One step at a time... (Re-posted from - magisterspeaks.blogspot.in)

The writing is on the wall!

Whether we choose to accept it or not, the reality remains to its existence. The statement can be applied to a variety of situations and almost every time you do that, you can’t help but notice a brutal ignorance of people about the transformation of the very milieu they breath in.

An unfortunate success which I met with on my aforesaid conviction was with the state of higher education, as it unfolded before my bewildered eyes.

Having a reasonable understanding of how the higher education system in this part of the country works, I wasmerely disappointed than shocked on the grim situation.

An engineering college which is pushing itself rock-hard in order to have as less unfilled seats as possible. Atleast, not more than the seats which were lost last year. In this case, just like airlines and multiplexes, a seat lost once cannot be recovered ever again. Another one struggling  to get enough students to  run the show.

Just as you feel inception of an empathetic feeling for these institutes, another contrasting thought trickles down your brain. Isn’t it what they deserve?

The answer to this question is both, omnipresent and veiled (depending upon who just read that line!)

There are multiple reasons for the sorry state of alot engineering as well as management colleges in this country. Some people blame it on the regulatory slack for their over liberal rules in granting permission to these colleges during the last decade which has created more supply than demand in the market.

While there is another set who bestows a more pragmatic view on the situation. They opine that the imbalance of demand and supply will always be there in some or the other way. What is required, however, by the institutes is to remain competitive all the times in order to ensure that the correction does not lead to their debacle when the obliteration of this mushrooming sector takes place.

I try hard to take side but like almost every time, fail to do so. It is easier not to fall in the trap of having a stern opinion in this case due to very logical arguments made by the two groups.

What is more disheartening is not the state in which such  institutes are, but the sheer ignorance or denial they tend to indulge in, more often than not due to a conscious effort rather than a sincere mistake.

Encouragingly (surprisingly) however there are many endorsers to the idea of quality education in the same circuit(more surprisingly) who express such wishful desire and accept a need of a turn-around of a sort which will not only shift gears for the industry but for such ailing institute(extremely surprisingly, they don’t think their institute is one them!)

Denial is the first cousin of problem and interestingly, most of these institutes which have been dwelling the problem within, starts challenging it with its cousin as a tool. Not the ideal counter-attack!

Time has come when before finding reasons for the problem, solutions for problems (for others, coz we don’t have problems, right?) and then blaming someone for the problem, we – accept that there is a problem.

Time has come to take - one step at a time.