FREE IDIOTS
An enquiry into educational decision-making processes and student life at the Indian Institute of Technology of Madras
Master Thesis for Cultural Anthropology and Sociology of Non-Western Societies (July 2014) University of Amsterdam
Author: Dylan John Henebury Student number: 5897955
E-mail: djhenebury@hotmail.com
Word count: 22.527
Supervisor: dhr. dr. G.A. (Gerben) Moerman
Acknowledgements
I am very much indebted to a large number of people who have supported me from the moment of my research proposal on through my fieldwork period until the final day on which I presented
this thesis. I would first of all like to thank Gerben Moerman, for continuous support and an ever-positive attitude towards my research, especially in my moments of doubt. I thank Ram
Bragadish and his family for introducing me to Chennai and being the kindest of hosts. Many
thanks also to Ravi, Safeer, Sett, Spring (Sai Sanketh), Rohith and Jyothika for having me in their company throughout my fieldwork and for all help with collecting data. Thanks to
Franziska Lindhout, for introducing me to this wonderful group of students. Finally, I would
like to thank my parents and my girlfriend for their continuous patience and support while I was writing this thesis.
Contents
Acronyms iv.
‘Man, I think you’ll like it here!’ 1
Chapter I: Introduction to the Research 2
1.1 Research Inspiration and Research Question 3
1.2 Fieldwork & Methodology 5
1.3 Setting 8
1.4 Motivation for Research 10
Chapter II: Theoretical Framework 11
2.1 Foucault’s Conceptualisation of Discourse 12
2.2 Critical Discourse Analysis 13
2.3 Discursive Resonance Model 15
Chapter III: Education in India 17
3.1 Introduction 18
3.2 History of Higher Education in India 19
3.2.1 Education until 1970 19
3.2.2 Education: 1970 – 2000 21
3.2.3 Education: 2000 Onwards 23
3.3 The Contours of a Discourse 25
3.4 The Current Education System 26
3.4.1 Current Format of Education 26
3.4.2 Shadow Education 29
3.4.3 Visible Evidence of a Dominant Discourse 30
Chapter IV: Parental Involvement 33
4.1 Introduction 34
4.2 Parental Motivation 35
4.2.1 The Pursuit of Settling in Life 35
4.2.2 Gender Differences 36
4.3 Parental Involvement 38
4.3.1 Parental Decisions 38
4.3.2 Parental Strategies: Showing the Right Path 40
4.4 Conclusions 47
Chapter V: Life at the IITM 49
5.1 Introduction 50
5.2 Comparing Mentalities: ICE vs. IITM 50
5.3 The Experience of Student Life 55
5.4 Conclusions 61
Chapter VI: Free Idiots 63
6.1 Conclusion 64
6.5 Suggestions for Further Research 67
Acronyms
CGPA Cumulative Grade Point Average EDP Educational Decision-making processes EPL English Premier League
GER General Enrolment Ratio
ICE Imperial College of Engineering (from the movie 3 Idiots) IIT(M) Indian Institute of Technology (Madras)
JEE Joint Entrance Examination
MHRD Ministry of Human Resource Development PROBE Public Report on Basic Education
SSA Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for all project)
IITM departments:
BIO Biotechnology
CE Civil Engineering
CH.E Chemical Engineering
CS Computer Science and Engineering
EE Electrical Engineering
EP Engineering Physics
HUM Humanities and Social Sciences
ME Mechanical Engineering
MME Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
‘Man, I think you’ll like it here’ (June 16th, 2013) It’s 5 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon in Chennai. This is my first day of fieldwork in the sunny capital of the South-Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Not wanting to waste time, I decide to dial a few phone numbers from my hotel to make an appointment with some students from the IITM (Indian Institute of Madras), who seemed to be eager to meet with me. Two hours later, I find myself sitting on the terrace of Cozee restaurant next to Elliot’s beach. The cup of chai standing in front of me appears to be heating up rather than cooling down.
