Virtual Water

Reservation

Merit, quotas... Do we wait for some more?
It isn’t about these categories. Our approach towards education as a responsible exercise aimed at dealing with country’s innumerable problems is warped
By Lalit Kumar Das
Lalit Kumar DasThree most unfortunate things happened that delayed the possibility of India utilising its vast traditional, technological and entrepreneurial, talent pool. This pool sustained the creative economy of India’s past that thrived through the art of value addition. It was an economy that did not believe in exporting raw material; instead it converted raw material into finished products, thereby adding significant value. It was an economy that lured many foreign rulers to invade India as well as explorers like Vasco De Gama and Christopher Columbus to find new trade routes to India.
The first unfortunate happening was the attempt, post independence, which reached its climax with the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs), to create a new breed of first generation engineers whose competence for engineering was defined by a Joint Entrance Test revolving around performances in physics, chemistry, mathematics and the English language. This definition of merit has no bearing with traditionally honed visualising capabilities, or with the working with one’s own hands, or a feeling for technology, materials and processes. It forgets that technology can also be approached through the art and craft route. Technology is as much empirical as it is rational. This route also caters to a very significant share of Intellectual property, worldwide. The second unfortunate happening was the Mandal Commission, naming the traditional technological and entrepreneurial talent pool that sustained the creative economy as the ‘Other Backward Classes’ (OBCs). The emphasis on backwardness came in the way of many professionals appreciating that there could be merit and talent in this vast population pool. The third most unfortunate happening was the picking of only one aspect of the Mandal Commission’s recommendations namely 27 percent reservations in educational institutions and government jobs.
I will quote from an article by SS Gill secretary, Mandal Commission:
‘During its discussions the Commission was fully aware that reservations were only a palliative, and 27 percent reservation in educational institutions and government jobs was only one of several recommendations.
Briefly, the other important recommendations were: the radical alteration in production relations through progressive land reforms; special educational facilities to upgrade the cultural environment of the students, with special emphasis on vocational training; separate coaching facilities for students aspiring to enter technical and professional institutions; creation of adequate facilities for improving the skills of village artisans; subsidised loans for setting up small-scale industries; the setting up of a separate chain of financial and technical bodies to assist OBC entrepreneurs.’
Just A Label: IITs are not churning out better students, the better ones get here Photo Lakshman Anand
Knowledge and reality are muti-layered; the entrance test-based evaluation of merit does not equip one to comprehend them. Neither are the merit-key holding coaching institutes and ‘public’ schools producing Edisons and Einsteins The Mandal Commission clearly appreciated the technological and entrepreneurial talent latent in this group. But none of these measures was even casually examined by the government.
In 1989, when I first read about Rajeev Goswami’s attempted self-immolation and his subsequent death from burn injuries, I decided to take a close look at the Mandal Commission reports. For me, it was most enlightening and equally shocking that castes like goldsmiths, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, carpenters, potters, weavers, barbers and their ilk were classified as backward classes.
Even today these so called backward people contribute substantially to India’s export ambitions. In the year 2001-2002, the handicraft export (excluding carpets and gems and jewellery) was Rs.6769.50 crore; about a seventeen fold increase in the last 15 years.
My studies at the Royal College of Art in UK after my stints at the IITs, left a deep appreciation for these creative professionals. I began seeing these traditional artisans, as engineers and technologists, of all ancient civilisations. In Europe and the USA, they had played a very active role in the making of the Industrial Revolution. They had seamlessly grown and integrated with the society. Their professions are still fashionable and have evolved into a designer status. Many of them were in the universities as esteemed academicians. All technological institutions are pursuing science and technology that is relevant to advancing these professions. They can do their Masters in jewellery, pottery or weaving. Not so in India. There the polytechnics have become as prestigious as the universities. Not so in India.
