IITs, IIMs and Quota Raj
Posted by Ashish on March 31st, 2006
Urmi Goswami has an article at the Economic Times about the potential impact of the Quota systems in the IITs and IIMs entrance examinations.
From the article:
Competition to secure admission to the IITs and IIMs is set to hot up, as reservation in these institutions is likely to increase from the current level of 22.5% to a maximum of 49.5%.
The reservation cap in central government jobs stands at 49.5% in the post-Mandal era and this could act as a ceiling for reservations in these educational institutions as well.
I try not to sound too cynical about these things but I can’t explain the real need of quota systems in the higher educations. I am regularly watching my cousin, who did his coaching for the IIT entrance from Kota and has come to stay with me while he is writing various exams, and can see the effort he is putting in the preparations by burning the midnight oil. That only reminds me of the days when I also used to do the same and can understand the frustrations in the students who are on the receiving end of this rule, if it ever bcomes one.
22.5% reservations, as it is exists, itself is too high a number for the institues of the stature of IITs and IIMs (I have every reason to believe that India has gained tremendeously because of these insitutes). Why does one need to have reservations in professional degrees? If one really needs to support the under-privileged people, why will you not do it at the primary school level? In my opinion, the idea of any quota / rservations should be to make a person ‘capable’. What these are doing instead is telling the beneficiaries “Hey, I know that it’s difficult for you to compete fairly, so I am giving you an extra push.” - I personally find it little too demeaning. And this is not to say that people who make use of this system are not good - I have personally seen many really smart people who have benefitted because of it but at the same time I have seen many people who don’t deserve to be getting those seats.
Fortunately for me, I wasn’t affected because of the reservation when I appeared in these exams but I will feel for the deserving people who will miss on the coveted seats because of the ugly reservation system. And I can only tell people like my cousin - “Work that extra hard, you just don’t have to crack a tough question paper but you also need to compete against people who have an undue advantage over you.” And on the top of that - I read that this time, there are over 300,000 students appearing for an entrance that has little over 4500 seats. That makes it a little over 65 students appearing for 1 seat - I am so glad that I was born a little earlier than those who are appearing in the exam now 
Update: My friend Sarsij has created an online petition at PetitionOnline for “Saying No to Quota systems”. If you want, you can go and sign it here.
April 1st, 2006 at 9:31 am
Really sucks for people like us .As it is you are competing against 1.5 lakh people , for getting into the IIM’s when there are only a few hundred seats.
With 50% of the seats lost to the quota system ,it just makes it twice as tough
April 2nd, 2006 at 12:32 pm
What the politicians fail to recognize or probably deliberately ignore the fact that the long term effect of these reservations is to perpetuate the alienation between the two .Reservations tend to weaken the social fabric and lead to hostilities .The mind set of youth is also poisoned .
April 3rd, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Kris, I agree with that. It’s not only bad for the aspiring students but also for:
1. Those students who make it to the prestigious institutes because of the quota and then struggle throughout.
2. The society in general. Will you not have double thoughts if you find out that the doctor you were planning to consult entered the medical school in the reserved category. I am not saying that those doctors are not good - but it’s the general perception (and some truth).
“Long term of these reservations is to perpetuate the alienation between the two” - Exactly Aunty, I couldn’t have said it better.
April 7th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Hi Ashish…..I have created an Online Petition to raise the voice against this issue [with-in my capacity]. You too can take part and [if possible] promote it : http://www.petitiononline.com/No_Quota/petition.html
-Sarsij Nayanam
April 10th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
In all this years since time immemorial Genius could not be produced. To ab khya khakh peda honge.
The reason of not being able to produce any genius till date- lies all the attempt of writing of yours.
The rule /fiefdom / dominance / hegemony of the upper caste has only resulted in india being slave to all the countries till date.
It tooked the gore log to teach all of us what life is and wat real karam means. Gore tooked rajya’s and gave us back by building the modern india. Modern india is not because of upper caste - the numerology to exist as the country (read market) / exist as a civilisation is because of the OBC, SC , ST.