A rickshaw comes to a halt in front of the restaurant and two youngsters step out. One is wearing a Chelsea football jersey, the other a Manchester United jersey. Both of them are smoking a cigarette. As they turn to pay the driver, I get up to introduce myself. ‘Hey guys, so here I am. Thanks for meeting me here. You must be Aarav1,’ I say to the guy in the Chelsea shirt, ‘and so you must be Vivaan’ basing my statement on their respective Facebook pages. It turns out they swapped jerseys for the day. After a few cups of chai, the ice is broken, molten more likely, and the three of us set out on our first excursion, many other excursions would follow in the next three months. Since my research was to take place at IITM, Aarav and Vivaan decided to show me the IITM campus grounds.
A rickshaw takes us to one of the back gates. The guard is sleeping in his booth and we enter unnoticed. I marvel at the jungle-like compound that we walk into and at the fact that the guys tell me we have to wait for a bus to ‘really take us inside.’ It is the holidays now, so buses are less frequent and the campus is relatively quiet. Through the windows of the perfectly typical yellow school bus I see enormous unidentified buildings passing by. The bus stops at a round-a-bout and we get off. ‘This is “GC” or “Gajendra Circle”, remember this place because you’ll be back here often,’ Aarav tells me. ‘For now, let’s go to Sangam, there won’t be anyone there now. We can chill out there.’
A couple of minutes later I am sitting on an open field, smoking a joint for the first time in a year, listening to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”, playing from a smartphone. ‘Participant observation’, I tell myself when I exhale the smoke. Aarav catches my facial expression and says: ‘Man, I think you’ll like it here. There are a bunch of crazy people there that would love to meet a guy from Amsterdam. We’re gonna show you a good time.’
1 To ensure anonymity, these are not the original names; instead I have used popular Indian names.
Chapter I
Introduction to the Research
1.1 Research Inspiration and Research Question
This research was conducted at the IITM (Indian Institute of Technology Madras) in the town of Chennai, formerly known as Madras. For a period of three months I lived amongst the students of this prestigious higher education institute – famous, in particular, for its engineering courses – to do research on educational decision-making processes2 (from here on: EDP) and student life.
During my first visit to India I spoke with quite a large number of students, many of whom, I realized, were pursuing a degree in either engineering or medicine. Frequently, what started as a casual greeting on the train, in a bar or in a restaurant, turned into long conversations about various aspects of life. A recurring theme of interest for students appeared to be professional career opportunities in the Netherlands. They were disappointed when I told them I had no clue as to the availability of jobs for engineers in the Dutch labour market. Instead, I told them I was far more concerned with figuring out what I wanted to study when I went home. This remark raised eyebrows, as if to say ‘shouldn’t you base your educational decision on the jobs that are available in your country?’
Three years later, after successfully completing a bachelor degree in Cultural Anthropology, I visited India for the second time. With the financial crisis at its peak and my entry to the labour market closer at hand, my worry-free attitude had faded somewhat. My seniors at university had finished their anthropological degrees and were clearly struggling to find a job. I was beginning to doubt my own career choices, even though I had enjoyed studying anthropology very much.
In the year before my second visit to India, an extremely popular Bollywood movie called 3 Idiots was released. I did not know it then, but it was to become the main source of inspiration for my master research. Given my previous encounters with Indian students and my personal doubts with regards to my career choices, I was intrigued by Rancho’s point of view in
3 Idiots (see quote on previous page).
One day, while I was lying on a beach in Goa, drinking a cold Kingfisher beer and contemplating my future, I was approached by a group of Indian sociology students. They studied at the University of Mumbai and had driven to Goa for the weekend. We sat around a fire on the beach all night and talked. At a certain point I asked them to give their opinion of the 3
2
I use the term “educational decision” to refer to a chosen higher education discipline. Anthropology, for example, was my educational decision. By “educational decision-making process” (EDP) I refer to the process of choosing such a discipline.
Idiots movie. Although they agreed that it was a good movie,
they also argued that it wrongly represented student life in India, by overemphasizing the misfortune of some students. One of the students summed up everyone’s opinion by saying: ‘It’s good, in that it addresses the pressure points of our society and our education system, and bad, because it is overly negative and full of typical Bollywood exaggerations and heroism.’
A year and a half later, I am flying to India for a third time. Having decided to continue my academic career in anthropology, despite still having doubts about my future career, I set out to answer the following research question:
How do IITM students narrate about parental involvement on EDPs and how do they narrate about their student life?
