Will things change?

Pratap Bhanu Mehta has written a wonderful column today in Indian Express. Touching stuff.The worst part is that this could have been written 20 years ago, and it would still have reflected the reality then ( except the hopeful part, where he expects the expanding economy to provide opportunities, something no one could have told us when we were younger.)

With the cut-off marks for admissions rising, it is hard to know what genuine consolation to give to thousands of disappointed students. We can say to them: don’t interpret your inability to get into a college of your choice as your personal failure. It is our collective failure. Obdurate politicians, control-freak bureaucracies, insecure academics, ideas of social justice conceived in bad faith, the poverty of our imaginations, and our preference for control over freedom, levelling over distinction, have all conspired to ensure that you get very few choices. Consequently, that half an extra mark seems life-defining.

Time to move the placement calendar ?

The placement season on most engineering campuses begin in the month of June. By September the majority of the batch is placed. These students are expected to join their jobs in the month of June the following year. This essentially translates to companies having to forecast their man power requirements 9 to 12 months ahead.
The 2001 US Technology slowdown prompted quite a few software companies to defer their job offers (or sometimes even rescind). The US recovery that year was quick, and life was back to normal. The 2008 job scene may be a lot different. I expect more companies to rescind (or defer for longer than 6 months).

For the current batch, nothing much can be done. For the future batches, I hope they move their placement calendar to Mar-Jun i.e. the tail end of the eighth semester. This should hopefully mitigate the problem of deferred/rescinded jobs. If the jobs scene is bad, at least the students will get an early heads up and can then invite more companies for placement.

Disclosure vs License permit raj

Business Standard today has a wonderful editorial on higher education. This is the first time that I have heard of any one advocating a disclosure based approach to institutions of higher education.

The basic idea is straight forward. Instead of the mandarins of the HRD & its affiliates deciding who should offer, what courses, to whom and for what consideration, it is left to consumers of education to decide. To enable the consumer to make a rational choice, the editorial calls for disclosures from institutions that offer education. The idea has been borrowed from the Indian capital markets, which has moved from a restrictive Controller of Capital issues to a SEBI mandated disclosure rules for companies raising money in the capital markets. And the results are there to see.

Who is the Knowledge Commission working for ?

From Zee News: Knowledge Commission against inviting foreign universities

The move to invite foreign universities to offer education in India today came under attack from Vice Chairman of National Knowledge Commission P M Bhargava who said it would lead to commercialisation of higher education.

"This move is to commoditise education. Education is not at all a commodity," Bhargava said at the seminar on "Education Commission: Revisiting the Commission's Premises, Vision and Impact on Policy Formulation," organized by National University National University of Education Planning and Administration here.

What is commoditization? Wikipedia has two answers. (It redirects commoditization to Commodification)

• In the business world, commodification is process that transforms the market for a unique, branded product into a market based on undifferentiated price competition. Consumers usually benefit from commodification, since perfect competition usually leads to lower prices.

• In Marxist political economy, commodification takes place when economic value is assigned to something that traditionally would not be considered in economic terms, for example, an idea, identity, gender.

I presume Dr. Bhargava did not mean the first option. So let us assume that he was using "commoditise" in the Marxian context. In simple terms this boils down to higher education being a public good & hence needs to be supported out of Governmental revenues.

Given that in India, access to even secondary education is extremely limited, [Refer page 5 of Secondary Education in India - Investing in the future By Wu & Dar] this subsidized higher education is unlikely to reach the bottom quintile and more likely to be grabbed by the middle class & the rich. So why is the Knowledge Commission fighting for the rich & middle class?

From the same article

"I strongly oppose the move of Commerce Ministry to invite the foreign universities into the country," he said.

Bhargava said the move will facilitate the second grade and third grade universities in abroad to come and set up their shops here.

"No good university will come. The second grade and third grade university will come and make profits in the name of quality education," he told a news agency later.

