News: HRD minister Arjun Singh announced that 8 new IITs and 7 new IIMs will be established in India very soon.
Arjun Singh’s Logic: If 7 IITs and 7 IIMs can have such a big impact, then why not we have 7 more for each?
My View: Why not we have 70 or 700 more for each? Soon, there will be enough IITs and IIMs that we will not need any other engineering colleges or MBA programs. Every student will go to an IIT and then to an IIM. After completing MBA from IIM all students will start with a salary package of 100 lakh Rs per annum. Will not that be better Mr. Arjun Singh?
Once upon a time I saw on one news channel a state chief minister telling the public that his state will have an IT park in every street of every town. It was an imagery statement by a politician for the sake of pleasing his vote bank. Announcement about new IITs and IIMs by human resources minister is also same kind of statement. I was perhaps humored by the government’s decision to extend (Please read ‘dilute’) IIT and IIM brand as never done before by any government in Indian history.
The keyword here is brand dilution. Perhaps it is the dilution of brand through its overuse.
Brand IIT was a dream that started in 1951 with IIT Kharagpur will soon be killed by the stupid politicians who by mistake consider themselves the saviour of India. The man who has a dowry case filed against him by his daughter-in-law, the man who was once accused of running a fake lottery, has decided the fate of Indian technical education. With this increasing number of IITs and IIMs brand IIT & IIM will be diluted to a point where we will end up average mind studying in IITs and IIMs.
The icing on the cake is that new IITs and IIMs will come up in backward areas and end up taking many more years to become tall institutions than necessary. True, we set up IITs & IIMs in locations like Kharagpur and Khojikhode. But that was a different era. Today it will be difficult to attract good talent and faculty in these backward areas.
If practical aspects are ignored, the new IITs and IIMs will definitely suffer. And that is not good news for anyone.
As far as I think primary education is the most fundamental building block for any education system and if this is not strong you can imagine what will happen to the building that we are going to create above that.
Should not government work towards raising the standards of government funded schools first?
Should not government stop establishing new IITs and IIMs and give enough funds to these schools first?
Should not these schools also have the same education system as DPS and Bombay Scottish?
If we will start having students from government funded schools getting selected in IITs and IIMs then only I think it will be a right time to establish new IITs and IIMs. Then only we can insure that we are having a fair education system and justice for all the classes of Indian society.
3 comments:
We have as many IITs today as we had 20 yrs bak (note that only IIT guwahati was added in the IIT list but total intake in BE 1st yr was not increased at that time) while the number of students passing intermediate examination with science subject has increased by 3-4 times. Quality of higher secondary education has also increased. and Moreover because of reservation policy general seats have decreased. So conclusion is: Now we have more number of talented students who deserve admission in IIT but the seats in IIT have been decreased. So it is a bad situation for our country's technical education and therefore i don't agrre with you at this point. I feel that even more number of IITs should be opened. But i agree with you at other points : that govt school's education system should be improved and new IITs should have same level as old ones.
But on actual ground it is not possible...
Developing Economies like India, surely need great Institutes like IITs and IIMs.
But, certainly, there has to be a Cap on their -Number- and -Quality-.
Surely, as you pointed out, the Policy Makers should understand the need for a strong foundation in *Basic Education System*, rather than diluting the Brands and filling up their vote banks.
Shame on them..!
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