The West and India are studies in contrast. In west there is so much of both horizontal and vertical mobility. Here we encourage people to be happy where they are. We are very possessive, very protective of our territory and that includes our professional and social territory. This protectionist attitude is deeply ingrained in our sub-conscious. It is culturally conditioned in our being. It was the prime elixir for the perpetuation of the caste system (which was essentially professional divisions). It is our ‘dharma’ to pursue our duties as proclaimed by our caste traditions. Not to do so is sacrilege. This attitude has permeated our educational and professional systems as well. It has restricted our capabilities and stunted our collective performance much below our potentialities.
Let me make a modest effort to sort our predilections.
Multi Layered Reality:Our world, whether physical, biological or anthropological, is complex, seamless and multilayered. Because of this, there is a proliferation of disciplines and specialisations. Different cultures, removed in space and time, have found different solutions and approaches to addressing the same problem. Our world, in part or in whole, can be seen, analysed and appreciated through pure logic, hardcore mathematics or as a string of perceptions, feelings and emotions. It can be relished, explored and defined. All of these approaches are equally relevant.
There is another dimension to the world. It is constantly changing, re-forming and evolving. It can be determinate, statistical, random and uncertain, all at the same time. It is these characteristics that lend itself to the evolutionary nature of universe, whole or in part. It also lends itself to our ability to design, structure, shape, and transforms our chosen part of the world.
Here I try to map different types of healing systems, each proven for their efficacy yet so different in their approaches.
The efficacy of each of these systems demonstrates the complex multi-layered integration of human physiology. It also supports the relevance of different approaches to discovering knowledge. (Knowledge commission may please note!) Even within the same system of medicines there are many specialisations. You see this in the contemporary allopathic system. Each small organ is as complex as the whole and so there is a need for both the general practitioner and the specialist. Then every doctor has his / her own preference for a specialisation, because of which he / she possesses the required type of attitudes and aptitude. Surgery is so very different from social medicine or psychiatry. Any cannot be everybody’s cake.
Similarly when it comes to the physical man-made world, we require different specialists, seamlessly interacting with each other. Science and technology is reshaping all aspects of our life. If you look at the structure of the US institutes of technology and compare it with the best in India, you will be amazed. Illinois Institute of Technology, which shares it acronym with Indian Institute of Technology, has 33 disciplines including science, engineering, design, architecture, psychology, economics, law, medicine, biology, pharmacy, management, and political science. It is because of a wide-ranging deep-probing interest in how science and technology can shape life and vice versa that the USA continues to pioneer and reshape the way we live in the 21st century. In contrast, the IITs have only half as many disciplines and are wary of disciplines that traditionally belong to the universities or to art colleges, or where mathematics is not the thinking tool. We need space in our mind and in our hearts. Funds can become available if we have a desire to go in a direction that supports growth and enhances integration. We lack the vision and will to evolve. We have become complacent, really masters of status quo.
The IITs have to actively concern themselves with each of the above-mentioned areas if we are to effectively work with the complex multi-layered structure of the man-made world. And each of the above area requires different types of aptitude, temperament and intelligence. Joint Entrance examinations (JEE) cannot be the beginning and end off all merit-evaluation tests. Unfortunately, we take great pride in evaluating intelligence to the second decimal point, based on such tests alone.
Different types of intelligence:
The complex multi-layered, multi-faceted reality exists everywhere. It is difficult for any one person to comprehend or appreciate its many layers and facets. Nature in its wisdom has endowed each one of us with a different mix of intelligence. Different types are needed to comprehend and appreciate the different layers and facets of reality. The distribution of different types of intelligence is random in any large population sample. In other words, no country or large cultural group is devoid of outstanding performers and achievers within the limits of opportunities available.
Gardner and his friends have proposed ten types of intelligence:
Linguistic Enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles.
Linguistic
Enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles.