We have heard this story before. Remember the early 90's stories of Indian software engineers only working on low end maintenance projects? Or the early 2000 stories that only low end call center work is outsourced to India? What Dr. Bhargava says is likely to happen. The first that will test the waters are going to be younger educational institutions, those that have little to lose & a lot to gain. The Ox-Bridge/ Ivy Leagues will come in much later. But why should we quibble? Does the color of the cat matter as long as it catches the mice? If the new entrants offer value, they will have a market. If not, they will need to go back to the drawing board and rework their India strategy. Any one who is under the mistaken belief, that all a foreign university needs to do is to set shop in India and every one will flock to it, needs to read about the struggle of MTV, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Pizza Hut etc. to gain market share in India. India is an extreme value conscious market. You need to get your value proposition right to crack the market and the same will apply to higher education.

Who is the Knowledge Commission helping by keeping out foreign Universities? The immediate gainers are our private colleges, mostly owned by our ruling elite. They can continue getting away with providing third rate education in a controlled environment. The biggest losers are our middle class students ( who can't afford to study abroad) , our Professors ( who have fewer employment opportunities ) & our nation as the rich opt to study abroad spending over Rs 3000 Crores a year. So is the Knowledge Commission working to help India's elite maintain their stranglehold on education business?

PS : If Dr Bhargava is speaking in his personal capacity, then I would like to know why he thinks education should not be "commoditised" but egg/sperm donation can be ?

Cap on College Fees

A couple of days back I had commented that the Indian education system was in such a bad state, that a very large percentage of those that emerge from it can't reason. They can remember, but can't apply. Refer to the India Today Report . Here is another example of that.

The Hindu reports that the AP Government is planning to restrict the fees charged by Corporate Colleges & I see the congratulatory messages on this brilliant move pouring into news papers like Deccan Chronicle.

Can't these people see that if you successfully cap prices ( the previous attempt was unsuccessful as these colleges found a loophole), either supply will disappear, or will be of inferior quality? These corporate colleges are in the business of education. Recognize that ! You squeeze their profits, they just move to a different business and you will be stuck with finding "good" colleges for yourself / your kid(s). Of course if you are an offspring of the ones making these laws or the ones holding the pen to sign them, you can get a seat in the few colleges that would remain by using your pop's/mom's influence. For the rest of the folks, get ready to face enormous pressure to secure good marks in your 10th standard exam.

And anyone who thinks that with the kind of fees mentioned below they still will have a college to go to is living in a dream world..

Prescribed fee

He said that tuition fee of Rs. 451 and Rs. 495 had been prescribed for the first and second year for 2006-07 in private aided junior colleges and Rs. 903 and Rs. 993 for the first and second year in private unaided/cooperative junior colleges.

Here is a back of pad calculation
Lets say you need a student teacher ratio of 30 to have some semblance of an education. So even if all the money paid by the students goes towards teacher's salary, the teacher's salary would be a princely sum of 993*30= 29,790 a year or a monthly salary of Rs 2,482. And you expect some one to teach you 11th & 12th standard subjects for a salary less than what an average house maid in the city makes ?

And people still find this move something to congratulate the government about ?

A tale of two approaches to governing

Here is a news article about CET being abolished. From the looks of it the Tamil Nadu Government is planning to do that this year.

Here is another news article about 12th Standard marks being given weight age for determining your Engineering/Medical entrance ranks. This is planned for 2009.

Irrespective of whether either of the above decisions are right or wrong, what I like is the way in which the AP government is going about implementing this system. It has given enough notice to the student community, of over three years atleast for them to be prepared . All those who are still studying in 10th, can go about choosing their college taking this extra requirement into view.

Whereas if you are a student in Tamil Nadu, you still don't know if you need to study for the entrance test or concentrate only on your 12th Standard even for the current year.

Wish more Governments set a clearly drawn timetable when they propose big changes, not just in education, but in other areas too