Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
Jammu and Srinagar are set to get their separate AIIMS or AIIMS-like institutions soon. That, at least, is what the winter and summer capitals of the State have been assured of. And it sounds as if AIIMS or AIIMS-like institutions are bakery items, produced at will, like ‘roti’ from a tandoor or a ‘double roti’ (bread) from an oven. I wish the sanctioning authority would at least for the present limit its endeavours to just providing for an AIIMS-like institution not an AIIMS as it was originally conceived in New Delhi in the early 50s of the last century. The original AIIMS was largely intended to serve as a temple of advanced learning with emphasis on quality research, post-graduate studies, and not the overstretched general hospital it has since become.
Yes, it does provide for medical education, including post-graduate studies and some research but its claim to fame has over the years come to rest on the availabilty of good health care, highly exaggerated perhaps,but good enough to make it the very preserve of the high and the mighty from the political class. A general hospital offering medical care of a highly specialized nature,particularly so, as I said, if you are a VIP or otherwise well-connected. I do believe the people in the twin capitals, Jammu and Srinagar, must quickly reconcile to the reality that what they have actually been seeking all these months is an excellent faciklty with a high degree of specialization. For the rest, if they must, they should be content with an expansion of medical facilities, not of the privately run teaching shop variety, but ones with excellent faculties and other infrastructure. There,frankly, is no point in having mushrooming universities and colleges whose only raison d’etre will forever remain that of cash cows earning their greedy owners, again mostly from the political class or with direct patronage of this unscrupulous lot.
Emphasis on education is paramount on the agenda of any Government as is the gap in demand and supply in the vast education sector, a widening chasm undoubtedly but one which,unfortunately, is tempting the unscrupulous – their numbers are legion – to provide tempting short-cuts even in this vital sector. Limitation in both,infrastructure and administration for accommodating the glut of students in government run institutions may perhaps be ab accepted, one often used to advance the case for the entry of private sector in the field of education. By all means do let the private sector get into the field but extreme caution must be observed while allowing an entry into this vital sphere. Failure to stop the unchecked entry into the field of higher education,professional or oltherwise, can only lead to further lowering of standard.
Take any of our major States, particularly the upcountry ones, and see for yourself how hundreds of teaching shops, masquerading as professional colleges and universities, have sprung up in,say, the last decide, all of them set up by politicians and their cronies. A random survey with the help of some colleagues in Bihar,UP,Madhya Pradesh brought home to me in the most telling manner the scourge these teaching shop-colleges/universities have become. Everything in this world of the fake is on sake and available if you got the money to buy it : from fake law degrees to bachelor’s degree in dentistry, ENT. You name it and the degree,whatever, is here for you – for a price. The university or the college,for all you know, may be next door to the place you live in. I won’t bother you at this stage about buying your entry into regular professional colleges – for a price no doubt – and people willing to help you formally by sitting in for you at an examination hall, writing your answer papers or helping you, seated in the exam hall, get the right answers to the questions staring you in the eye.
Not to worry, as they say. There is this unique feature of our programmes of social justice. I am not questioning the merit of having job reservations for the backward or even for reserving seats for them in educational institutions. But a line needs to be drawn when it comes to professional institutions like the ones teaching engineering or medicine.
The Institute of Technology, Roorkee last month expelled 72 students for failing to get the minimum passing grades at the end of their first year of studies..Now, I am not being a casteist but it turns out that all of them had gained admission on the basis of reservations and all had failed even to get the low percentage of marks required of them for promotion to the next year.They had gained admission to the prestigious course on the basis of average to high ranks in their respective categories among the SC, ST and OBCs in the IIT-JEE test. But once their IIT education began they lagged behind. So much so that all of them failed to get the cumulative grade point average. Anticipating the usual hue and cry over the “mass expulsion” the students have since been taken back on the condition they fulfil the basic criteria for first year in what will actually be their second year at the prestige institution
A scrutiny of the results for the first year ,as reported by a national daily, showed that of the batch of 1002 students of all categories who failed 90 percent were from reserved categories, as many as 49of them from much sought after courses computer science, electronics, electrical, chemical with the maximum from civil engineering. Several factors including the inevitable one of language have been cited as the reason for the poor showing by the students. But in reality it means that many deserving students might in the process been denied admission to these specialized courses. Again, I am not questioning the concept of reservations. By all means have these but ensure that the process gets to work right from the primary school level.Don’t lose sight of the ground reality.
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel