Hello All,
Most of the topics on
which I have written in this Blog are the direct outcome of encounters with unique thoughts either triggered or suggested through encounters with individuals,
incidents or by watching TV or while reading. For the last
couple of days I was busy getting
write-ups ready for posting in
a Blog created exclusively for an
International Conference on Standards
and Benchmarks for Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Research.
Please view http://aiaerconference2015.blogspot.in/
One of the invited Plenary Speakers for
the Conference, was Dr.
Achuth Sankar S. Nair, Professor and Head (in charge), Department of
Bioinformatics, University of Kerala. The talk mode in which Dr.Sankar
delivered his lecture prompted me to post the notes which I prepared while listening, in this Blog…
Incidentally, I have had the
opportunity of listening to this erudite but thoroughly unassuming gentleman-scholar,
Dr. Achuth Sankar, speak on several
occasions. His unique ability to put across ideas which make us ponder on them,
I must admit, is simply superb!
Dr. Sankar began his theme talk lamenting our urge for ‘casual judgment’ when it comes to assessing
Quality…. For instance, there is
great window dressing when the NAAC Peer Team visits educational institutions for
assessment. It can sometimes
reduce itself to our competing
with a
neighbouring institution. This
was illustrated with a fine local
metaphor:
Sometimes the
coconut tree in your backyard may be
yielding a crop of five coconuts once in two months, while
your neighbour’s may be yielding
only three coconuts. You may be feeling
elated at the fact that yours is a superior coconut tree compared to
your neighbours… But throughout your life you would be oblivious of the fact
that hardly 25 Kilometres away from the
place you live, coconut trees are yielding
25 coconuts every two months!
Once Dr.Sankar had
asked the Principal of the College
of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, how good is the college? Well … the
Principal stated…Its doing quite well….Last year the placement was 90% and this
year it is 95%.... But Dr.Sankar knew
for certain that numbers do not
reflect Quality….because almost one hundred percent of the Civil Engineering
graduates of the college were recruited by
the IT industry where the
knowledge and expertise they gained in
the course about construction of bridges
and skyscrapers are never ever utilized!
Yet another conveniently
ignored aspect relates to
campus politics… Neither the
University nor our highly politically
conscious student population have ever noticed the following statistics of the University of
Kerala :
85% of the students studying for different courses are women.
52% of the PhD’s produced by the University are by women.
45% of the faculty of the University
are women.
A vast majority of the staff of the
Office of the University are women.
And 100% of the librarians are women…
Yet for both College Union and
University Union elections the Vice Chairperson seat is reserved exclusively for
women!!
Dr.Sankar also pointed out the
rather primitive approach to treating
cases of malpractice in examinations…An
erring student is always perceived as a
criminal while proper counseling would have been a more meaningful option…
Spiced with humour, the great Indian tradition and the ‘Gurukula system’ came up for scrutiny too, during the talk:
*’Professor Sandipini’ used to take a
noon nap, resting his head on the thighs
of his endearing student, Krishna while yet another amiable student, Kuchela would be pressing the feet of the guru.
*’Professor Parusurama’ is reported to have dismissed his exemplary student Karna for producing a false ‘upper caste’
certificate.
*’Professor Dronacharya’ had demanded
the thumb of his brightest pupil, Ekalavya, because he had already decided to award the first rank to his favourite upper
caste student, Arjuna.
Imagine a modern day teacher emulating the great
gurus of ancient times!...We have to
draw the best from our great tradition and adapt it to suit the present age…
In Kerala, caste-based schools were started decades ago, such that every community
now has
a school. And today we have 58 lakh seats
for a student population of 38
lakh…Yet the policy of reservation of
seats continue….
It took over three hundred years for a Black man to
become the president of the United States….but in Kerala University, it took only 40 years to give an
opportunity for representatives from
different communities to hold several high level posts in the University. It is
indeed admirable, opined Dr.Sankar…so
shall we not focus on Quality henceforth
, instead of Equality!
Please feel free to offer your comments…
