[Assam] AT- brain drain??

[Manoj Das]

http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=aug3008/letter
*Higher education in Bangalore ?
*  Sir, – For quite sometime, Bangalore has become the most preferred
destination for education for the students hailing from North- East and
Jammu and Kashmir particularly. This trend has been continuing for quite
some time and now people have begun harbouring the notion that due to the
exodus of a large number of students outside the State, there has been a
tremendous brain drain from the region.

While the fact may be true for students who venture outside the State mainly
to study in the top notch institutes the same cannot be held true in case of
Bangalore. In Bangalore, it is seen that most of the students who are either
unable to get in admission in the State Engineering college or else where in
reputed institutes usually land up there after coughing up a hefty donation.
So I think there is no brain drain but there is certainly the draining the
hard earned money of their parents. This may not be something too difficult
for one who has amassed a huge amount of wealth illegally but it is
certainly difficult for some noble souls. Leaving aside the monetary fact,
it is at all not worthy to study in institutes that give admission merely on
donation. Some of these so- called great institutes claim themselves to be
at par with the IITs or IIMs go to the extent of arriving in Guwahati to
ensure admission and put up huge advertisements in the local dailies. The
fact is that if these institutes are really worth reading, they need not
have bothered to come to Guwahati to collect meritorious students. They
would have received them in plenty even without a single advertisement. It
is only we who are either unable or unwilling to see through the sham of
these money making institutes. Another important aspect is that it does not
make any sense if after paying a hefty donation (read fee) amounting to
about 6/18 lakh for an MBA Course and ultimately landing up in a job for Rs
10,000 per month.

Coming to our part, we should try to discourage this trend of migrating to
Bangalore immediately. Instead I feel parents should motivate their wards to
appear in competitive examinations and not only to appear but to appear with
sincerity. It is most often seen that the students from this region do not
appear in the national level exams with sincerity hoping that they would
never crack these exams and that these exams are for a selected few
exceptional ones. In this connection, the AASU should also play a proactive
role. They should motivate the students to appear in competitive
examinations and also brain-wash the students not to study in these sub
standard institutes. If one is given the right motivation, he can study the
course matter on his own without any guidance and come out with flying
colours. The media should also play its role. Instead of putting those
hundred photos of HSLC toppers on the front page if the media works
meticulously and tries to find the other important national level
achievements done by the students of this region and puts them in the front
page, that would work wonders. The students should also develop a killer
instinct and uplift their ego. They should also consider it to be shameful
if they have to study after paying donation. They should, in fact, promise
themselves that if they fail to make it to the top class institutes; they
would study in the local colleges, which are far superior to those in
question rather than migrating merely for the sake of studying outside the
State. –Yours etc, Arindam Gautam, Usha Nagar, Dispur, Guwahati.
-- 
Manoj Kumar Das
C 172 GF, Sarvodaya Enclave
New Delhi 17 India
0091 9312650558 (HP) 9910972654