Rejoinder to the Pondering over our future. Part One
My last post was meant to be a pondering… and not preaching. I did not really want to come up with a rejoinder to the post. I do not consider myself competent enough to comment on reformation of the system… but sometimes, innovations are created out of bizarre and outlandish ideas that were thought by a novice mind. So if I borrow from this talisman… I would rather choose to speak my mind in this post.
First, the stimulus…. Today, I was going through a news item that not one of the Indian Universities has made it to Top 200 Universities in the world. This is hardly surprising to me. I was born and brought up in a system that lays a huge huge premium on not committing mistakes and following the conformities… No innovation, no development of knowledge base ever takes place in such an environment.
Some examples… during my Engineering, I had a subject called Technical Writing… the teacher used to dictate us notes on how to write a Technical Report… and in the exam she wanted us to produce these dictation verbatim. I tried writing my own understanding of the subject and got 45 percent marks, others who mugged the entire thing got 90 percent…. In the last year of my engineering, I had a subject called Microeconomics… and even though I had a vastly superior knowledge of the subject and a wonderful performance in the examination, due to my interest in the subject… the teacher failed me. Why? Because one day I accidentally created a commotion in the class and that hurt his ego. These examples may be a bit lopsided… for I studied in a mofussil (a British Indian terminology for small town institutions, and therefore not the best-of-the league) Engineering College.
Some more examples from the hallowed portals of IITs (often considered the best educational institutions, India has ever produced). I did my MBA from IIT School of Management… My professor for Marketing Management religiously followed Kotler… his quizzes were verbatim production of phrases from the book… and the toppers did something very unique, they rote-learned Kotler!!!! Imagine rote-learning in Post Graduation. Another professor, who was teaching us Options and Futures rebuked me black and blue in front of the entire class for asking a simple question- why we need these instruments at the first place. Somebody may quip, that IIT does not represent the best practices of Management education… The two professors I am talking about were products of IIMs. So they should represent the best practices of Management education. In any case, few of my friends who have seen IIMs and are courageous enough to criticize their alma-mater, tell me that the impetus in IIM is on study, study and more study… Management education is often treated as an academic course than a professional course.
Something somewhere is wrong.
Cut to my recent experiences in American University in Cairo… there is absolutely nothing spectacular about the University… but its atmosphere, especially in the Arabic Language Institute. The Institute imparts Intensive Arabic Courses to Foreigners. The atmosphere is very liberal… we talk about everything under the sky… from the Egyptian domestic politics… to our personal lives… condition being, speak as much Arabic as you can. I have gone on several dinners with my teachers, talk to them as friends- joke with them… question their approach of teaching Arabic.
One teacher, Inaz Hafez used to give us worksheets for mechanical drills to practice the conjugation of verbs. I wondered that if it was a right approach… and aren’t we being too mechanical with the Arabic learning. Imagine what she does in the next class. She hands over original researches done in the West reflecting as to how Mechanical Drills are superior form of learning a new language in the initial phase…
And had it been an Indian professor, he would have butchered me alive for questioning his approach.
Coming back to the news item… follow the link given below to read the entire news item
No Indian varsity among world's top 200 universities
The news item itself is not horrifying… if we start today, within a span of 10 years we can make world class institutions… the horrifying aspect is the response of an average Indian to the news… some branding reservations as the culprit (not knowing that the best of Indian 'Universities' like IITs, AIIMS and JNU still don’t have reservations and yet they don’t figure anywhere in top 200), some questioning the report itself, some saying that the West wants to embarrass India (as if the West would ever weigh India as a bigger competitor than China!!!! 6 Chinese Universities figure in this list)… and some coming up with thefunny idea that perhaps the surveyors were Pakistanis. Some disbelieving the report because IITs and IIMs are not part of the elite club and claiming that in a neutral survey, they are bound to be in top 10. We are surely a self-congratulating society. As if 4000 years of self congratulation was not enough.
