Elite Schools in India
June 23rd, 2007
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T Thomas argues that India should create six elite schools and six elite universities,
An imaginative Prime Minister like Dr Manmohan Singh can possibly use his own advocacy and credibility to persuade, say six Indian states to build up one elite Institution in each of these states. The Central Minister for Education should then be given a timebound target to work with the select state governments to make sure that the scheme is implemented. We may soon find states vying with each other to avail themselves of this opportunity. If India can create six elite schools and six elite universities in the next five years it can snowball into a movement that will wake up even the most backward among the states to take action to spread this race of excellence.
Two things. First, I am against the idea of state investing more money in higher education sector when it has declared many times that it has no funds for primary education. Second, I remain skeptical of this idea of elite universities helping the laggards play catch up. We have always tried to build elite universities–IITs, AIIMS to give just two examples. However, no institute can maintain their standard for too long in a sea of mediocrity.
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