A sequel to "Fifth of September"

In  my previous post “Fifth of September” I could not write what I had intended to.  Even this moment I can’t promise to stick to the theme I have in my mind.  Every time I think of education in Kerala, I am very disillusioned. That the academic scene in Kerala is a shambles is a tragic fact. But the greater tragedy is the pride Malayalees have in their system saying that they don’t confine their youngsters to the four walls of the class rooms and the way they drive students to the streets to fight fellow students. Then the images of broken skulls or bleeding noses are posted on social media that generate thousands of” likes”. People are blissfully unaware or criminally negligent of the “dislike” these street fights develop in students for studies. These students cannot  ever be  expected to be a part of academics. This is not a new phenomena.  Campuses in Kerala have been like this for half a century at least. And the aftermath.  Malayali presence in centres of excellence in India is meagre. I understand the 40% of students for BTech in the IIT’s are from Andhra. I am not very sure about this. But I know that almost 70% of students of pure science in Institutions of global standards like ISI,TIFR, HRI, CMI, IOP or IMSc  are from Bengal. The smart Malayali will now attack me by saying “ OK 70% are from Bengal. Only 30% are from rest of India. Thus this is not a problem so specific to Kerala”. Being it far below ones dignity to answer or counter such nonsense let us leave it. It is high time the sensible Malayali gave serious thought to academic matters.  If I am asked to identify the source of the problem  I will point my fingers at campus politics. Campus politics of students as well as teachers.  The state cannot afford to remain complacent. Most people are not worried and are even happy because of quite a few reasons. Till the end of the 80’s there was that promised land of Malayalees, The Gulf. Then when Gulf started waning, came the IT magic from Bangalore and elsewhere (even that did not happen in Kerala). True IT provided job to tens of thousands of our girls and boys. I am talking something else. We should not be contented with the jobs offered by IT.  We should have been creating IT itself. In this context Kerala should  lament over the systematic annihilation of KELTRON. When the world had not woken up to Electronics industry in a big way KELTRON was already making TV sets, calculators, traffic signals etc in the 70’s. Samsung, LG or the current big names were not yet born!  KELTRON would have been an IBM or Microsoft by now; but alas we are Malayalees.  And as the legendary V. Kurien who created the White Revolution in India said once  “Kerala is full of Malayalees” . This he said when he was asked why he is reluctant to come to Kerala and do the Anand Magic in his home state.

I believe, education alone is the solution. Shouldn’t Kerala take up education more seriously?