The Great Indian Nightmare

(A very good article)

George Bernard Shaw once asked an attractive woman seated next to him at a dinner table, "Madam, would you go to bed with me for a thousand pounds?" The woman shook her head. "How about 50,000 pounds?" he continued. The woman, after further thought, coyly replied, "Perhaps." Shaw continued, "How about five pounds?" The woman exclaimed, "Mr Shaw, what do you take me for!" Shaw calmly replied, "We have already established what you are. Now we are merely haggling for the price."

In the great Indian Education Bazaar, everything is up for sale -- government, media, educational institutes, foreign faculty, collaboration with foreign varsities, endorsement of teaching shops by reputed names for credibility, successful candidates in competitive exams posing as alumni. The only issue is the price, and you can haggle over it.

"I threatened one institute with legal recourse if it uses my name in any of its brochures," said a topper, whose name the institute was using to position itself in the market.

Says a parent, "My son joined the BBA course offered by a Delhi-based institute. Mortgaging my house in Bihar, I paid Rs 12 lakhs as fees, only to realise later that it wasn't accredited with the UGC (University Grants Commission). Worried, I admitted my son to the Delhi Open University, too. My son now studies in two institutes without any time for himself, and has gone into a depression and developed suicidal....

Read the rest on...:

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2008/sep/25peri.htm