GEMs of India

An open letter to all the sane authorities of Indian Education System and Government/s in general.

Greetings.

Recently I followed some news encapsulating the proposed changes in the CAT examination to be conducted this year that most probably would translate to reality, much to the horror of General engineering male candidates, or GEMs, if you will.  

The proposals included- reducing either the weightage of the quant section or reducing the number of such questions, for a simple reason- to combat the growing majority of engineers being admitted to the country’s prestigious B-schools. The first question that comes to my mind is - WHY? If any GEM is talented enough to crack such tough exams because of the aptitude that he has developed over years of hard work and toiling, why do the authorities wish to discourage or rather stop them from joining top schools. Wasn’t the big black blot of reservation not enough that now we’ll have to face this impartiality too?

Well, before I go any further, it’s important to state here that I am not against any caste, creed or division. I respect people for the content of their character and not by the caste, sect, religion they come from. But the basic point remains- What could the GEMs have possibly done wrong to face such humiliation and tampering with their careers?

Many of my friends, including me could have been at the IITs given our general category rank had there been no reservation. And possibly, if the entire system would have been based on pure merit our most prestigious IITs wouldn’t have been struggling in the global rankings. Perhaps more of us GEMs would have got the opportunity, the exposure that we worked so hard for and those that the reserved candidates often take for granted. No offence, but it’s true. While I worked hard to secure a decent rank in JEE during my preparation years, one of my reserved friends used to enjoy his evenings playing out there in the field. Well often he used to call me a fool to have been working so hard. Pretty cool huh? An academically/intellectually  lowly mind ridiculing me by stating- “Why do you study so hard dude. Look at me. I’ll make it to the IITs I am sure, but I am enjoying my life at the same time”. Well now to think of it, I should have taken his advice, after all what good did all of it do to me?

But yeah! Coming back to the topic. I am afraid the same 4 year old memory has come back to haunt me again, but this time the problem is much more devilish. Coupled with reservation we have an extra 5 points if you are a girl candidate, reduction in the traditional quant section etc. One would argue that it’s all to diversify the students that choose this field, i.e. students coming from humanities, arts, etc. need to be encouraged. But think over it, the 2 year of MBA programme would most certainly expect me to be a good analyst, an optimizer for the company that I’ll be serving- to say the least. Won’t it need someone with a reasonable quant aptitude that sort of covers it up and gives GEMs an edge over others to perform well and produce the desired results in the real world?  In my opinion, it does.

But still… GEMs continue suffer.

I won’t go on and on enumerating all the problems that the reservation policy and the attempt to keep engineers away from B-schools have. I’ll offer a simple solution too, if only the authorities are interested, read concerned.

Solution is- instead of continuing to spoon feed everyone and struggling to get everything on everyone’s plate, teach them how to cook. Understand the importance of merit. I understand there are weaker sections in our society and they need our help. No doubt. But what we are doing is neither helping them out nor doing any good to our country. Instead of reserving seats for them, give them fee waivers, incentives/resources to study. Provide them free coaching, free books, guides, internet, test series to prepare for national level examinations. This applies for all non-GEMs. Do everything you could, or rather we could to help them rise up to the same level as us- but strictly, grant such concessions only before and after the exam. Not during the exam. What do we do to the 2 year old who does not know swimming? Throw him in the pool saying that JAL MATA would take care of him? Or do we train him to swim? Of course we train him. Similarly train the weak students before the exam, not during the exam. Spare the exams to test only the merit and not anything else.

Their also has been a substantial fall in the number of CAT- takers in recent years, mostly engineers, and much of it owes to the aforementioned reasons. Coupled with this, or rather as an outcome of this, the number of engineers going abroad to pursue higher studies is at an all-time high. Top talent is being drained out annually to the US and here we cannot stop pondering as to why brain drain is happening? And neither do we have state sponsored foreign education like China that mandates its students to return back once they’ve finished their education to serve their country. Well there’s a reason that the world is ahead of us, right?

Rise above the good for nothing vote banks, rise above such concessions, rise above such excuses. If you really wish to solve these problems, get to the root of it. Of course the people in power are intelligent enough to figure this out but problem is that they don’t want to. If they really want it, it’s just a matter of time that the new, refined, purely merit based system would be accepted by all.

In a country where what is RESERVED counts more than what is DESERVED, GEMs continue to lead a miserable, frustrated and below their standards kind of a life. God, I plead for mercy. Hope you have no reservations on this.

Sincerely

A fellow GEM.

*Disclaimer- Pardon me for the language but not for my intent.