Future of Higher Education

So, i will be continuing with the topic of Higher Education, but this post is about its administrative aspects an the role of government in it...

The role of any government in education must be restricted to a very active role in providing primary education to the entire population of this country at any cost and in case of higher education, to only don a regulatory role. Providing quality primary education will provide adequate mental maturity to the children, from where on they can in consultation with parents make their own choices on higher education. The government of course can continue to provide financial assistance to poor students. However, funding higher education endeavours of a substantial number of students irrespective of whether they need financial assistance or not, by funding several institutes of higher education, without at the same time making them accountable to produce students who serve the nation is unwarranted and unacceptable.

All higher educational institutes currently funded or managed by the government like IITs, IIMs, NITs, IIITs and state funded universities such as OU or SVU in Andhra Pradesh, Anna University in Tamil Nadu, Delhi University, etc. must be privatized with immediate effect. No funding must be provided to the institutes themselves, and FDI must be welcomed in the higher education sector. The collective brand name on which these institutes have banked for so long would then cease to exist. This will lead to competition among domestic institutions (hopefully privately owned) and also competition with other foreign institutions which will force the institutes to come out of their shell, rapidly expand and dramatically improve the quality of faculty and infrastructure. This move will also relieve the institutes from the shackles of bureaucracy, inefficiency and corruption (The bureaucratic environment prevailing in these “autonomous” institutes is well exemplified by the recent death due to negligence of hospital authorities in the IIT Kharagpur campus).

One might ask, what of those students who cannot afford to fork out lakhs of rupees every year in order to avail such education. It is well known that foreign institutions of similar calibre charge tuition fee around $5000 per semester for bachelors and masters programmes. Withdrawal of government funding owing to privatization along with the profit making motive and the expansion overdrive into which these institutes would fall would result in a similar fee structure in India as well which would mean that it would cost students 2-3 lakh Indian rupees per semester in order to cover their tuition expenses for graduate programmes.

Here is where the government can play an active role. On the basis of the financial circumstances of a student and his family, the government themselves must provide educational loans to these students with minimal strings attached. The government can either directly provide cash to the students to pay their fee or issue government securities to them which can be encashed in banks or sold in the bond market for cash. The students of course will have to provide proof that this money is being used for the payment of fee. The students who wish to avail such a loan will have to sign a bond which requires repayment of the loan in EMIs starting 2 years after they complete their education. This would churn out profits for the governments akin to banks since the government would charge interest on the loans offered. If students fail to repay the loan within a stipulated time period they will have to work on a government job for a nominal salary for a stipulated period of time in return of the loan waiver.

In order to ensure, however, that these individuals perform well on the government job, they should be provided with a performance based incentive system ensuring more money and access to government loans at low interest rates for competent individuals. This way no student who is smart enough to receive admission into these institutes will be denied education due to financial constraints. At the same time, the institutes themselves would be much better off as they would work towards profiting, work against competition, to provide high quality education. Not brand name but results delivered on the ground will then be used to judge these institutions. Their profitability and survival would be determined by their performance and competence. The government can still play a regulatory role ensuring smooth and corruption-free administration in these institutions, while also capping their profit margins at a reasonable level in order to avoid exploitation and exorbitantly high cash reserves. A separate regulatory authority can be set up to regulate the functioning of the higher education system in India. This way, the government also can effectively use the human and monetary capital otherwise used to fund and monitor these institutes in other areas of social governance.

Considering the fact that most students from such prestigious institutes land in high paying corporate jobs, the number of defaults in loan payments, one would expect, would be considerably low. Also, the government sends out a clear message that one needs to be accountable when one expects to receive generous help from the government. The inclusion of such educated talent in the government execution machinery, if they fail to repay the loan offered, can do wonders for the corrupt and inefficient bureaucratic system which currently prevails. The message being sent out to the educated youth of this country by adopting such a stance would be that the state is more than willing to offer generous help to any individual in need, however the individual would also be expected to be accountable and reciprocate by offering his services to the state whenever and wherever necessary. One of the greatest world leaders in human history, John F Kennedy, once said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. The message to send out today to the youth of this country would be “Demand from your country for whatever you need and offer to do for your country whatever you can”. Signing blank cheques to these institutes of higher education without making them accountable to the nation for providing leaders to serve this country is absolutely unjustifiable and must stop immediately.