Going abroad for education does not mean one is genius or for that matter if one is working abroad. Its economic mobility - nothing else. All those coming out from these premier institution, majority of the high ranker went abroad not for the work but left india for the money.
Few percentage difference does not have any consequence on overall society. Tamil brahmins left india (or were driven out) for US way back- kya koi einstien ke ird gird bhi hai kya. Stop fooling around and see india after 30 years from now. you will have generally all genius. These are the marginalised section which has survived through all hell and are the fitest (earned) to live on earth and are not by chance like the upper caste. Stop blogging.
April 21st, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Om,
you sound very kiddish….
:)
Tell me, if OBCs and SCs and STs were so “FITTEST” and “GENIUS”, then why the heck do you want reservation??????
Go For Competition, not Reservations and Quotas…!!!
And instead of crying for reservations, fight hard to eradicate this dicrimination, I bet u’ll lead a better life then!!!
Arrey even people who cant speak/see or hear can study, so why cant those who have all their body parts intact???!!! Those who dont have the will to succeed in life, no reservation in this world can help them, but yes, it’ll surely hurt those who have the will and the capability.
May 9th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
WE do not need caste based reservations where there is no discrimination on that basis,but where there is discrimination say in good number of private institutions there govt. can introduce caste based reservation.
By introducing reservation in elite institutes govt. pointing fingers at the entrance system hinting that there is discrimination on basis of caste which is simply not true. However reservation on basis of financial status is welcome upto certain extent.
I am of the opinion that merit today is a popularly mistaken concept.Merit simply means natural level of superiority of fitness of an individual to pursue a course.But today its mistaken for high scores in examinations where questions are repeated every year{In BOARD EXAMS,state level entrance tests}and coached{READ IT AS “DOPED”} candidate through this thing, so-called hard work scores high marks.What I intend to say is “ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE MEANS HIGH SCORES.BUT NOT ALL,INFACT MOST, HIGH SCORES MEAN ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE”
There are other entrance tests also for example IIT-JEE,which was meant for selecting the best brains of country, a couple of decades ago.But now see what’s happening even idiots are dreaming of making it to an IIT and what’s more disastrous is they are succeeding.THE KOTA and COACHING INFLUENCE IS SO HIGH THAT STUDENTS PACKED WITH RAW INTELLIGENCE AND JUST OUT OF SCHOOL FIND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE IT TO IIT.If the JEE today is being called monstrous because of race between JEE paper setters and these coaching institutes three components of society are responsible for it.They are:
1.MEDIOCRE STUDENTS
2.THEIR OVER ZEALOUS PARENTS
3.COACHING INSTITUTES MAKING THEIR DREAMS COME TRUE.
ALL this is resulting in creation of a crowd where it is impossible to distinguish between the powerful deserving and mediocre undeserving brains as the person who deserves to be in there must also go thru same process and in case if he chooses not to go to these rank churning cram schools,the undeserving idiot snatches his seat away.MAKING A PAPER TOUGHER IS NOT THE WAY TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN HAVE AND HAVE NOTS TILL THESE COACHING CENTRES exist. TO SUMMARIZE:”ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE MEANS HIGH SCORES.BUT NOT ALL,INFACT MOST,HIGH SCORES MEAN ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE”
and
“INTELLIGENCE DOES MEAN ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE BUT NOT ALL ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE MEANS INTELLIGENCE”
Combining both
INTELLIGENCE DOES MEAN HIGH SCORES BUT NOT ALL HIGH SCORES INFACT A BIG MAJORITY MEAN INTELLIGENCE”
April 6th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Why the heck you guys are using Khakh in your bledy article .
April 6th, 2007 at 10:23 am
I am shocked to see my surname in this article. Tell me what is the meaning of “to ab khakh pada honge”. it does not makes any sense. i should better be changed.ok………because i don’t care about your article or whatever. Khakh surname should be removed from this article.