First the harsh truth- IIT and IIM are not Universities. They are at best, specialized Academic institutions… Calling them University is little too far-fetched. IIT is a glorified engineering college and IIM is a glorified Business Management school. Period!
Is it possible to study Anthropology, Media, and Literature in IITs or IIMs? Of course not! All you can study in any of the IITs or IIMs are techno-managerial courses and some other disciplines that are closely related to these flagship courses- like Industrial Sociology, Economics et al. Contrast an IIT with MIT- in MIT; one can study Media, Theatre, and Music too… Can anybody even think of doing it in an IIT? In my assessment IIM is even lower in pedestal than IIT, so better not talk about it. (Though IIM has a significant advantage over IIT, it is a melting pot for students from varying backgrounds- this ensures that the general academic atmosphere in the Institute is far more enriching- I remember, when I was doing my management – I changed the course of discussions in a class on Technology Management, by raising valid questions on evolution is Capitalism as a philosophy from Ayn Rand to John Kenneth Galbraith… my class was full of engineers and nobody could understand what I and our professor were talking about… but any such discussion in IIMs can be more anticipated because of students from varying background- Well incidentally the professor for my class of Technology Management was an alumni of Carneigie Mellon University). But compare IIM with say Chicago Business School, one of my friend studies over there... and he has the option of taking courses in International Relations, Anthropology, Media and what not.
So let's accept facts… Indian Higher education system is just not upto the mark. Because accepting it would facilitate the next step towards rectifying it.
And that is where; I have this bizarre and outlandish idea.
First, the stimulus…. Today, I was going through a news item that not one of the Indian Universities has made it to Top 200 Universities in the world. This is hardly surprising to me. I was born and brought up in a system that lays a huge huge premium on not committing mistakes and following the conformities… No innovation, no development of knowledge base ever takes place in such an environment.
Some examples… during my Engineering, I had a subject called Technical Writing… the teacher used to dictate us notes on how to write a Technical Report… and in the exam she wanted us to produce these dictation verbatim. I tried writing my own understanding of the subject and got 45 percent marks, others who mugged the entire thing got 90 percent…. In the last year of my engineering, I had a subject called Microeconomics… and even though I had a vastly superior knowledge of the subject and a wonderful performance in the examination, due to my interest in the subject… the teacher failed me. Why? Because one day I accidentally created a commotion in the class and that hurt his ego. These examples may be a bit lopsided… for I studied in a mofussil (a British Indian terminology for small town institutions, and therefore not the best-of-the league) Engineering College.
Some more examples from the hallowed portals of IITs (often considered the best educational institutions, India has ever produced). I did my MBA from IIT School of Management… My professor for Marketing Management religiously followed Kotler… his quizzes were verbatim production of phrases from the book… and the toppers did something very unique, they rote-learned Kotler!!!! Imagine rote-learning in Post Graduation. Another professor, who was teaching us Options and Futures rebuked me black and blue in front of the entire class for asking a simple question- why we need these instruments at the first place. Somebody may quip, that IIT does not represent the best practices of Management education… The two professors I am talking about were products of IIMs. So they should represent the best practices of Management education. In any case, few of my friends who have seen IIMs and are courageous enough to criticize their alma-mater, tell me that the impetus in IIM is on study, study and more study… Management education is often treated as an academic course than a professional course.
Something somewhere is wrong.
Cut to my recent experiences in American University in Cairo… there is absolutely nothing spectacular about the University… but its atmosphere, especially in the Arabic Language Institute. The Institute imparts Intensive Arabic Courses to Foreigners. The atmosphere is very liberal… we talk about everything under the sky… from the Egyptian domestic politics… to our personal lives… condition being, speak as much Arabic as you can. I have gone on several dinners with my teachers, talk to them as friends- joke with them… question their approach of teaching Arabic.