Well, we will be going a bit off-topic in the next post, which i thought was necessary.

Reservations in Higher Education

Now, I would like to move on to offer my opinion on the issue of quotas or caste based reservations in “autonomous” institutes of higher education. Reservation is essential for the upliftment of a backward section of the society. However, a nation cannot have reservations forever, since the existence of reservations is a symbol of inequality. Reservations are a short term solution, to bring about equality among different sections of the society, while in the mean time we look for a long term solution. The great Babasaheb Ambedkar realised this early and vouched for reservation for the SCs and STs to be repealed/reconsidered after a period of 10 years. Today I am sure he is rolling over in his grave looking at how his noble intentions to uplift the backward sections of society have not only failed miserably but have actually created political vote banks for the politicians of this country to exploit.

The politicians want the backward classes of this country to remain backward and uneducated since otherwise, they would lose their loyal vote banks. If the masses were educated or enlightened, they would begin to question the legislature and the executive about their functioning and demand for developmental policies and competent governments which cannot be offered by any of today’s political parties. This is perhaps why instead of implementing a viable long term solution to bring these sections of society on par with the others; they are still clinging to the short-sighted, short term measures called reservations which, after 60 years, have been proved a failed system. The reason for this is simple. Reservations can never actually uplift the backward classes but will deceive these backward classes and win their votes.

In order to make my point clearer, consider the following illustration or example. When we are affected by a bacterial or viral infection, we usually tend to have fever as the main symptom. It is necessary to treat this symptom, using an antipyretic, while the doctor diagnoses the main problem (which is the infection) and finally prescribes as antibiotic to kill the infection. However, if the doctor were to only treat the symptom, fever, using a crocin, while ignoring the underlying condition, the patient will not get cured for a long time. As a matter of fact, after a certain point of time, he might die. Social and economic backwardness represent the infection in our case, whereas, crocin represents caste-based reservations. Crocin is necessary but not sufficient just like reservations. We need to subscribe to a policy which cures the underlying condition, while resorting to reservations to only keep the symptom in check temporarily.

The reason why reservations can never uplift the backward classes is that certain individuals belonging to those “socially backward” classes, who have availed the benefits of reservation and have prospered, can offer better education to their wards, who also are entitled to reservation, since reservation here is caste based and not based on the economic situation of the party in question. These wards of prosperous individuals avail of reservation benefits once again denying the benefits from reaching the poor and downtrodden of that section. This leads to successive generations of a small proportion of families belonging to these “backward classes” benefiting from the reservations. This is precisely why only a small part of SCs and STs have been uplifted after over 60 years of reservations. Most of them, even today, are illiterate. However, the reservation policy gives hope to the multitude which never can avail these reservations and thus, they cast their votes in favour of the politicians who vouch for reservations. This is precisely why no political party in India has ever opposed reservations and no party has suggested an alternative, feasible long term solution to the education problems of the backward classes.

If the true goal is the social and economic upliftment of backward classes and economically challenged families, what is the use of providing reservations in IITs and IIMs and other higher education institutes to these families which cannot even afford quality primary education? How can someone who does not get quality primary education due to poverty, discrimination and negligence even aspire to get into competitive top tier institutes like the IITs and the IIMs even in the presence of reservation? Even amongst the backward classes, students who get into the echelons of these institutes are those who can not only afford quality primary education but can also afford tuition fee for private coaching for the entrance tests of these institutes.

In essence, these are people who do not deserve or need reservations. Reservations, therefore is by no means a long term solution for the upliftment of the weaker sections of society. The only plausible solution to this crisis is for the government to play an active role in providing the poorer sections of society, irrespective or caste, religion or sex, with free, compulsory and quality primary and secondary education till class X and beyond this point, financially assist those who wish to proceed to higher education. Reservations have not solved the problem in 60 years and they will not solve the problem in another 600 years. The sooner the public, the media and the government realizes this undeniable fact, the better it would be for this country. We need to resort to antibiotics fast to prevent the death of this nation.

