{"id":797,"date":"2014-10-06T19:30:41","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T14:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital-banjara.com\/blog\/?p=797"},"modified":"2014-11-19T10:43:29","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T05:13:29","slug":"mediocrity-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digital-banjara.com\/blog\/mediocrity-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"Mediocrity is the new excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excellence is being replaced by mediocrity\u2026 and we\u2019re OK with that?<\/h2>\n

\u201cThere are lies, damned lies\u2026 and then there are statistics.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A famous quote by Mark Twain which, in my view, continues to hold sway across the world.<\/p>\n

Through history, leaders, politicians, businessmen\u2026 well almost everyone quotes statistics to back their decisions and actions. And nowhere is it more pronounced, than in present day India.<\/p>\n

We have a new government. We have new hopes and aspirations.<\/p>\n

But unfortunately, populist and so-called positive actions, are being tom-tommed to overshadow some fundamentally wrong thinking.<\/p>\n

An article in the Times of India corroborates this. (click here)<\/a><\/p>\n

It is easy, in the euphoria of positive sentiment, to overlook small mistakes that will mushroom into bigger issues later.<\/p>\n

While the stated intention of this action is to make education more accessible to a larger base of students, this only lowers the entry bar. It does not create more seats or opportunities to cater to any additional students.\u00a0All that this action will achieve, will be to lower the benchmark of achievement.<\/p>\n

And when this happens in the premier engineering institution in India, we are actually improving our statistics, not by providing better education, but by lowering the level of education, so that a higher number of people can \u2018qualify\u2019 for admission at the IITs.<\/p>\n

At the same time, India is gearing up to compete with the world. Gone are the days, when the rest of the world turned a blind eye to our \u2018Chalta Hai\u2019<\/em> attitude.<\/p>\n

We are increasingly\u00a0expected to compete globally, on global terms.\u00a0We will need to increase our output. We will need to improve our ROI. We will need to personify excellence, dependability and represent world-class products and services.<\/p>\n

For a while now, we have been facing a double-edged sword of demographic dividend.\u00a0We have the world\u2019s largest youth population. And this population needs education to improve their employability.<\/p>\n

The steps taken today, will decide whether this lot of youth will lead India into becoming the superpower of tomorrow, or into a state of anarchy.<\/p>\n

Against such a backdrop, lowering the bar among the top institutes would only lead to an acceptance of sub standard\u00a0performance benchmarks.\u00a0And this acceptance will eventually work against us, our reputations and our attractiveness\u00a0to\u00a0global businesses, for\u00a0creation of employment opportunities here.<\/p>\n

We wish\u00a0to change the image of being the back office of the world. But the actions we are taking betray an unwillingness to change the status quo.<\/p>\n

How can we achieve the \u2018Make in India\u2019 dream, if we do not nurture and create brilliant minds that can take this dream forward?<\/p>\n

There are two ways to show an improvement in performance.\u00a0The first is to create quality education opportunities for a larger number of students. The second is to redefine what constitutes achievement.<\/p>\n

The latter is the easier way out. And unfortunately the decisions being made in lowering educational norms, instead of increasing the capacity for quality education, seem to fit firmly into this line of thought.<\/p>\n

Yes, it would help to improve the statistical presentations made by the powers that be, in presenting their impact analysis to the citizens of this country. But, it would also set off a time-bomb, which will explode in the faces of its makers, in the near future.<\/p>\n

To quote Isaac Newton\u2026 \u2018Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.\u2019<\/p>\n

I sincerely hope that we, as Indians, will be able to deal with the reactions to\u00a0these actions.<\/p>\n

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