Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Manu Rajan: Perils of Elitism


Yet another opinion piece on higher education and faculty salaries. This one, by Manu Rajan in The New Indian Express, questions IIX faculty's demands for higher pay for yet another reason:

The recent demand by the faculty of the government-funded Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institutes of Technology for superior pay and promotion policies, as compared to their counterparts in other universities, makes one wonder whether this degree of indulgence is proportional to the reputation an institute enjoys. Are pockets of ‘elite’ centres of learning necessarily a good idea, particularly when it is difficult to monitor their efficiency? [...]

Good teachers are scattered all across the country: scour the many government and private colleges and it is not difficult to find excellent teachers dedicated to their work. Many of our less endowed colleges could do better if they were able to avail the resources confined to the elite institutes. Is it not odd that while we talk of ‘open universities’, we are not ready to shed our love for the closed -access elite institutes housing a few privileged people who, already more advantaged, consider it their divine right to ask for even more?

Instead of hankering after ‘high rankings’ based on dubious quantitative measures for a handful of our elite institutes, the cause of India’s higher education would be better served through a fair and equitable access to research and learning resources. This, rather than the elitist approach, is more likely to lead us to producing Nobel Prize winners one day.

1 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    "Many of our less endowed colleges could do better if they were able to avail the resources confined to the elite institutes."

    Some elite institutes do provide central research facilities to other less endowed colleges.