From 3 Idiots I deducted three interconnected hypotheses that I wanted to investigate. It is noteworthy to mention that, in the movie, these hypotheses are portrayed as indisputable facts. The first hypothesis holds that:
1. The dominant discourse in the field of higher education in India holds that professional courses are better than liberal courses.
The filmmakers show that most people in India associate professional courses, in particular engineering and medicine, with economic prosperity and status. Because of these features, the filmmaker argue, engineering and medicine are the most highly valued academic disciplines, particularly
3 Idiots
Rancho, Farhan and Raju are three friends at the Imperial College of Engineering in Delhi. The free-spirited Rancho is passionate about machines, whereas his to friends are not so much. Farhan would much rather study wildlife photography, but his father will not allow this. Raju is extremely afraid of failure, because his family have high expectations of his career.
While Rancho gets the highest grades, despite his lack of studying discipline, Farhan and Raju consistently have below average grades. Misguided by the harsh words of principle Virus, who despises Rancho, Farhan and Raju eventually blame their friend for providing too much distraction. Rancho, however, tries to convince them that it is not due to their lack of effort, but due to a lack of interest (in Farhan’s case) and too much parental pressure (in both Farhan and Raju’s case). Rancho blames Indian society, especially the parent generation, for overvaluing professional education, particularly medicine and engineering, and he accuses the Indian education system of promoting a competitive rat-race that literally drives students to the edge.
Finally, Rancho is able to convince his friends of his point of view. Farhan confronts his parents and, with Rancho’s help, he starts studying wildlife photography. Raju eventually gets a decent corporate job, after he miraculously survives his attempt at suicide which completely changes his perspective of life. Rancho becomes one of the world’s leading engineers.
amongst parents. The second hypothesis, therefore, is closely related to the first:
2. Indian parents are highly involved in their children’s’ education and their involvement is
in line with the dominant discourse.
With regards to EDPs of IITM students, it is expected that parents were highly involved in these and that their involvement was dedicated to directing their child towards an engineering course at an IIT. Finally, the third hypothesis deducted from 3 Idiots correlates with both the first and second hypothesis and holds that:
3. Students experience student life as unpleasant, because they are under pressure of the
competitive atmosphere of education and continuous parental monitoring.
According to the filmmakers, the dominant discourse creates a very competitive educational atmosphere in the institutes that offer the commonly preferred courses; engineering and medicine. Since parents are also deemed to be “under the spell” of the dominant discourse, they are seen to push students to study very hard, to keep ahead of the competition. Because of this, the filmmakers argue, students have absolutely no time for entertainment and thus tend to dislike student life.
1.2 Fieldwork & methodology
The findings presented in this thesis are based on three months of anthropological fieldwork, from the 14th of June until the 11th of September, 2013. The academic year at the IITM started on the first day of August but, fortunately for me, most students returned from their parental homes two weeks prior to the start of the semester. For the first month of my research period, however, there were few IITM students around. I had, however, anticipated this gap in the research period and, with the help of Ms. Lindhout, a German language professor at the IITM, I had made contact with some Chennai based IITM students through Facebook, prior to my arrival.
Once I set foot in Chennai, I immediately made contact with one of those students, Aarav, who had been so kind as to provide his mobile phone number. Though at first I found it hard to call him on a daily basis, since he was one of the few contacts I had in Chennai and I felt
I might be invading on his privacy, he soon made it clear to me that he enjoyed the company and we hung out together for an entire month, until the IITM students started to return. During this month he introduced me to his family and many of his high school friends. Due to the heat of the days we would generally hang out in the evenings, go back home very late at night and sleep until afternoon. I remember how I usually had my breakfast around 2 p.m. and how this changed once the semester got underway.
I had decided to start off my research in a very casual manner, not wanting to frighten anybody with too many questions. I had a feeling that, because it was summer holidays, Aarav and his friends felt no urge to talk much about education and were more into enjoying their free time and showing me around. Not wanting to disturb the pleasure of their holidays, I decided to simply go along with most things they did. Just occasionally I would enquire about IITM or education in India in general. Sometimes these enquiries led to interesting conversations and information which I later incorporated in my interviews with IITM students.
