Advocacy

When there is no other respectable way to present it, its advocacy, people will listen to it

Why India does not achieve academic excellence?

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While such an important question merits a much detailed and comprehensive approach, here is something that you might consider relevant especially if you are just on your morning coffee on a Sunday and you just want to ponder over it. In other words what I am going to write is perhaps a terse but lists one of the most important factors, and in my defense its just a blog.

Why India does not achieve academic excellence, I will just give example of one primary reason: arbitrary rules wrt qualifications, merit, skills, caste, age, time line.

For a glossary of certain terms which are nonetheless self evident (at-least for an Indian audience) you don’t need to scroll to the dead-end. Here they are; PG: Post Graduate, UG: Under Graduate, NET: National Eligibility Test, SET/SLET: State Eligibility Test, B.Ed.: Bachelor of Education, M.Phil.: Master in Philosophy.  

qualification: it has always been arbitrary. We are not sure whats enough or adequate to teach. Sometimes a person with PG isn’t considered good enough to even teach in high school or junior college, without additional degrees of any moiety of relevance. Sometimes lower qualifications than PG are fine for teaching such classes, with (mostly) irrelevant degrees or qualifications. eg someone with B.Sc.and B.Ed. is qualified to teach high-school but someone with PG, or PG+PhD may not be qualified to teach high-school or junior college, although its fine for him/her to teach senior college with a PhD. Also with PG qualification you can’t teach UG. But with PG, one entrance (NET/SLET) can decide your qualification to teach both UG and PG. I am talking about basic minimum qualifications. So you are not considered qualified without certain irrelevant factors. Its not like you are considered and given a time line to achieve any required additional qualifications.

Stars and Fate.

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Astrology is the blind belief that stars change our fate — pun; like the blind belief wives change our personality. This is where Physics becomes a paraphernalia of whim, cultivated over the ages, to bring solace in seeking ignorance as a means of existential glory.

I just checked some scientific terms, in regards to how they have been made to work like paraphernalia to produce different astrological system. I was not shocked that Indians have kept advanced strides in one branch of knowledge — or the lack-thereof; Astrology.

Guess what? Hindu Astrology is a Sidereal Astrology, hence much advance than Western Astrology, which is a tropical astrology. This we have often taken boastfully, to mean that Indian science is advanced and far-reaching, even from the times of Vedas, but the simple facts — of my conviction, are; we have been manipulative from a very early time in our civilization’s evolution.

We just took science to produce religion. We also took religion to produce myth, and myth to produce social customs and took social customs to downplay science. Why else is “western” science advanced and we are merely a laggard participant in its various glorification.

— Of-course I don’t have words of solace to those who disagree, if like kids we assign ourselves the fancy of winning every sports, that we do not even take part in, because our parents will succumb to that whimsical demand of ours, it wouldn’t work towards science, here we have to work nonetheless, take part in each and every detail and each and every aspect, its not sufficient or even necessary to just downplay the impact of criticism.

The quality of a scientific paper … A casual reposition.

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The quality of a scientific paper are not ZERO if citation is zero. Perhaps we need to define two parameters, quality and significance of scientific communication. Quality; a well done research in the best traditions and methods available. Significance; the outreach of the paper to bring effect into others work and others understanding toward the subject matter.

While there will always be a downside to both parameters, citation reflects the significance (and quality as much as it correlated to significance) of a paper.

A step toward Higher Education?

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Here is the summary. And I am quoting actual numbers from News Paper Reports.

News Report; 5% Odisha Resident students. [Including perhaps those also who would be Odia by their citizenship, irrespective of where they stay]

My estimate; a typical 10% general category students, going by how large the quota regime entails in terms of percentage toward quota qualifiers.

News Paper Report; Lying vacant per anum, 10%.

My reasoning; if there would be no quota based qualification system perhaps these seats would never lay vacant, plus we would have far superior engineers produced in the country. Because the 3-levels of quota scrutiny sees the merit off to such a level even 10% seats lay vacant, at the same level that gets admitted after fierce scrutiny.

What is it like to be in an Ivy League. Just a musing.

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The other aspect is from my own experience, while you are highly qualified, you are perhaps no more pouring in as much as even you would like to pour in, in terms of real research. You or your employers don’t want you to go into controversies, because they drain you out of wit and the employer runs into razor sharp issues. The Ivy Leagues have the “requisite infrastructure” which is cutting edge in a way preconceived notion kind of way. It really does not open the actual researchers to the issues involved in fundamental thinking. And sooner or later we all the highly intellectual kind belong to a level where we see our wit’s end. It takes the highly competitive experience of figuring out what exactly the Ivy League want from you for you and them to be successful lest which they are subjected to competitive and often no so harmless scrutiny from even tiny rats.