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.