Why We Don’t Have Nobel Laureates...

I read this small article in the Times Of India a few days ago titled ‘Life After IIT’ which stated that the IIT faculty have finally found out why they aren’t producing the Nobel laureates and innovators of the future. When asked by the faculty at the admission desk what their big dream was, most of the students gave the same answer “To get into IIT” only one guy answered that he dreamt of someday building a starship!

The first and most obvious reason for this lack in any kind of diversity in the answers is very simple, these students are pretty anxious about their admissions, hence any kind of ‘trick questions’ like the one asked by the IIT faculty tends to make the students cautious about their answers hence they end up sticking to ’safe options’ like the one given by the students in this case.

Another obvious reason that, I am sure, any under graduate who has given his viva (or oral question-answer tests as they are called in layman’s language) would tell you is the ‘Ape Syndrome’. It is a subtle process that can be described as such - when the first student comes out of the room (in which the viva is being conducted) all the students waiting eagerly outside grill him or her about what he/she was asked and how he answered it, in the end the other students end up answering similar questions in the same exact manner as that of the first guy or gal. I am sure that is exactly what has happened in the case of IIT students.

There may be several other reasons but I think the major one of ‘em is that parents and our primary education system fail to instill the creativity that is a essential quality to be an innovator. Children are born with an inherent sense of creativity; however the education system tends to suppress it and instead push the child into a dull world of rote-based learning, they even encourage the parents to do the same by labeling the child mediocre and forcing them to enroll their wards in tuitions or extra classes.

Our higher education system does nothing to help. Although, I must agree, that they support much better concept based learning, however this does nothing to enhance the practical problem solving ability and creativity of the student. Concepts are seldom accompanied by real life examples. Practical, real-life situations are not utilized in the curriculum which again limits the student to book based learning.

Now that this case has set the IIT faculty thinking I hope they do something about it!

I mean it’s time educationists understood that excelling at entrance exam makes the student a good learner and not exactly a great engineer, doctor or researcher. A student who performance is mediocre in the exams but possesses a vision and ability to work hard can also be equally eligible for the course.

So what these people should do now is look for an appropriate way to gauge a student’s creativity and vision along with his academic performance and then judge his eligibility for admission to the institute.

Results Of Education - 90:10 The Quota War

The 90:10 reservation issue has been going on for quite a long time now. I must say, it has turned from a small conflict into a complete war; between parents of students from education boards like CBSE and ICSE and the State Education Ministry.

I myself am a product of CBSE education, however I do agree with the fact that SSC students don’t get seats due to students who score higher than them and come from CBSE and ICSE backgrounds. But the quota system seems to me to be a weird solution to the problem.

Why are quotas the common answers to any and every accommodation problem in establishments and institutes in our country? Why can’t the ministry look for more sensible and logical answers to problems such as these? If the present admission process is unfair to SSC students then the 90:10 quota system is unfair to ICSE and CBSE students. I mean come on…there has got to be something between the two extremes which could benefit both. The percentile system which was about to be implemented last year was one such sensible solution to the admission problem, unification of education boards/uniform education boards across the nation is another one.

There are approximately 15,608 CBSE and ICSE students and 16,03,144 SSC students in the whole state of Maharashtra (Source: News Reports). Percentage wise the assigned quota seems perfect. But the fact remains that SSC students are spread over the complete state in rural as well as urban areas while a large majority of the total number of CBSE and ICSE students reside in major cities like Mumbai and Pune. In spite of such diversity, I fail to understand how Mr. VikhePatil decided to apply the universal magic ratio of 90:10 across the whole state.

Mr. VikhePatil goes on to advise that students should not be choosy while selecting their respective colleges, however the fact remains that every guy and gal yearns to go to the most reputed and happening college in town, this goes for both the students of SSC as well as other boards.

Many of the students from both boards do not get admissions because of their average marks. Instead of helping all such students secure seats in good colleges and ensuring uniform as well as efficient utilization of seats in colleges, here we have administrators and political parties that are hell bent on making sure that CBSE/ICSE students don’t have a place in junior colleges this year.Today, education has been made the plaything of a few select officials of the government, who amend the rules and regulations according to their whim. Changes in education and admission methodology should be a result of extensive and accurate research and should not be carried out at the eleventh hour. But sadly, things are different here in India. We can only hope that such differences do not ruin an innocent child’s chances of acquiring quality education irrespective of which education board he belongs to.