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IITs and IIMs: Excellence is not exclusivity

It takes courage to face the truth. But for the man telling that truth, it calls for the ability to swim against the current, brave the scorn of the powerful and perhaps only wait for history’s vindication. This is the situation that Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi finds himself in today.

Today, the privileged top five per cent of the population — who confuse “privilegocracy” with meritocracy — would have liked the government to continue looking the other way even as its institutions merrily deviate from national social objectives. Besides, there is something fundamentally irrational in the argument for the “autonomy” of IITs and IIMs.

These institutions have been touted as “islands of excellence”. Granted. But what is forgotten is that they were also an expression of a national vision and reached where they are today with government support and protection. Now is the time to consolidate and go to the next step: by introducing the same degree of excellence in more and more engineering and management institutes so that a larger section of the population can benefit.

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I agree with what you say that we should make sure that the benefits reach the masses and we should take IIT's to next level. What I don't agreee is that you are trying to kill a system that is working wonderfully. You should not kill a system which is excellent, but learn of the system and take the knowledge to the masses, for that you have to define an entirely new system which can me monitored by the veterans of the existing system and also make sure that the existing system also is given more scope to expand it horizon.

And the most important thing is that, you need to work on the basics of the education that is taking the grass root education to more people out there and make sure that these people can dream about getting into the elite institutions that you are talking about. Its the people who can dream that can go forward and build a nation of more prosperity. Don't fuss about the higher education, if you got will take the 100% grass root education challenge and go for it and make sure that the elite institutions participate in that vision.