Logical-Mathematical
Interested in categories and relationships arithmetic problems, strategy games and experiments
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Process knowledge through bodily sensations. They are often athletic, dancers or good at crafts
Spatial
Think in images and pictures, fascinated with mazes or jigsaw puzzles, love drawing, building
Musical
Enjoy singing or drumming to themselves, aware of sounds others may miss. Listeners
Interpersonal
Leaders among their peers, good at communicating and who seem to understand others' feelings
Intrapersonal
These children may be shy. They are very aware of their own feelings and are self-motivated
Naturalistic
This is the ability to discern patterns in nature, e.g. Darwin
Spiritual
This is the recognition of the spiritual in us and in all of us
Existential
This is the concern with 'ultimate issues' of existence, e.g. life, death
Each one of us possesses these various types of intelligence but in varying degrees. Some may be more pronounced than others. The purpose of each of these forms of intelligence is to conceive viable configurations and relationships and subject it to evaluation. But each type of intelligence is capable of handling its characteristic type of configurations and relationships. So every profession has its own mix of intelligence required.
Each individual is unique in terms of the biologically acquired intellectual capabilities. One is also unique by virtue of the environment that nurtures one’s senses, cognition and being as one grows. Age itself imparts uniqueness in terms of the capacity to distil intelligence from the essence of one’s perception and creations.
Unfortunately in India we give an exclusive, irrevocable importance to logico-mathematical and linguistic capabilities. (This was the wherewithal of the Indian administrative support system that the British rule needed.) In the process, we frustrate not only our cultural advancement but also the millions of boys and girls in schools. From among these many who are frustrated in schools, there may be many distinguished Padmashrees, Padmabhusans and Bharat Ratnas. They succeed not because of the encouragement of the education system but because of their grit, grind and inner strength.
We need able professionals. And each profession requires its own mix of intelligence. Our merit testing criteria has to be broader based. This is how it is in the USA and Europe.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:
Abraham Maslow is known for establishing the theory of hierarchy of needs, propounding that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied.
Needs are pre-potent. A pre-potent need is one that has the greatest influence over our actions. Everyone has a pre-potent need, but that need will vary among individuals.
It is important for teachers, counsellors and social workers to understand that the most important need is that of motivating students. We must pose and support growth challenges, which will spontaneously motivate a person to achieve the goal to arrive at internal satisfaction.
Some raw data from an IIT:
It is often argued that reservations are lowering the standard of the IITs. I present the following analysis based on the data of all students, who have passed over a span of 14 years from a certain IIT during 1992-93 to 2005-2006. The data is authentic.
As per this data, a total of 4508 students passed out during these years from the IIT. These students were classified as foreign, general category and reserved category. There were five whose status was not clear to me at the time of analysis. Perhaps they are foreign students. A threshold of 6.5 points was chosen as above this is concerned as 1st Division.
Foreign Students: 118 studentsAbove 6.5 points 20 students 16.9% of all foreign studentsBelow 6.5 points 98 students 83.1% of all foreign students
General Category Students: 3806 students
Above 6.5 points 3074 students 80.8% of all general category studentsBelow 6.5 points 732 students 19.2% of all general category students
Reserved Category Students: 579 students
Above 6.5 points 113 students 19.5% of all reserved studentsBelow 6.5 points 466 students 80.5% of all reserved students
It is difficult for me to digest that 466 reserved category students passing out with less then 6.5 points are in any way lowering the status of the IIT then the 732 general category students passing out with less then 6.5 points. Or for that matter the 98 foreign students.
It seems that the reserved category students in spite of a very low rating as per the joint entrance test are still able to succeed almost as well as the general category students, perhaps by sheer ‘collapsing point’ determination and retries. Strong motivation and hard work are meritorious attributes in any organisation and these tend to compensate for any other genetic, physical or environmental deficiency.
The IITs are doing a great service to the nation by providing a milieu of challenges to the reserved category students.
Concept of merit, bursting the merit bubble:
The concept of merit in the context of government subsided institutions is equated with intelligence-plus-effort, whose possessors are identified at an early age and selected for an appropriate intensive education. Here there is an obsession with quantification, test-scoring, and qualifications. In this view, there is a proliferation of coaching institutes, examination rigging and test paper leakages. While it may to some extent evaluate a candidate’s ability to participate in study programs, it, in no way constitutes a complete measure of the candidate’s potential to professionally succeed. In such an event the test fails to be just, as it denies someone else with competence that the test could not measure. A test proving negative is not a measure of the potential not being there.
