I happened to watch the movie “Arakshan” (Hindi, 2011; translation: “reservation”) recently. As it also happens, the movie is banned in some states in India as it deals with the touchy subject of reservation (“affirmative action”) in public-funded educational institutions. While the movie itself is watchable at best, the title is actually misleading. The movie is a lot less about reservation. Rather, it underscores learning as the main outcome of an education and how the current tide of commercialized education and its diluted standards will cheapen its worth for everyone. A telling sequence in the movie shows the owner of one such commercial instution advertising to prospects that their degrees were guaranteed as long as students paid their way. The movie chronicles one educator who holds his ground against that tide.
The topic is important not just in India. PBS Frontline took this on in their “College Inc” in 2010 which ”explores the tension between the [for-profit higher education] industry –which says it’s helping an underserved student population obtain a quality education and marketable job skills — and critics who charge the for-profits with churning out worthless degrees that leave students with a mountain of debt.”
The movie brought forth some memories of IIT Delhi especially as it relates to the purpose of an education and what shortcuts in the system can do. My Mechanical Engineering class at IIT Delhi was quite adept at taking short cuts on the road to learning. To the point that one professor of a core course on power plant design had a note pasted in his office with the words “P.A.S.E.R” and this handy translation: ”Paper Amplication of Simulated Experimental Results”. I suppose he had seen generations of Mechanical Engineers simply copying someone else’s lab reports, adding some randomization to those results and calling it their own. Each lab session for this course was followed by a viva -an oral examination in which the student had to discuss the experiment they had conducted and his/her insights thereof. I remember one viva where the professor shouted in exasperation if the student that he was interviewing had even been to the lab and seen a steam plant at work. I suppose the paper amplications of this student had accomplished experimental results unachievable by the science of steam.
In my time, some students made these types of choices. Others came to IIT to learn. Cynics might point out that the PASER crowd probably did well in life. After all, someone good at PASER could arguably be said to have had a generous dose of streetsmarts as well. Probably. But, I would sleep better if I knew that the power plant in my neighborhood was designed by a non-PASER individual. Trust me, at some point, when it matters to you, you too will prefer to deal with a non-PASER type.
