Does India need new IITs? Is it quality vs. quantity?

The announcement of Indian government to open five more new IITs has created a buzz among people. Most of the common people are seeing it as a decision to eradicate the dearth of quality higher education technical institutes, for odds of a student getting a seat in any of the IITs and ISM, Dhanbad is less than 0.8% (not to forget some new IITs, which by no means, can be called ‘Quality Institutes’). On the other hand, most of the students and alumnus are comprehending this decision it as a threat to the brand IIT.

Many people are contemplating this decision as quality versus quantity. Some are saying that the sheen of brand IIT will tarnish because now less intelligent, less talented and low-ranked students will get the prestigious IITian tag. But is it really true? Do IITs still flourish the most brilliant minds of our country?  Do all IITians still have the same veneration and status in society as they had had only 7-8 years ago? Answer to all these questions is NO. Chances of getting admission in an IIT are infinitely increased if you are born in some particular caste. 50% students of IITs are from reserved categories. One may simply understand by looking at cut-offs that these 50% students are not that talented and are not of the level of general category students. One may argue about their hidden and creative talent or their passion and desire of getting admission in IITs, but the fact is they have not been able to match the performance of the rest 50% students. The selection criteria are completely different depending on one’s caste. Would these 50% students ever get a chance of studying in IITs had they not been born in their caste? A student getting 70 marks, another one getting 120 and a more hard-working student getting 170 marks study the same course in the same institute, but a student getting 150-155 doesn’t get admission anywhere. Where is the quality in all this process?

Quality is a very nice word to read. India really needs quality in every zone if it is to become a developed nation. But the policy-makers of our country don’t like this very word. They have been preferring caste over quality from the time the caste based politics came into existence. All that matters to them is appeasement of castes or categories and vote bank, and it’s not going to change till the end of caste based politics. Many people who work hard do not get what they desire only because they have taken birth in General Category. But the people who have less knowledge, work less and consequently perform worse eat the cake baked by others.

Keeping in mind that quality is not the first priority to grab a seat in a good institute or land a government job, we should now think again over this decision. If more Institutes are opened or more jobs are created, more talented people who have not got any dais to unveil their potential due to their caste will be benefited. By that way some reserved categories will definitely get seat or job after scoring even lesser marks, but that should not bother much. We should make sure that not a single talent is wasted even if we are obliged to include some less talented ones. This is not limited to the context of opening educational institutes, but it is valid for every area where caste overshadows talent.

Quality has already been diluted to such an extent that increasing quantity will do no further harm to it. But increasing quantity would provide opportunities to unfairly treated sections/General Category of our society.