“Oh no, not again” – is what slipped out of my lips when I saw the news flash about reservations in IIM and IITS. The quota bug has bit the education system again and that too to the elite institutes this time. Logic is simple – elections around the corner, gather our vote banks.
The reservation system in education has ever frustrated me, right from my XII grade. My friend and I were waiting at VJTI in 1995 to take a look at the allotment list for the engineering seats. We were quite confident of getting a seat in good college as we had very good marks in XII exams. To our despair, we found our names in the waiting lists, while a boy with 67% (much lower than our marks) smiled away with a seat in one of the reputed engineering college in Mumbai. It felt like a slap on our face and we stared at each other when we discovered that the boy belonged to a reserved category. I had lost hopes of getting an engineering seat after my revelation to this quota system. My marks did fetch me an admission but in a college some hundreds of kilometers away from my hometown. The incident gushed to my mind after I read that news flash.
Certainly, it’s more of a political affair than an act of reformation. Sadly our so called reformists don’t understand that such reservations are more relevant at the root level than at the higher education. It makes more sense to provide such facilities at the basic level and improve the conditions so that the candidates can stand the eligibility for such higher studies. I am afraid but the education level and the intellectual caliber of these premium institutes will soon get eroded if this quota system is imposed. I remember the second year of my engineering. Students with 40%-50% marks were proud about their engineering seat. However, less than 60% of these students disappeared in the second year, as they could not cope up with the studies. Few could not even understand what was being taught. Not that I am boasting to be an engineering genius but professional studies like engineering, medicine, management need certain amount of merit threshold, caste or reserved category is certainly not the criteria.
This quota system will certainly impact the breed of engineers, managers these institutes will produce. The reputation of these schools may hamper and their recognition could reduce to – “just like any other college”. When we talk of equal opportunity provider, why can’t we implement it? Nobody is stopping a SC or a ST or an OBC to appear in JEE or CAT, but prove your intellectual potential (the merit I mean) to get into the institute. Why use a caste certificate for it?
I wish someday we will able to keep politics away from education system or other reforms atleast!!!
The weekend was bad, rather not so good; my back ache had buckled me to the bed, not allowing me to stay in one position for more than 4-5 minutes. I was surfing through the television channels lying on bed, and soon I noticed that I was doing nothing but going from 0 to 54 (that is the only number of channels I have on my television) and then again 0 to 54, and then again and again. I was tired watching that Indo-Pak terror debate, reality shows were irritating me, and I couldn’t handle any more breaking news with my broken back, neither was I interested in any kind of saas-bahu or the rona-dhona type of soaps, south Indian films dubbed in hindi were a big NO, I was in no mood for business news either, I had also had enough of Ghajini and Rab Ne trailors, songs, and reviews. I remember, only thing that possibly kept me glued to any particular channel was the advertisements – Limca (I love this ad for its jingle, the zing, and the babe, of course), Raymond, Bingo , few insurance
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