The Mid-Education of Maharashtra

I am sometimes flabbergasted as to how these things (still) happen in our country. In question now is the Maharashtra state government's decision to implement the 90% reservation for 'State students'- i.e. SSC in Jr. colleges.

There are 2 issues here- whether the reservation is constitutional (which under Article 14, it isn't), and even if it is, whether it is right, or fair to announce this at the Nth hour, given the fact that the same stunt was tried last year.

This is clearly another one of those initiatives that stinks of the government playing the sons of the soil game. Why they decided to do it now? I guess because they couldn't do it earlier, especially post 26/11, because it wasn't a big enough issue to raise pre the LS elections. Which brings us to now. Which is quite simple.
If they don't do it now they'll have to wait for another year. (And all the files might get lost)

According to me, it's not just that. These crooks have clearly got a mapped out strategy. They clearly want the (SSC) public on their side, which is why it makes sense to have a debate in the court of public opinion. To engineer this, you need to make a newspaper editor salivate. Which means you do it at the start if the academic year vis a vis Diwali vacation/ Xmas vacation etc.

What zapped me more than anything else was a minister being quoted by saying that this reservation is actually in favour of Non SSC students. Because Non SSC students only make up 5% of the student base at a Class X level. By reserving only 90% for SSC students, there is in fact a 10% reservation for only 5% of the students.

Thanks dude. But no thanks. We (ICSE types) aren't easily fooled.

The 'reverse reservation' argument makes sense from a mathematical point of view. (I am relieved that these guys know how to use a calculator). But not from a geographical one. Most non SSC schools would be concentrated in the larger cities like Mumbai and Pune. So the 'reverse reservation' argument goes out the window. Secondly, there's a greater chance of a SSC candidate from Srirampur or Malegaon migrating to a Pune or Mumbai for his college education vis a vis the reverse. Which I suspect skews things further. Thirdly, I'm quite sure not all SSC students or 'SSC pass' apply to colleges...so it's in fact wrong to base the reservation on the number of SSC students. It should be based on applicants to Jr Colleges for Class XI.

So from all aspects this stinks and is wrong. If the government feels that its students are suffering; (strange that one hasn't heard any such statements/ PIL/ agitation or a movement from a body comprising of students or teachers or parents)then there are other ways to go about it. If they feel that 'students from other boards score higher marks', they in turn should be more generous with their own grading system. Fight fire with fire as they say.

Eventually, what it boils down to is that the SSC system needs a drastic upgrade. I haven't till date met an SSC grad who found 6 years studying the Glory of Shivaji worthwhile. Or the practical application of knowing how to differentiate between a simple from a compound sentence.

To quote Suhas Pednekar, principal of Ramnarain Ruia College, Matunga, "the government needs to improve the standard of education offered in the state so that SSC students can compete on an equal footing with other boards."

Hope it happens soon. Or else we are doomed to live in a state where we are looking for someone to 'remove our tickets' as we discuss the glory of Chhatrapati Shivaji(at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus).