HRD Offers an Olive leaf to end stalemate

It is the 24^th of June 2012 and there is no solution in sight. Senates of IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi have decided to conduct their own entrance exams and argue that IIT Council is only an advisory body and it is up to the Senates to accept IIT Council Proposal or not. HRD Minister has offered an olive leaf by suggesting that instead of weightage to Board exam marks, why not consider taking the top 20 or 30 from each board result and allow only these kids to sit for the common entrance exam.

Media Reports today suggest “ a compromise formula which includes a proposal to take top 20-30 students based on percentile ranking of respective boards for preparing the merit list”

How pathetic & meaningless is this solution ?. Higher education in India will become the domain of the school toppers and children of affluent parents and we wonder why half a million students leave India to study undergraduate courses overseas; children who will never return to a country that shunned them.

Is this is what we call inclusive in RTE ?.

Shubhashis Gangopadhyay writes: “Inclusive education does not mean that everyone must enter, or pass out from, an IIT. It only means that if you wanted to, you could have a shot at it. The child labourer is excluded because she can never dream of entering an IIT; she may absolutely hate IIT, but not trying to join an IIT should be her decision.

Even if there is only one IIT train, every child must have access to the platform where the train comes. Of course, not everyone will get on to the train but everyone knows what to do to have a shot at the train. This is called inclusion in education.

Everyone must go to school till class 12; those who work hard, and are willing to work harder still, will join an IIT. Others will, by choice, decide not to work that hard and become economists.”

I am glad I am not alone and some one else understand what inclusive education is.

All children are born equal and yet mindless politicians are trying to grade the children and youth of the nation, citizens of tomorrow, and want to create a new Brahamanical Caste system in Education, which is pandering to the neo rich who can afford to send their children to elite private schools and Coaching schools.