Just two weeks before the start of the semester, many students were returning to the campus and, once again, Aarav introduced me to quite a few of them. I familiarized myself with this new group and started to hang out with them on the campus. We could spend many hours a day sitting in hostel rooms, playing cards and listening to music. After just a few days of doing this I decided to interview my newly acquired friends. These preliminary interviews were open-ended and often turned into long conversations, due to the fact that I had become quite close with these students. With the help of these open-ended interviews I was able to make a list of topical questions for later interviews.
It was during these preliminary interviews, also, that I decided not to elaborate on the topics of class and caste in my interviews. The first thing I noticed in these interviews were that the students, all belonging to the same group of friends, belonged to very different castes and even classes; yet, they did not even know this themselves. The statement ‘we are all IIT-ians’, made by a very bright humanities student, seemed to sum up the situation, which is not to say that class and caste do not matter at all in the educational career of Indian students.
There was also a pragmatic aspect to my decision not to expand on the issues of class and caste. I realized that to be able to research whether, and to what extent, class and caste mattered for EDP’s or students’ experience of student life, I needed to have better access to the
households from where these students hailed. Unfortunately, however, the parents of most IITM students lived far from Chennai.
At first, it was feared that this problem might also interfere with my examination of the second hypothesis. However, since I was investigating the involvement of parents on the EDP’s of students, I felt confident that this information could just as well be extracted from student accounts. One thing I did to get a better grip on parental involvement was to include questions about primary and secondary school, another was to ask about parental involvement in the educational career of brothers and sisters of the IITM students.
As the semester started, however, I realized that the first week was far too hectic for any interviewing to take place. Besides, this was a week in which participant observation presented itself as the perfect method for gathering data. I went to several gatherings for newly arrived students and sat in the campus food courts observing the interactions between parents (who had come to IITM for the day)3 and students. Occasionally I would be joined here by senior students who would laugh and make jokes about the so-called “freshies” (new students).
Getting into the second week of the semester I started doing semi-structured interviews on a daily basis. I asked my newly-acquired friends to introduce me to a random selection of students and not just to their friends. With their help I managed to interview 19 male students and 7 female students. I usually interviewed male students in their hostel rooms, because this is where they seemed most comfortable. I was not allowed to enter the girls’ hostels and so I interviewed them under the “wisdom tree” outside the library or at Café Coffee Day, depending on what they preferred.
Most students appeared to be quite eloquent and willing to answer questions. There were a few students, however, who found it hard to answer questions with more than just a “yes” or a “no”. I would try to comfort these students by telling them a little more about myself and my own education. On two occasions I realized that, in spite of their approval, my recording device appeared to be making the student anxious. In these cases I offered to place the device out of sight or switch it of entirely.
When I was not interviewing, I frequently took part in games of badminton or football in the hostels, despite having difficulties with the heat. I found that this kind of participant
3
The IITM had set up a rather full schedule for the day, which meant that it was near impossible to talk with these parents. Besides, just like their sons and daughters, they appeared to be occupied with the unfamiliar surroundings.
observation was most rewarding, since, by participating in sports, I was able to present myself as a fellow student, rather than a researcher. With this identity of student, or age-mate, a sense of equality was established, which made students feel more at ease in my presence. In order to retain this identity, I hardly ever made notes during the day; instead I tried to remember the most significant events and comments of the day and wrote these in my journal at night, in the privacy of my hotel room.
The various methods of data collection (through interviews, casual talks, participation in student activities and by observing student life, as well as the overall climate of education – embedded, for example, in regional and national newspaper items, public advertisement and websites like Facebook and Quora) allowed me to cross-examine and triangulate my findings in the field and thereafter. The interviews with Chennai based educational professionals, Sudha Sudeep and Padma Chandramouli, proved to be particularly helpful in this respect.
1.3 Setting
The IITM is ranked 7th best university in India (The Times of India: 05-03-2013) and occupies an area of 2.5 km² that was once part of the Guindy National Park in the centre of Chennai. It was established in 1959 and it has sixteen different academic departments; namely, Aerospace Engineering, Applied Mechanics, Biotechnology, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Design, Humanities and Social Sciences, Management Studies, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Ocean Engineering and Physics.
