Saturday, September 6, 2014

Education near your doorstep

Dt:5 September 2014

Recently I had a debate with my friend over the new government decision of setting up new AIIMS and IITs all over India.
The FM in his budget said :


"We propose to set up four more AIIMS and Rs.500 crore set aside for this. The four new AIIMS will be in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Vidarbha and Purvanchal in Maharashtra," "...I also intend to set up five more IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) in Jammu, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala," "...Five more IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) would be set up in the state of Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Punjab and Maharashtra. I propose to allocate an amount of Rs.500 crore for this."

Evidently this did not go down well with the pessimistic janta in our country who felt that the money should instead have gone in developing the existing educational institutes.


For me this is very good news as I have seen these premier educational institutions set up lives of many Indian students,Each of these institutes are  globally recognized brands.Just imagine a government of India  enterprise which has gained accolades all over the world.Our doctors,engineers and  our managers are heading and aiding some of the most prestigious organizations /medical centres around the world.
Now considering the fact that we have such acclaimed institutes in India, their brand name being so powerful that they are enough to give the students graduating a kick start in their career.Who would not like to have these institutes as their alma mater. 


In 2012 around 5 lakh students aspired to be an IITian of which only 9 thousand would eventually make it.The others would eventually graduate out of lesser known institutes.They say that the quality of IITians has gone down over a period of time but that is a true phenomenon throughout the world.So my sole argument here being why not a few more of our talented kids have the prestigious opportunity to graduate out of an IIT/IIM.


Also having these premier institutes nearby (in your own state) encourages more students to excel and strive to get there.For example a student in a remote state would not dream about going to an IIT or IIM if its not in his state because his family cannot afford the hostel fees which comes with relocating to a new state.People with deep pockets may not understand this but I know many who could not pursue the education they desired cause they did not have the finance to support it.At times responsibilities mean that you cannot stay away from your home and family.Therefore its necessary to take these institutes closer to the students. Give them the options & surely they will excel.

Our Prime Minister has laid a strong emphasis on skill development and these sort of initiatives are necessary so that the best students of our country are given opportunities to affordable education at their doorstep.Quality can be improved by improving facilities and evaluation .But any spend in the education sector is a good investment for a country like ours which will have a huge number of young citizens in the yeas to come.










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