No state quota at NITs: Right or wrong??

Being a part of National Institutes of Technology -NITs (formerly REC's) , I had a proud tag on my resume. The reason being NITs are a standout for India's cultural diversity among other colleges for around 40 years since its inception. The present step from the government to remove the State -wise quota would take its sheen and make them no longer 'diversity-studded' NITs as we knew them to be. I had personally been through the emotions of being in these institutes and sailing through the various kinds of cultures that India boasts of itself to the outside world. I am not undermining the purpose of this step, as this is supposed to have proper merit-based entry into the system. Its true to its purpose but its causing an alarm elsewhere.........Where???...........Its mocking at the very purpose of why these NITs were formed in the system.

For some reason or so, I felt our politicians just after Independence had more clarity of thought and vision than our "old” politicians of the "new" age. Jawaharlal Nehru had clear purpose when he formed IITs to stand out for Technical excellence (Which they were until recently, till a gentleman from HRD ministry infused India's age old practise of grouping people based on their virtual portfolios) and NITs or RECs to stand out for an "all-India" character (With people from all states forming a small chunk of the total pie at every NIT) and churning out intelligent people for serving the nation in successive five year plan periods. Every NIT were functioning with 50% of students from the same state and rest of the 50% comprised from other states. The motive was plain and simple: people from various states and various cultures should mingle so that the memory footprint of every student there expands from his "own" state to "the entire nation" on the whole.

I cherish the four years in a college like NIT. The entire mood then was very refreshing. Every department had at least a guy from each state. Each state had an opportunity to organize their regional festival at the college level. The overall feel was one can constantly interact with people from various cultures. In doing so, the mindset improved. From whatever I have seen very few others in India get this opportunity to break the cultural divide in their minds. I am not saying this is there in our minds due to a harsh reason but this is partly due to ignorance and partly due to vast geographical stretch in the country. And NITs were serving as a terrific play ground to inter twine these complexities into one, to take some geographical barriers out of our minds….. It’s a feel which I hope most NITians would agree. The real platform for all these to happen was through having a state-wise quota.

The admissions till few years back remained as: State wise entrance exams. State wise rank holders get into the NITs. Looking at the current developments after RECs were Christened as NITs and the admission processes changed from state wise entrance exams to All-India entrance exam. The effect: Not many state folks are seen. Certain states with higher standard of education have a major crunch of people at every NIT. Students are mostly filled with 4-5 states. Major chunk is coming from the same state itself. NITs have been christened as “National” but in actuality became “regional”. Breaking the very purpose can never be a solution to a problem.

Continuing with the state-wise quota remained logical though it had a flip side to it. Having an All India entrance exam for admissions into NITs sounded both good and bizarre to me, good becoz the standard of exam for all the students is the same and bizarre becoz underlying higher secondary exams at various states vary from the lowest to the highest grade relative to the AIEEE exams. So naturally there were some states whose highest ranker would be standing some where closer to the last ranker of some other state......This was bound to happen as not every state board has the same level. This ended up with ranker 50 say getting paired with 15000 in the same group. A sort of serious mismatch in numbers but not in quality as I have seen and as many would agree. In fact, there was never a mismatch actually felt with the original system either through state-level exams.

The problem came up here as one, not becoz of the original state-wise quota (This had a very strong motive to be in place) but because of having a common exam of a certain standard and having various standards at the underlying level itself. This is now a sensitive issue as it could lead to a discussion of why to continue with vastly varying rank nos, or why to compromise on standards and stuff… I am not insisting on any of these. The only underlying concern that I have we are missing the infusion of various states at one place.

I am not against the opinion of increasing the standard of education in the country. But it cannot come at the cost of losing diversity in institutions like NITs. There are certainly other educational alternatives to the one that is currently taken.