bad. But decisions like this shows that the highest echelons in some of our premium undergraduate educational institutions harbor colossal bonkers who take pride in their ability drive parents and students nuts.
Amidst the commotion created by the bright minds in India about making education accessible only to members in the ton club, some big mouths decided it is the best time to dress up for the policy prom and showcase their gabbing ability. Some of the policy prescriptions from these snake oil salesmen hold the potential to make even wild boars puke. The self welcomed pseudo educational experts immediately identified capacity constraint as the reason for the unreasonable cut offs and demanded that more such courses be started! Wow… that was ingenious; kudos to you morons. Thanks to efficient policy formulation and effective implementation, as on 2010 there were more than 31000 engineering seats lying vacant in Tamil Nadu alone; one of the biggest states in terms of engineering intake capacity in India. Now the policy makers are gearing up, to provide the feedstock for bloggers who will 10-20 years from now publish their farsightedness.
While our policy makers have been promising to make India the technology manpower super market for the world, let me irritate them with a trivial piece of information. India has the lowest enrollment ratios in the primary and secondary levels of education among all BRIC countries. Attention and resources to things need to be prioritized. While it is admirable/ desirable that we have/build world class higher education institutions in India, it must not be forgotten that every fourth Indian we meet probably cannot even write his/her name. But sadly most of us are like those who cannot take their eyes off the 27 storied house built by the richest man in India, while completely ignoring the pleasant sight of the defecation posture of thousands in our metros who don’t have the luxury of a toilet.
For about two decades starting from 1990 the Universities in India, reminding the general public of hyperactive minks, littered the country with engineering seats that increased from around 50000 to close to 10 lakhs. The industry stood dumbstruck at the subject expertise and talents of the technically qualified youngsters manufactured at such massive scale; and consequently we had legions of engineers out on the road selling dog shampoos and insurance products. Some others had the rare opportunity of enriching their vocabulary with truly local words from other continents that you won’t find in the dictionary, when people totally unknown to them congratulated them for stealing their jobs and talking in a phony accent. So much for four years of tech education!
Last week Indians witnessed a shocked and outraged MHRD minister when a college in India’s capital fixed the admission cut off as 100 percent to some programmes for students from other disciplines. While nobody could understand the logic of such a cut off the ones who did manage to get 100 percent thanked God, because the college didn’t ask for 110 percent. Now I am not saying that cut offs are bad. But decisions like this shows that the highest echelons in some of our premium undergraduate educational institutions harbor colossal bonkers who take pride in their ability drive parents and students nuts.
Amidst the commotion created by the bright minds in India about making education accessible only to members in the ton club, some big mouths decided it is the best time to dress up for the policy prom and showcase their gabbing ability. Some of the policy prescriptions from these snake oil salesmen hold the potential to make even wild boars puke. The self welcomed pseudo educational experts immediately identified capacity constraint as the reason for the unreasonable cut offs and demanded that more such courses be started! Wow… that was ingenious; kudos to you morons. Thanks to efficient policy formulation and effective implementation, as on 2010 there were more than 31000 engineering seats lying vacant in Tamil Nadu alone; one of the biggest states in terms of engineering intake capacity in India. Now the policy makers are gearing up, to provide the feedstock for bloggers who will 10-20 years from now publish their farsightedness.
While our policy makers have been promising to make India the technology manpower super market for the world, let me irritate them with a trivial piece of information. India has the lowest enrollment ratios in the primary and secondary levels of education among all BRIC countries. Attention and resources to things need to be prioritized. While it is admirable/ desirable that we have/build world class higher education institutions in India, it must not be forgotten that every fourth Indian we meet probably cannot even write his/her name. But sadly most of us are like those who cannot take their eyes off the 27 storied house built by the richest man in India, while completely ignoring the pleasant sight of the defecation posture of thousands in our metros who don’t have the luxury of a toilet.
