Rama Bijapurkar: Inclusion not elitism, please
Rama Bijapurkar / March 20, 2010, 0:53 IST
The Foreign Universities Bill is puzzling for two reasons: One, it
proposes that a business operating in India can be exempt from the
letter and spirit of the prevailing laws of the land on the grounds
that the owner is foreign (pharmaceutical companies would love for
that to be applicable to their industry too!); and two, this proposed
exemption from reservations comes from a government that is otherwise
very, very clear about its position — and walks its talk — on the
inclusion of backward classes and economically-weaker sections into
educational institutions. The same government, not too long ago,
demonstrated, in words and deeds, its passionate belief that everyone
should have a reasonable shot at getting the best possible education —
it made haste to enable, and with an iron hand, even supervised
implementation of a speedy inclusion of other backward classes (OBCs),
in addition to that of scheduled castes/scheduled tribes (SCs/STs),
into all institutions of higher learning. With this Bill, it seems to
be saying to the backward classes that, "Well, the best from the West
is not for you, the home-grown is good enough for you." Need-blind
admissions and financial aid do not automatically solve the inclusion
problem — the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has
explained this to us at length several times.
Here is a sad scenario that is very likely to be played out if this
Bill in this form goes through: With no price controls and
reservations, and with shackled Indian competition that has not just
these but other controls, like the one on teachers' salaries, foreign
entrants will be able to build a viable business, offering superior
quality to consumers. Before we burst into applause about the magic of
competition, let's think of all constituencies. Better quality will
happen for the better classes of consumers, and the rest will have to
suffer the collateral damage — an even more depleted, poorer quality,
government-shackled institutions, as the better-quality students and
faculty gravitate to the new entrants. Thus we go back to rich
kid/forward-class preserves and poor kid/backward-class ghettos. As
several ministers in the MHRD have repeatedly reminded us in the
context of IITs and IIMs, young India deserves better than an elitist
education policy that excludes most of them.
Competition certainly increases the quality and reduces prices as we
have seen since 1991. But, that only happens with a free market with
an intense free competition. A government-meddled and -muddled "free
market" that is free only in parts, and governed by different laws for
different players, causes the kind of swampy mess that takes a long
time and several lost generations to emerge from. Young India deserves
better.
Some people say that this Bill is not a big social-fabric-changing
phenomenon that we should worry about, but just a small signalling
favour done to a few favourite universities — so why protest? Either
way, the principle of a government-sponsored, warped and elitist
ecosystem is unacceptable. That was the spirit in which all the
political parties got together and passed the OBC reservation Bill —
in fact, with far more unity and enthusiasm than seen in the case of
the Women's Reservation Bill.
The perspective that this article seeks to provide will not be
complete without tabling three issues: The government's relentless
operational control of existing institutions of higher learning has
left them in a severely weakened condition; the recent spate of
several policy initiatives by the MHRD is moving in the direction of
even more government control in education; improving an existing
system means widespread capacity and capability improvement for the
benefit of all, not the creation of a high-quality island for some.
Existing institutions of higher learning are in a very bad shape. To
say to such institutions "you too can go abroad and compete if you
wish" is foolish. They are at the end of their tether, and struggle to
produce the quality they do, with incredible jugaad and a few good men
and women who have chosen to stay on and keep the ship afloat. Their
newest struggle is to cope with the sudden increase in scale and the
pedagogical challenges as a result of the implementation of the OBC
reservation. Over time, just as there is a flight of good capital from
controlled markets, there has been a flight of talent from such
institutions' teaching staff, whose salaries have been severely
controlled. The honourable minister for HRD has been quoted in the
press as saying that teachers don't care about more money, they just
want decent housing and good schools for their kids. The fact is that
like other members of their social class in India, they too aspire for
one hell of a lot more. Many of these institutions need to be
unshackled, need to be mended for the damage done to them so far, and
then be told to compete or die. Simpler still, if the government gets
out of micro-managing them now, the rest will follow. Perhaps some of
them will even offer a "stake" to one of the foreign entrants that
wants to come in.
The Bill must be amended to make businesses that seek to profit from
the highest potential youth market in the world fulfil legislated
social obligations. The MHRD must see its role as one of giving
direction and not directions on all manner of operational issues; and
do some serious work and frame a well-thought-through policy for a
sensibly and responsibly regulated free-market education with one set
of rules for all.
The author is an independent market strategy consultant
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