When the number of candidates far exceeds the number of seats, then the test is designed to pass only a limited number of students required for filling the seats. The rejected candidates do not necessarily lack the merit for studying the profession they were competing for, be it engineering or medical. These rejected students are picked up by other institutes and are able to successfully complete their professional studies.
What is interesting is the fate of those who are at the base of the entrance test performance pyramid for the IITs. Most continue as B minus, C, D and F grade students. They become the guinea pigs that justify the infallibility of the meritorious nature of the joint entrance test. Let’s take a look at the students who are rejected by the merit test. They are absorbed by the other institutes. Those who marginally miss the JEE cut-off marks are the top rankers in say the Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) test. During their studies they continue to fare well. They are the recipients of A and B grades. This way they justify the meritorious nature of the DCE test. All of this proves that merit is not evaluated on the basis of the requirements of the profession; rather it is solely dependent on the race to make it to esteemed institutes. Hence, what is needed, perhaps, is a plurality of tests, spread over time.
I think it is important to be wary of the ‘key-hole’ merit tests we conduct and our obsession with quantification and test-scoring. These tests are definitely not capable of evaluating the capabilities or motivations required to become an engineer or a doctor. I cannot understand how you can pick up a potential engineer without evaluating spatial and bodily kinesthetic intelligence.
The IITs believe in continuous evaluation throughout the semesters in forming impressions about the student. In this context, it is fallacious to give undue 100 percent weightage to the JEE, irrespective of performances in the public examination, of evaluation of teachers at school, or for that matter the way a student evaluates himself or herself and demonstrates it through self-initiated activities.
Now let’s see the kind of merit that an industry looks for when selecting an engineer. It goes beyond grades and marks. It is interested in the engineer as a person, in his or her emotional IQ, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. The industry is interested in how the person responds to crises and conflicts, and whether he or she is a team performer.
The best proof of the failure of the merit-evaluating test is that the student is disenchanted with engineering by the time he / she is in the final semester. Then the student starts looking for marketing or management jobs, or wants to get into the administrative services, or simply make money.
Consider another case. Here is a student wanting to go to the US for higher studies. He / she goes for a visa interview. How does the embassy evaluate the candidate’s merit? How will it know that this is a genuine case seeking an opportunity for higher studies or whether it is a case of potential immigration?
Let’s know consider merit from the viewpoint of the democratically elected government. Investments in the IITs take an altogether new perspective. These institutions are created as autonomous institutions with taxpayer’s money, and are answerable to the Parliament. All citizens must get an advantage out of these institutions. Are these institutions creating manpower to serve this country? Or are they the breeding grounds for cheap racehorses on which multi-national companies can bet. Are these institutions defined by the ‘merit key’ available to the Delhi Public School or to the coaching institute students? Are these institutions grooming carpet baggers or Edisons and Einsteins? If not Edisons and Einsteins, then why not give opportunities to all sections of the society who are voting the government to power?
Now let’s see how merit is seen by the educational institutions in the US and Europe. They assess the candidate from a variety of viewpoints. GRE and SAT tests is one of them, performance in school another, reference from teachers and professionals still another, activities and interests yet another. To become an engineer or a scientist you don’t have to just pass a test, you have to spend all your growing up years dreaming about it and living out those dreams in sincerity.
It is time we in India bust the present meritocracy bubble and create a new framework.
Role of the Politician and the Professional:
The quota policy is not the failure of the politicians; it is the failure of the professionals. We have been misguiding the politician, and the politician out of naivety about things academic, got over-trusting. Unfortunately as professionals we have discouraged growth in the IITs, Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs) and the medical institutes. We have been too self-centered, far removed from the reality of millions of competent young people, who do not have an opportunity to study. We have striven to chase some imaginary peaks of academic performance (which has nothing to do with professional capabilities) by making the entrance test more and more difficult for an ever-increasing pool of promising candidates. Our tests specialise in rejecting young people. We do not evaluate them, nor guide or counsel them. We merely delight in rejecting them and asserting our superiority. Our glory is in how many we have rejected. We are only concerned with our small institutions and not at all with the wealth of talent available in India or the needs of the country. We have never bothered to brainstorm as to how we can build more institutions with lesser funds. Or how the same institute can run in two shifts or provide opportunities through distant education. In the process we have kept our institutions small and stunted. We have become guardians of status quo.
