Political Games
So the Mandal Commission report continues to haunt thousands of applicants seeking admission to the famed Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIM). According to the announcement, the reservation quota has been more than doubled to 49%. This means that several bright and deserving candidates who do not enjoy reservation quotas will be left out of the IIT race, which is fiercely competitive to begin with. To make things worse, IITs now have a cap of 2 on the number of times you can apply to seek admission.
Its amazing how the government interferes with the administrations of these elite educational institutes to suit their political motives of securing vote banks around election time. In the name of bringing oppressed segments of society forward, such decisions will harm the intellectual fabric of India in a severe way and further worsen the caste dispute in the country. At its basic level, this decision virtually nullifies any chances that a reasonably smart and hardworking individual might have had of getting into one of the best undergraduate institutions in the world.
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NEW DELHI, APRIL 6: The Centre said today 49.5 per cent of the total seats in IITs, IIMs and Central universities, including Delhi University, would be reserved for OBCs, SCs and STs. At present, 22.5 per cent seats are reserved for SCs (15%) and STs (7.5%) in these institutes.
Full article here
Its amazing how the government interferes with the administrations of these elite educational institutes to suit their political motives of securing vote banks around election time. In the name of bringing oppressed segments of society forward, such decisions will harm the intellectual fabric of India in a severe way and further worsen the caste dispute in the country. At its basic level, this decision virtually nullifies any chances that a reasonably smart and hardworking individual might have had of getting into one of the best undergraduate institutions in the world.
________________________________
NEW DELHI, APRIL 6: The Centre said today 49.5 per cent of the total seats in IITs, IIMs and Central universities, including Delhi University, would be reserved for OBCs, SCs and STs. At present, 22.5 per cent seats are reserved for SCs (15%) and STs (7.5%) in these institutes.
Full article here
posted by MBA Pundit at
10:18 AM
1 Comments:
When I was in college, I had my share of SC/ST candidates in class, most of whom were from well to do middle class / upper middle class families. They had the same access to facilities that everyone else had. Yet they got in through this quota and many of them on financial aid that too.
The problem was that some of them flunked in their first semester and lost that aid, many couldnt clear the re-exam either and lost a whole year. Most of them made it somehow to their final year but couldnt find employment and ended up in a government job (again through the quota).
The reservation system didnt help two kinds of people. First, the really poor SC/ST who couldnt even afford high school education or the resources needed to prepare and appear for the IIT JEE. Essentially, reservations made no impact to about 80% of OBCs. Only the upper echelons of the OBCs took advantage of and benefitted from it. I had friends in class whose Dads were senior bank officials, IAS officers, customs officers and yet they were in the OBC quota. Suprisingly, a few of these guys were as sharp and smart as anyone else and I often wondered if they even needed a quota to get in.
Second, the general category middle class applicants, who probably would have made it with a little push but the quota system virtually killed their chances of getting in. These people suffered the most and ended up in other state and regional schools that they could get into.
This had an effect on class dynamics too. There was this one group who took special pride by virtue of getting in on pure merit and formed their own club. They took hostel rooms next to each other, ate lunch and dinner together, studied together and cursed the OBC quota (and their beneficiaries) over late night tea and sutta sessions.
Then there was this other club, the OBC group, who meant no harm to anybody but always felt inferior, left out and the bad orange that was forcefully put in a basket of healthy apples. I know for a fact that many of them felt this way, even the few genuinely smart ones.
After an eventful first semester, the groups evolved, the clubs were formed and the members identified. It didnt end here. This would go on further at the student elections where many bloody fist fights took place, people got hurt seriously, got suspended etc.
Meanwhile, all through my IIT days, I also saw kids around my age (the age to be studying that is) working as cooks in our canteens, cleaning our bathrooms, washing our clothes and watering the lawns and gardens of our sprawling campus. No reservation quota, no Mandal Report could get them the education they needed.
By
MBA Pundit, at 4:49 PM
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