The proposal of UPA Governments' HRD minister Arjun Singh to increase reservations from the present 22.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent in prestigious educational institutes like Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, Central Universities and other institutes of national repute, is catching up a storm across the country.
This is certainly not fair to keep reservation in educational institutes. No doubt, tomorrow the government can come up with a policy of reservation in private sector. I don't know exactly, what the standard of higher education in India on international scenario is, but politics play an important (spoilsport) role in state of Indian educational affairs.
There are several other ways to help the 'meritorious' students from downtrodden sections of society, viz. scholarships, free preparatory classes, rebate in tuition fees, facility of bank loan etc. In fact there is only one class of students, ‘economically backward students’ (irrespective of belongings to the caste i.e., forward or backward), who should be given the above privilege not the SCs, STs or OBCs.
And this is the humble request to the educational authority (the so called government- central as well as state): please do not waste others' time, money, effort and energy in simply politicizing (if I am not wrong) the education system of India (i.e. reservations, minority status to institutions etc) and instead concentrate on improving the quality of education.
By-
Ashwini Kumar Singh
Director - DREDS,
Gopalganj, Bihar.
For related comments on this article, visit:
http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2006/apr/ashwini_singh1.html
District Rural Education Development Society (DREDS) is functioning towards the social and educational betterment and upliftment of rural community. We strive to work in rural development, education, youth and women empowerment, skill enhancement and agriculture. Write to us at: dredsgopalganj@gmail.com