It is important to understand that democracy is about one person, one vote. The vote of the meritorious is as important as that of a less meritorious. A democratically elected politician has to be true to this axiom. Democracy has nothing to do with performance measured to the second decimal place; it has everything to do with taking people along, maximising hope, here and now. That is the job of a politician.
A professional’s role is very different. It has everything to do with performance, with increasing the levels of performance, and with what it takes to achieve and sustain this. We have been stupid enough not to keep things simple. And we have failed to get the most out of the least. This is what every professional must strive for, if we are to be the guardians of performance. And if we want to be listened as professionals then we must come forth with plans to provide opportunities to the multitude that we reject. It is these that we reject, as not meritorious enough, who are finally picked up by smaller institutions and honed into professionals who can effectively team and compete with the IITians and IIM graduates. Why should more taxpayer’s money not go to these small institutions?Europe and the USA do not select their meritorious students to the second decimal place of performance based on some six-hour test. Life is much bigger. The challenges are greater. And every country is blessed with talent to meet these challenges. If the professionals cannot nurture this talent then the politician must push because it has to take care of the well-being and hope within the country. The politician owes allegiance to the vote that has placed him in his position. He does not want to be ousted in a revolution at the ballot box because of which he continues to favor merit defined by a certain class to perpetuate opportunities in its favor. Social and Economic Marginalisation:
India’s vast population tends to be rendered disabled and thereby marginalised because of a variety of factors, namely;
Economic: Low daily income or purchasing power is the most important parameter in the exclusion of people from the social opportunities of advancement. It also tends to support other forms of exclusions. Economically well-off families are always able to overcome any obstacle and are able to provide the best facilities for their children.
Gender: Typing of people on the basis of gender, and thereby setting expectations and standards to their abilities, desires and wants is perhaps the most dangerous. Even though a person has the desire and potentiality, he or she can get type-casted and excluded because of gender. It often seems so very natural and is, therefore, most dangerous.
Caste ostracisation: India has been suffering a lot because of caste ostracisation. Merely because one belongs to a certain caste is seen as enough reason for exclusion. The Indian government has many schemes to contain such exclusion, yet it continues to be rampant.
Educationally excluded: When educational systems are built on certain predominant forms of intelligence then we automatically exclude children having capabilities in other forms of intelligence. Our schooling system is a very good example of this anomaly. While as a nation we may recognise achievements in art, music, sports, and theatre especially when such achievements get international attention, yet our schooling systems with board examinations continue to frustrate such creative talent. Our schooling system tends to discourage and disable children with talents other than those in the logical-linguistic domain.
Technologically excluded: We technologically exclude people from being full participants, in day-to-day life by building a physical environment that presumes only certain types of abilities. Predominance of stair cases, absence of ramps, exclusive emphasis on visual cues only while neglecting, tactile, audible, or smell can create barriers to growth. Computer illiteracy is likely to become another such barrier. Modes of transport, aids and appliances can always be designed to facilitate usage by all people with limited abilities, yet this is seldom done. Solutions are there, but the initiative is missing.
Each is worthy of attention.
Reinventing our education system:
It is time we reinvented our education system in keeping with the times. We have opened up our economy. Our manpower development strategies cannot remain closed. We have to sincerely link ourselves to a variety of challenges before us. We have to more clearly define the specific aptitude and training that is needed for these challenges. And we have to very consciously work towards it. If the US and the European universities can do it for their countries then we can do it as well. Sincerity and hard work will be needed, on our part as professionals, for becoming an inclusive society. Or else quota and reservations is the route. And there are many more categories in the waiting.
Lalit Kumar Das is the Coordinator, Industrial Design, IIT, New Delhi. This is an edited version.

you can catch this article at http://www.tehelka.com/story_main18.asp?filename=Ne070106Tehelka_debate.asp

posted by Dhana @ Saturday, July 01, 2006