Or so i feel, and am expecting a lot of comments as its quite a controversial topic.. so, will be continuing with higher education in the next post as well...

Expansion of "Brand IIT"

Well, this post is on IITs (the evergreen topic) and the Government... lets get serious...


I take up this topic first since, being an alumnus of IIT Madras myself; it is a topic close to my heart. Not long after a great man by the name of Dr. Manmohan Singh announced his intent to set up 8 new IITs, did lively discussions centered on this topic ensue in campuses. A lot of IITians I knew were against the move on grounds that it would lead to brand dilution. This is a very capitalist view. No particular brand is more important than the general welfare of a nation and its citizens. If creating more IITs leads to the collapse of brand IIT as we know it while at the same time providing high quality education to a larger population, then so be it. Arguing against setting up of new IITs on grounds of brand dilution is nothing but promoting inequality. If the country has the resources to provide quality technical education to all its citizens, then by all means it should do so.

A lot of people feel that the IITs will slip in educational rankings simply because they will not remain the coveted dream, which never becomes real for many, if more IITs are set up. Setting aside the argument that even if this were true, we must have more IITs; let me also say that this is in fact not true in the first place. A brand is successful and duly acknowledged if it provides quality in terms of infrastructure, faculty, course content and employment opportunities. As long as the IITs provide the same kind of education and infrastructure that they have provided in the past, there is no question of the brand name deteriorating. Setting up more IITs, it is expected, would never hinder the development of already existing IITs nor does it imply that the new IITs will not be on par with the older ones. As long as these criteria are satisfied, the brand name will never be diluted or deteriorated.

Do not get me wrong. I am against this move to set up new IITs as well, but my ground for opposition is very different. The most important issue against setting up more IITs is the fact that we do not at this point of time have the adequate infrastructure or faculty to extend quality education to a larger audience. First of all, the existing IITs themselves, despite being the epitome of quality technical education in India, fail to live up to the standards of the MITs and the Stanfords. Brand IIT is much hyped in India but one must realize that when it comes to infrastructure and faculty, the IITs are far behind even second grade institutes in the US and Europe. If we cannot find enough talent to teach a handful of students at the existing 7 IITs then it is highly unlikely that the 8 new ones can provide quality education on par with the existing ones.

The new IITs at first started operating from the campuses of the old institutes itself since the infrastructure for setting up of the new IITs was still not in place. Despite the fact that even the location site was not finalized for some of the proposed IITs, 6 of these proposed 8 IITs were made operational with immediate (June 2008) effect with blatant disregard to the difficulties which would be most likely faced by the students, merely in order to appear populist and gain political leverage. I wonder if the right adjective to describe this is hilarious or pathetic or just sad. The Indian institute of Technology, Hyderabad, operated from the campus of IIT Madras. First of all, the infrastructure at IIT Madras is inadequate to support a larger intake than the existing one. The faculty is not only inadequate on a quantitative level, but also on a qualitative level. More importantly, these students would be totally confused. They would not have a sense of belonging to the campus in the first place.

I still remember how I felt when we were told that we had no department for Biotechnology as yet when I joined IIT madras and when I was told that we will be operating out of the Mechanical Sciences Block. I along with 50 other young, enthusiastic individuals were totally clueless and confused as to what it means not to have a dedicated department for the major that we were going to pursue for the next 4-5 years. Imagine the plight of these kids who study in IIT Madras and are referred to as students of IIT Hyderabad! Shocking! Imagine the problems they would face involving relocation at a later point in time to another temporary setup. Comprehensive infrastructure and faculty arrangements commensurate with the reputation of IITs cannot be setup in less than 5-10 years. Until this time, perhaps, at least a couple of batches of students would have received their convocation degrees in a temporary buffalo shed. They would not have dedicated classrooms or labs or computing facilities much like us, when we joined the “Department of Biotechnology” at IIT madras in 2003. How lost, unwanted and deprived would one feel in that kind of an environment?