The campus grounds are overgrown by a lush green forest and endangered animal species, like the blackbuck deer, wander freely amongst the students. The area is split into four zones: a nature zone, a residential zone (for staff), a hostel zone (for students) and an academic zone. (See map next page) IITM has approximately 8000 students divided over 13 hostels. The residential area houses 550 faculties and 1250 other staff members and their families. Other noteworthy buildings on the IITM grounds include: nearly 100 laboratories, a few shopping centres, a hospital, a swimming pool, an open air theatre, 3 restaurants, 2 primary schools, 3 temples, 3 bank branches, food shops, a gym, a swimming pool, cricket, football, hockey tennis and badminton stadiums.
Surrounding the campus grounds are the neighbourhoods of Tharamani, Thiruvanmiyur, Adyar, Velachery and the Guindy National Park. Tharamani is the area closest to the hostel zone and is often flooded with IIT students during the semesters. Tharamani is home to a wide variety of small shops and restaurants catering to the needs of students. There are cheaply priced road-side restaurants and juice bars, but also a huge indoor fast-food plaza that has McDonalds,
Subway, Pizza Hut and a few Indian chain restaurants. After spending two weeks in a hostel
quite far away from IITM, I decided to move to Tharamani, where I stayed in a hotel just outside the gates of IITM for the rest of my fieldwork period.
Although I spent most of my time on and around the campus grounds, I sometimes shared a rickshaw with student to get to the beach or a cinema complex in the city centre. For my personal errands outside of Tharamani, I had rented a scooter. This proved to be quite useful for interviews with professionals, whom I would generally meet at their working place.
Nevertheless, the most noteworthy locations of my fieldwork are all within the campus walls; the boys hostel area, were I interviewed male students and spent a lot of time observing and participating in student life. The “wisdom tree”
and CCD coffee parlour, next to the library and girls’ hostels, were I interviewed female students. Last but certainly not least, I spent a lot of time in secluded spots on the campus, where students engaged in activities that required a certain amount of secrecy.
1.4 Motivation for Research
As was mentioned earlier, the movie 3 Idiots and my countless encounters with engineering students in India accounted for my personal motivation to do this research. I wanted to put myself in a position from where I would be able to give an ethnographic account of student life at a prestigious Indian institute for higher education. Secondly, I wanted the research to shed light on the popularity of engineering courses in India. To be able to do so, I sought the help of various approaches to discourse analysis (see theoretical framework) and I decided to add the concept of educational decision-making processes to the heart of my research question.
As a result, I have been able to draw a number of careful conclusions about the field of higher education in India, which add to – and can be used as a springboard for future research in the areas of discourse analysis, family studies, studies on education and shadow education and perhaps even psychological studies with regards to pressure and stress experienced by students.
Chapter II
2.1 Foucault’s Conceptualisation of Discourse
In the next chapter I will be examining the higher education discourse that emerges from the storyline in 3 Idiots. In the chapters after that, I will be looking whether that same discourse has an effect on students’ EDPs and/or on the way students experience student life. Before I do so, however, it is necessary to conceptualise the term “discourse”, which has been used by so many scholar in at least as many ways.
Certainly the most influential definition of discourse is the one offered by Michel Foucault, though most modern-day discourse analysts tend to diverge from his definition. (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002: 13) Foucault defines discourse as follows:
We shall call discourse a group of statements in so far as they belong to the same discursive formation […Discourse] is made up of a limited number of statements for which a group of conditions of existence can be defined. Discourse in this sense is not an ideal, timeless form […] it is, from beginning to end, historical – a fragment of history […] posing its own limits, its divisions, its transformations, the specific modes of its temporality. (Foucault, 1972: 172 in: Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002: 12)
Clearly embedded in this definition of discourse is the notion of power, with which Foucault was primarily concerned. It is power that determines which statements will be considered as meaningful and which statements will be discarded as false. (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002: 13) The rather vague concept of power in discourse becomes slightly more tangible when Foucault explains power as inextricably bound to knowledge. In other words, then, it is knowledge that determines what is to be considered as true and false. According to the rules of mathematics, 2 + 2 = 4. Anyone who would attempt to argue that 2 + 2 = 5 would be considered ignorant or even foolish. Just as the equation 2 + 2 = 4 is backed by mathematics, so are statements backed by respective regimes of knowledge/power. Any statement that contradicts this knowledge/power regime will be discarded as meaningless.
