Education News-1: Selection of Students for IITs
(Excerpt from e-mail received on August 25, 2008 from Mr.Subbiah Arunachalam)
I read the brief note by Prof. Indiresan on what needs to be done to improve selection of students for IITs and make the selection more egalitarian.
"The preponderance of candidates from coaching classes denies admission to better candidates who are too poor to afford private coaching." [Very true. Dr P M Bhargava, former director of CCMB, often tells us that we draw our scientists and engineers from a small fraction of India's gene pool. And I agree with him. I have met many first generation graduates, whose parents had not completed even middle school education, going on to win Bhatnagar prizes and getting elected to prestigious academies. The numbers of such people would have been much smaller had there not been programmes of affirmative action in place.]
The solution suggested, viz. "IITs should first identify good schools and let those schools do the shortlisting for them." would also filter out poor students. In our perception today, schools like Modern and Delhi Public School (to take two examples from the capital) are "good". No poor child can enter the portals of such schools.
There is a passing remark on IITs being possibly better off than some recognised US universities: " World class universities like Harvard and Stanford get 10-11 applications for each available seat. It would appear that IITs are much better off with their ratio of 70:1." The large numbers of applications in India can be attributed to factors like our large population, parental and peer pressure and the scarcity economics in education. At Harvard and Stanford, it is likely that only those who have a reasonable chance apply.
Grateful thanks to Mr.Subbiah Arunachalam.
(Excerpt from e-mail received on August 25, 2008 from Mr.Subbiah Arunachalam)
I read the brief note by Prof. Indiresan on what needs to be done to improve selection of students for IITs and make the selection more egalitarian.
"The preponderance of candidates from coaching classes denies admission to better candidates who are too poor to afford private coaching." [Very true. Dr P M Bhargava, former director of CCMB, often tells us that we draw our scientists and engineers from a small fraction of India's gene pool. And I agree with him. I have met many first generation graduates, whose parents had not completed even middle school education, going on to win Bhatnagar prizes and getting elected to prestigious academies. The numbers of such people would have been much smaller had there not been programmes of affirmative action in place.]
The solution suggested, viz. "IITs should first identify good schools and let those schools do the shortlisting for them." would also filter out poor students. In our perception today, schools like Modern and Delhi Public School (to take two examples from the capital) are "good". No poor child can enter the portals of such schools.
There is a passing remark on IITs being possibly better off than some recognised US universities: " World class universities like Harvard and Stanford get 10-11 applications for each available seat. It would appear that IITs are much better off with their ratio of 70:1." The large numbers of applications in India can be attributed to factors like our large population, parental and peer pressure and the scarcity economics in education. At Harvard and Stanford, it is likely that only those who have a reasonable chance apply.
Grateful thanks to Mr.Subbiah Arunachalam.
