Don’t humiliate Pak
LThe Times Higher Education World
ast week,
brought out its university rankings for 20162017. This is a list that all aspiring universities of the world watch, because it tells students which University is among the best. This list covered 980 top universities in the world.
Only 31 Indian educational institutions managed to secure a place on this list. Neighbouring China did much better. It saw 51 of its educational institutes get listed here. But the shame goes deeper. There was a time when the IITs secured a place among the top 100. Today, they rank below 351. And their rankings continue to slip.
In sharp contrast, look at China. Even though it began its pursuit of colleges of excellence much after India did, today it boasts of better and numerically larger number of excellent educational institutions. More significantly, Chinese institutes manage to improve their rankings year after year.
Watch the list (a fuller list can be viewed in the web-version). Unlike India, the list features an entire spectrum of educational institutes: polytechnics, medicine, oceanography, petrochemicals, mining and agriculture. There are several reasons why China has continued to excel, while India has continued to fall in rankings.
First, China pursues excellence in a more focused manner than India does. It hires the best teachers in the world, pays them fees comparable with the best institutes worldwide. It measures incentives based on national requirement, and outcomes. India has not followed such policies.
Second, China ensures that the quality of students that gain admission to its higher education centres is extremely high. It ensures this through two measures:
(a) It focuses on quality school education and it boasts of 95% literacy. After all, no college can be expected to upgrade students who have had 10-12 years of rotten school education. India has seen its school education
political leaders have only mouthed condemnation and done nothing else. Otherwise, it is business as usual for Pakistan. BJP leaders do not know how to deal with Pakistan. An all-out war with Pakistan will spell doom for Dalal Street as the Sensex will plunge to less than 5,000 index, and all the FDI will move out of this country. The best option is to fortify our defences and foil such attempts in the future. — Biju Cherian While Uri attack should be condemned, India cannot try to demolish Pakistan as a nation or humiliate it amongst the comity. While India has taken up the Balochistan cause as a deterrent to Kashmir, the whole matter can be settled if Pakistan stops interfering in Kashmir. India should back out from Balochistan. We must discuss this matter at SAARC. Mutual co-operation and coexistence is the only way for a durable relationship between both the countries. Nuclear wars will eliminate people of both India and Pak. And then, there would be nothing left to fight for.
— K V Satyamurty