FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE: One of the widely debated issues in India is whether it is sensible to compromise merit in providing opportunity for the socially or economically deprived sections of our people. In a price winning piece of mine on ‘No discrimination. No Reservation’ which is made available on a website by Bhopal Plus – a supplement of The Times of India, I made the following observations.   ‘We cannot afford to allow our destiny to be presided over by incompetence and squander our scarce resources. It is suicidal to subordinate the merit to the mediocre, which will have telling affect on the quality of work life in the long run.’ The first and foremost implication for compromising   on merit is to unwittingly or deliberately promoting mediocrity. 

          Water downing the criterion for admission in to higher levels of professional education- higher than graduation level would have long term implications in the quality of work life. I further observed in the article that: ‘It is to be clearly understood that intelligence is not the monopoly of any caste, any community or any religion. Social backwardness to a large extent is germane to the poverty and illiteracy. The sensible approach therefore, is to provide rigorous education and training to them at the cost of the exchequer and help them to build core competency in them.’ 

          I reiterate that the emphasis must be on improving core competency and not for compromising on merit. (What I mean by the word of ‘higher education’ I use in this article is professional education at post graduation level)

THE BEST MUST BE BESTED: Long back a Vision Statement of a leading company appeared in the form of an advertisement, in a leading magazine which had come to my notice. It stated   the following: ‘The Company is incessantly endeavoring   so that the best is bested.’ The word ‘best’ when used as verb means ‘to defeat’.  

    The Vision Statement in other words stated that the company had been trying to improve quality of its products and services beyond the limits of quality so far achieved by any company. It is continuously upgrading quality bench marks of its products and services.  The moot point here is how any company can achieve excellence in providing all time high quality of products and quality of services if it is ill-equipped with or manned by personnel of second-rate abilities.  It is obvious that we cannot excel in our effort, if we lack core competence – core competence good enough to compete with the best in the world.

IQ, KNOWLEDGE AND CORE COMPETENCE: We are not born equal in terms of intelligence.  The sensible approach in education and in particular higher education is that the opportunity for pursuing higher education must be based on the principle of ‘Each according to his ability.

It is just not possible for a dull headed or a nincompoop to be successful in higher education.  I therefore advocate for following the policy of gradation in education- grading or screening according to ability.  Let us understand a few concepts relating to the topic. By putting hard work, it is possible for any body to acquire knowledge on any subject at the level of his IQ.  Knowledge could be theoretical or bookish.

          If the knowledge gained through exposure to practical experience could be transformed in to expertise,  Expertise is nothing but ‘Value Addition’ ability or competency. Gaining expertise   is nothing but improvement in core competency. Every individual is limited by his intelligence.  For undertaking study of a professional course calling for   higher than graduate level of intelligence would be an exercise in futility. The sensible thing to do is that each of us must try to sinew our core strengths at the highest levels of our abilities.  The intellectual plane is a horizontal plane. We could become assets at our respective levels of IQ and can serve the society..  Higher IQ means higher level or at higher vertical plane in terms of intelligence.

          Let me give an illustration. A hen resembles like a bird, possesses wings like any other bird, but it cannot fly. Even after giving any amount of  rigorous training and encouragement, it is just not possible for the hen to fly like an eagle. We must take in to account our innate strengths and weaknesses in the context of consideration of our eligibility for admission in to higher portals of learning.

COUNTER PROACTIVE APPROACH: There is a loud thinking in the society for providing job reservations even in the private sector as well.  I am not against job reservations per se.  Job reservations can be considered after fulfilling core competency criterion. The main objective of any business is to aggregate the bottom line. 

Charity or other social considerations are secondary to the primary objective.   For surviving in the competitive market conditions, the company must be successful in achieving cost effectiveness, product innovation and at the same time achieving highest possible quality of its products for making an edge over its potential competitors.  The company cannot afford to induct inefficiency or incompetence in to its organization to serve any social cause at the cost of its very survival.  

          While encouraging affirmative action, it is sane to keep the higher professional education free from vested interests and it must be freed from any type of interference be  it be reservations or any other aspect , however lofty the social objective intended to be served  could be.  Intellectual ability or merit alone must be the criterion for providing opportunity to students to pursue higher professional education.