TV Mohandas Pai was a Director at Infosys until recently. He is a Chartered Accountant, but his views as a well-informed outsider to the IIT system, are quite relevant. The article was published in The Economic Times.
IITs may become less relevant
By Mohandas Pai
The demand for an IIT seat is enormous and has spawned a tutorial industry that earns more revenues than the IITs themselves. This has resulted in large number of students spending up to two years of their youth going to cramming schools learning pattern recognition, forgetting the art of thinking and problem solving knowing that their lives are made once they get entry into the hallowed portals. Today about 60% or more of the intake is from the coaching mandis. This has also resulted in many bright young Indians deciding not to undergo the ordeal and go overseas for higher education. 250,000 of them study overseas, over 110,000 in the United States, about 45,000 in the UK spending about $ 6bn on fees and costs annually, depriving this country of much needed resources for education and talent, adding to the wealth of those countries. The IITs too have steadfastly refused to change. They remain small by global comparison . They are between 6,000-9 ,000 students in size, with an annual intake of about 500 PhDs, and about 1,000 undergraduates.
Total autonomy to the IITs, driven by a board of governors with a new vision, accountability through public opinion and transparency. Yet there is resistance to change, from government for the fear of losing control, from some part of academia because they become more accountable and lose the shelter of blaming the government for all ills and for inadequate performance and from some opinion makers who believe that the existing feudal system should continue since they have a disproportionate influence on them.
The best solution is to open up the education system and allow competition, the dreaded word in academics, to come forth. India should revise her educational policies and allow the private sector to set up “innovation universities” granting them all that they need. Full autonomy, academic, administrative and financial to chart their own future. Some safeguards are needed, as this is a public good. A large corpus of say Rs 100 crore, an open merit based admission policy, a faculty compensation policy based on minimum UGC scales and an assurance that they will aim to be amongst the top 100 in the world over the next 25 years. To ensure access to the merited we need a national scholarship scheme which will fund students. India needs to trust the genius of her citizens to create institutions that are world class and not look at them through myopic eyes with suspicion.
India’s future is too important to be left to the benevolence of an apathetic, insensitive government which has destroyed academic excellence over the years, driven her young out and even today shows callous indifference. See the state of our universities today, so many have fallen from the high standards they had, see the state of the Presidency Colleges, it is indeed sad! Most policy makers and leaders have solved their personal issues by sending their children out to get a good education, so they are not impacted by the poor quality of higher education in India. It is the middle class and the poor who suffer, because they love their country more and see their future here; maybe they too want to take flight but do not have the resources to. As the saying goes “Yankee go home, but take me with you.” But will competition work? Yes, it will indeed.
The engineering colleges have opened up, very large numbers set up by political influence and plain bribery but they have served another purpose. Today there is a flight to quality. The bad colleges are dying since students have a choice, they are voting with their feet. The good ones are expanding and seeing greater demand. The market mechanism has worked, not by design but by serendipity. So there is hope. Look at various other sectors today. Bharti has made BSNL redundant and has given us a choice, Jet has overtaken Air India and given us a choice, the power system in Mumbai is still the best, and in education the Indian School of Business has turned our IIMs inside out. The IIMs actually want reform, expansion and are concerned about their future .
Competition and an open liberal environment for higher education will work . India’s best higher education institution, the Indian Institute of Science , was started by a private citizen many years ago and is still the best we have. India’s needs in higher education are too large to be met by the government , they need the genius of India’s citizens to meet them.
Comments
This is an article that inspires one to come up with a new paradigm for Education, not just for India, but for the whole world. There is an opportunity here for India to take the lead.
I have a feeling that Internet may be a future vehicle for self-learning, after which one may apply to research institutions set up in abundance by private companies. Any selection must be merit based.
The key issue is how does one go about self-learning after basic schooling? Maybe the basic schooling should be followed by education (courses and exercises) in how to look, observe, think for oneself, and learn.
~Vinaire