4 ms·

Just as India is large and complex, so is everyone's experience. 59.5% of IIT seats are reserved for backward castes - that is HUGE in a nation full of students

Just as India is large and complex, so is everyone's experience. 59.5% of IIT seats are reserved for backward castes - that is HUGE in a nation full of students competing for the 40% seats available for the general category. The entrance exam score gap between reserved and general is massive (numbers are public) and it shows in their relative academic performance. One could make an argument that the Indian Government should step in earlier (early - middle school up to high school) by funding better education to reduce the academic gap between students from backward castes and the rest. The author here if anything points to the effect of poverty/poor education in one's early years as opposed to there being a systematic campaign to exclude backward castes in academia esp in the west where hardly anybody understands the caste system. I can't speak much to academia in India though.

raincom 3y ago
No one wants to talk about the giant elephant in the room: reservation system vs. competence. Go to any govt office: the chief of some division is incompetent, some low-level clerk does the heavy lifting. Of course, this low-level clerk happens to be from non-reserved category, as both recruitment and promotions in the government are driven by reservations. Why people (both reserved and non-reserved) send their kids to private schools, techno-schools, residential-schools, IIT-schools even in small towns, small villages these days? The whole education system from primary to all the way to universities is failing: incompetent teachers abound. There was a time Indian politicians used to send their kids to colleges in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Culcutta. Now, these politicians send their kids abroad right after 12th grade, as they are not impacted. The malaise in the Indian education system is so deep: getting a job in the govt is a way to 'correct historical wrongs'; if so, why these teachers (beneficiaries of this correction) don't send their kids to these govt schools? Ask, why these people look for the best doctors for their care? Maybe, it is time to destroy IITs as well by forcing the reservation system on the faculty recruitment (equality of outcomes). That way, we can achieve the common denominator from primary to IITs. People with means (importantly politicians and intellectuals who defend reservations) can send their kids abroad for undergrad B.A/B.S, whereas 99% people are stuck with systematic malaise in the whole education system.
- isanjay 3y ago
  I agree with you. Thank you for raising the topic.
- ridiculous_leke 3y ago
  IITs? I have been hearing talks of forcing it on ISRO and private companies.
  - isanjay 3y ago
    Hopefully that won't happen.
  - thej 3y ago
    I know people don't like fact-checkers. But here is the latest recruitment advertisement[1] from ISRO. See for example page 2, job code BE005 [1] https://www.isro.gov.in/media_isro/pdf/recruitmentNotice/2023_May/Advt_CEPO_2023_Bilingual.pdf https://www.isro.gov.in/media_isro/pdf/recruitmentNotice/202...
- yedava 3y ago
  > Go to any govt office: the chief of some division is incompetent, some low-level clerk does the heavy lifting. For the majority of the time since 1947, it was the non-reserved "competent" class of people who were in charge of government institutions. Even today, I can easily walk into a government office and find some "competent" class officer whose only interest is in milking as much money as he can out of the citizenry. So what gives?
  - raincom 3y ago
    Corruption is NOT confined to one class, one caste, one set (random vs. non-random), one alumni association, one group (competent vs. incompetent). This issue is orthogonal to competence: one can be corrupt irrespective of competence. People recruited in state services (just like UPSC) are promoted to IAS/IPS. When these promoted IAS/IPS officers want postings as district magistrates (collectors) or superintendents of police for districts, the chief secretary or the DGP want bribes; otherwise, they are posted in loop-line (like special project director for land acquisition or railways SP). Add this to sycophancy in India: this sycophancy is there since Islam Rule, then continued into British Raj, now post-Independence India. Every subordinate officer, while treating his/her subordinates as trash, salutes his/her superior. Sycophancy and corruption are deeply related, and collusion between bureaucracy and politicians adds flavor to this mix.
rhuru 3y ago
[flagged]

raincom 3y ago

No one wants to talk about the giant elephant in the room: reservation system vs. competence. Go to any govt office: the chief of some division is incompetent, some low-level clerk does the heavy lifting. Of course, this low-level clerk happens to be from non-reserved category, as both recruitment and promotions in the government are driven by reservations. Why people (both reserved and non-reserved) send their kids to private schools, techno-schools, residential-schools, IIT-schools even in small towns, small villages these days? The whole education system from primary to all the way to universities is failing: incompetent teachers abound. There was a time Indian politicians used to send their kids to colleges in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Culcutta. Now, these politicians send their kids abroad right after 12th grade, as they are not impacted. The malaise in the Indian education system is so deep: getting a job in the govt is a way to 'correct historical wrongs'; if so, why these teachers (beneficiaries of this correction) don't send their kids to these govt schools? Ask, why these people look for the best doctors for their care? Maybe, it is time to destroy IITs as well by forcing the reservation system on the faculty recruitment (equality of outcomes). That way, we can achieve the common denominator from primary to IITs. People with means (importantly politicians and intellectuals who defend reservations) can send their kids abroad for undergrad B.A/B.S, whereas 99% people are stuck with systematic malaise in the whole education system.

isanjay 3y ago
I agree with you. Thank you for raising the topic.
ridiculous_leke 3y ago
IITs? I have been hearing talks of forcing it on ISRO and private companies.
- isanjay 3y ago
  Hopefully that won't happen.
- thej 3y ago
  I know people don't like fact-checkers. But here is the latest recruitment advertisement[1] from ISRO. See for example page 2, job code BE005 [1] https://www.isro.gov.in/media_isro/pdf/recruitmentNotice/2023_May/Advt_CEPO_2023_Bilingual.pdf https://www.isro.gov.in/media_isro/pdf/recruitmentNotice/202...
yedava 3y ago
> Go to any govt office: the chief of some division is incompetent, some low-level clerk does the heavy lifting. For the majority of the time since 1947, it was the non-reserved "competent" class of people who were in charge of government institutions. Even today, I can easily walk into a government office and find some "competent" class officer whose only interest is in milking as much money as he can out of the citizenry. So what gives?
- raincom 3y ago
  Corruption is NOT confined to one class, one caste, one set (random vs. non-random), one alumni association, one group (competent vs. incompetent). This issue is orthogonal to competence: one can be corrupt irrespective of competence. People recruited in state services (just like UPSC) are promoted to IAS/IPS. When these promoted IAS/IPS officers want postings as district magistrates (collectors) or superintendents of police for districts, the chief secretary or the DGP want bribes; otherwise, they are posted in loop-line (like special project director for land acquisition or railways SP). Add this to sycophancy in India: this sycophancy is there since Islam Rule, then continued into British Raj, now post-Independence India. Every subordinate officer, while treating his/her subordinates as trash, salutes his/her superior. Sycophancy and corruption are deeply related, and collusion between bureaucracy and politicians adds flavor to this mix.

rhuru 3y ago

[flagged]