With new IITs operating out of the old campuses itself coupled with the OBC quota, the intake would certainly increase by over 50% in each of the existing IITs. However, when it comes to the number of faculty and the quality of faculty, it only keeps getting more abysmal by the day, with senior professors retiring and no one as good to replace them. With young, talented professors looking for greener pastures abroad or in the corporate world where salaries are unmatched even by “iconic” institutes like the IITs. The compensation offered to an Assistant (entry level) professor at IIT madras, who is a PhD holder, is less than that offered to a clerk in a PSU bank. Preposterous! How can the IITs expect to attract and retain quality faculty with such abysmal incentives on offer? The quality is being robbed out of the “quality education” that is promised by brand IIT.

This is where I have a problem. If we can provide quality education to a larger population then we must do so by all means. But, robbing the “quality education” of its quality and providing low quality education to a larger pool of highly talented individuals is not acceptable. It is nothing but cheating those dreamy eyed young, enthusiastic leaders of tomorrow in the garb of socialism and equality. The bottom line is that we are not ready yet. We first need to reform the higher education system in the country in order to attract and retain quality faculty. We need to setup adequate infrastructure before taking the plunge forward. The choice comes down to having 7 high quality technical education providing institutes or having 15 mediocre/average technical education providers. I vote for the former. I hope I have convinced you to do the same.

We need to move ahead one step at a time. In the last 40-50 years we have seen the addition of only 1 new IIT, IIT Guwahati (IIT Roorkee which was already an established center of educational excellence was merely granted the brand name of IIT). IITs cannot be setup overnight, not in the kind of bureaucratic environment which prevails in this country at this point in time. The goal must be more sobering and realistic, like setting up one new IIT every 2 years from this year forth until each state in this country has an IIT campus. This in itself would be a challenge of gigantic proportions, a goal which would require immense dedication to the cause of promoting higher education in this country. The quality must not be robbed from education, instead it must be enhanced and every new IIT established must become a role model, a benchmark for excellence, which the already existing IITs too must pursue to reach.

I guess that was enough seriousness for a post :P; and if any of you has a difference of opinion, please do comment on it, so that we can probably have a small discussion where we can share ideas.

The next post would be on a topic which we've started but left unattended... Reservations!!! (Another hot topic :D).

Till then... tc... ciao

Government And Education

I would like to post a series of articles (as putting the whole thing in a single post would make the reader sleepy, which is not my aim) which present my views, ideas and suggestions on the role of the Government in Education. These series of articles discuss about education in the present scenario, and lead to a finale I've come up to.

Here i go... :)

I lay grave importance on education since I honestly believe that it is the most powerful force, something which is capable of inspiring change in any society, in any nation. It is an absolute necessity for the social, economic and political upliftment and equality of every individual, although in isolation it might not be sufficient. It has always been one field that has never attracted adequate attention from either the government or the general public, since it is a long term solution to the problems of this nation and not one that can be achieved in the immediate term, not something that can win votes in the upcoming election. Education not only provides a consistent source of income via employment to an individual, but also improves vastly the productivity of a nation as a whole, and more importantly makes us better human beings.

The education I refer to here does not merely end at acquiring knowledge of the various fields of life such as sciences, social or natural or geographical, nor does it merely mean literacy, but more importantly refers to the imbibing of moral values and ethics in individuals. It is not a surprise that more educated societies and countries in this world have a far better life style and life expectancy, neither is it baffling that these societies are far less corrupt and more humane compared to ones where there is a drought of quality education. It is surprising however, that a force as powerful and important as education is often neglected. Free power and construction of temples win elections in this country, but never will someone who vouches for quality primary education be taken seriously. Well perhaps not “never”. I guess that is the hope with which I write this piece.

Off late one has seen a substantial amount of participation from the current government at least on the higher education front in this nation. Quotas in higher education for various communities in IITs, IIMs, NITs, IIITs, etc and the establishment of a large number of new institutes (read IITs) that promise to perpetrate top quality technical education are some initiatives that have been much talked about. However, like most governments in the past, this government has also not given adequate importance to primary and secondary education.

I hope this sets up the mood well for the coming posts... will continue with Higher Education (read IITs et.al.) in my next post.