One teacher, Inaz Hafez used to give us worksheets for mechanical drills to practice the conjugation of verbs. I wondered that if it was a right approach… and aren’t we being too mechanical with the Arabic learning. Imagine what she does in the next class. She hands over original researches done in the West reflecting as to how Mechanical Drills are superior form of learning a new language in the initial phase…
And had it been an Indian professor, he would have butchered me alive for questioning his approach.
Coming back to the news item… follow the link given below to read the entire news item
No Indian varsity among world's top 200 universities
The news item itself is not horrifying… if we start today, within a span of 10 years we can make world class institutions… the horrifying aspect is the response of an average Indian to the news… some branding reservations as the culprit (not knowing that the best of Indian 'Universities' like IITs, AIIMS and JNU still don’t have reservations and yet they don’t figure anywhere in top 200), some questioning the report itself, some saying that the West wants to embarrass India (as if the West would ever weigh India as a bigger competitor than China!!!! 6 Chinese Universities figure in this list)… and some coming up with thefunny idea that perhaps the surveyors were Pakistanis. Some disbelieving the report because IITs and IIMs are not part of the elite club and claiming that in a neutral survey, they are bound to be in top 10. We are surely a self-congratulating society. As if 4000 years of self congratulation was not enough.
First the harsh truth- IIT and IIM are not Universities. They are at best, specialized Academic institutions… Calling them University is little too far-fetched. IIT is a glorified engineering college and IIM is a glorified Business Management school. Period!
Is it possible to study Anthropology, Media, and Literature in IITs or IIMs? Of course not! All you can study in any of the IITs or IIMs are techno-managerial courses and some other disciplines that are closely related to these flagship courses- like Industrial Sociology, Economics et al. Contrast an IIT with MIT- in MIT; one can study Media, Theatre, and Music too… Can anybody even think of doing it in an IIT? In my assessment IIM is even lower in pedestal than IIT, so better not talk about it. (Though IIM has a significant advantage over IIT, it is a melting pot for students from varying backgrounds- this ensures that the general academic atmosphere in the Institute is far more enriching- I remember, when I was doing my management – I changed the course of discussions in a class on Technology Management, by raising valid questions on evolution is Capitalism as a philosophy from Ayn Rand to John Kenneth Galbraith… my class was full of engineers and nobody could understand what I and our professor were talking about… but any such discussion in IIMs can be more anticipated because of students from varying background- Well incidentally the professor for my class of Technology Management was an alumni of Carneigie Mellon University). But compare IIM with say Chicago Business School, one of my friend studies over there... and he has the option of taking courses in International Relations, Anthropology, Media and what not.
So let's accept facts… Indian Higher education system is just not upto the mark. Because accepting it would facilitate the next step towards rectifying it.
And that is where; I have this bizarre and outlandish idea.
4 comments:
Well said.In India one's choice for a course is decided by what financial return it would personally bring to him in the job market.
The said cases of different professors in IIT, who fails students for raising a valid questions in the class are rotten apples in the basket.Even I remember a case of a prof. at IIT saying in front of the whole class " we IIT professors can do anything to you..and no body can touch us !!"Question-Do they deserve to be professors?....
Subrat it is not only about the Professors...
Somehow everybody has lost his or her way in our country....
From students to bureuacrats to businessman to academician... we are increasingly becoming a dysfunctional society...
Its sad to see that the ego of an academician comes from the harm he may do to his student... rather than the benefit.
It is sad to see that ego of a bureaucrat comes from the pound of flesh he can extract out of system than the contribution to the system...
There is a theory of Prismatic Sala Society by Riggs, a management thinker... according to the theory any nation undergoes this kind of flux before evolving into something better...
Perhaps we are undergoing the same flux...
Just intersted to know which country has undergone that flux in the past and now a better one.....just to validate Riggs theory
US for instance is one such place...
between 100 to 1940 US was in the worst throes of Political Corruption, Racism, Mafia Crime etc...
It went through a very painful development...
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