Discourse, according to the first part of Foucault’s conceptualisation, appears to be relatively static. However, in the next sentence of the definition, Foucault describes discourse as
a fragment of time, which implies a certain degree of fluidity. The apparent contradiction in
Foucault’s definition of discourse is explained by his definition of power as ‘…a productive network which runs through the whole social body….’ (Foucault, 1980: 119 in: Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002: 13) Power stimulates the production of new knowledge, which is then again
incorporated into the power regime, thereby reproducing or changing the amount of meaningful statements that make up the discourse. This is an ongoing circular process, albeit a relatively slow one. According to Foucault, then, there can be only one discourse, one set of statements, per historical period, but this set of statements may/will change along with the progression of knowledge.
While most discourse scholars adhere to Foucault’s definition of ‘…discourses as relatively rule-bound sets of statements which impose limits on what gives meaning...,’ (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002: 13) they do not agree with Foucault’s tendency to identify only one discourse per historical period. Instead, the majority of contemporary discourse analysts argue that multiple discourses can and do exist side by side; often struggling for the right to define truth. (Ibid.:13)
2.2 Critical Discourse Analysis
In the late 1980’s, Norman Fairclough spearheaded an approach to discourse analysis which became known as “critical discourse analysis” (CDA). Rather confusingly, Fairclough uses the term discourse in three different ways: (1) discourse-as-semiosis, (2) discourse-as-discursive-practise and (3) discourse-as-social-practice. (Blommaert & Bulcean, 2000) The former refers simply to the acts of making, or semiosis. ‘Semiosis includes all forms of meaning-making – visual images and body language as well as verbal [spoken and written] language.’ (Fairclough, 2001: 234) Semiosis occurs in various forms, or “genres” (Ibid.: 235), such as casual conversations, interviews, advertisements, that are dependent on the context in which semiosis takes place. For example, the interaction between a butcher and his client is unlikely to take the form of an interview, just as an interviewer is unlikely to wear a blood-stained apron. The simple acts of wearing an apron and asking only questions, thus, give meaning to a particular social activity.
Discourse-as-discursive-practice refers to the production, circulation, distribution and consumption of text. The catholic discourse, for example, is circulated by means of the catholic Bible and speeches by the Pope and other important catholic figures. It is then consumed by many people all over the world, who then reproduce this texts, or parts of it, to give meaning to the social context in which they are situated. Analysis of discursive practices, according to CDA, should focus ‘… on how authors of text draw on already existing discourses [read:
discourse-as-text] and genres to create a text, and on how receivers of texts also apply available discourses and genres in the consumption and interpretation of the texts.’ (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2006: 69)
Finally, discourse-as-social-practice refers to discourse as social activity. Discourse-as-social-practice is seen to be in a dialectical relationship with other social practices; discourse is both socially constitutive as well as socially conditioned. Consider the following example of the family:
The relationship between parents and children is partly discursively constituted […], but, at the same time, the family is an institution with concrete practices, pre-existing relationships and identities. These practices, relationships and identities were originally discursively constituted, but have become sedimented in institutions and non-discursive practices. (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2006: 62)
The interconnectedness of social practices constitutes a social order or, to use a term coined by Pierre Bourdieu, a field (see Bourdieu & Wacquant 1996: 94ff.); that is ‘… a relatively autonomous social domain obeying a specific social logic.’ (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2001: 72) Contrary to what Foucault believed, Fairclough argues that within each field one may encounter several discourses, each of them struggling for power. Revealing the “order of discourse” of a specific field – determining which discourse is dominant and which discourses are inferior – constitutes an important aspect of CDA. (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999: 114) The fact that multiple discourses can exist within a specific field amounts to a constant state of hegemonic struggle. Marginal, oppositional and alternative discourses have the potential to eventually overthrow the hegemonic order of discourse, which is what interested Fairclough most of all. 4
In this research, I examine whether it is true that the dominant discourse in the field of higher education in India is one that favours professional education over liberal education (see the first hypothesis in chapter I). In the following chapter I will examine whether such a discourse could have been socially constituted in the first place, by looking at the history of the field of higher education, and I will check whether such a discourse continues to be circulated. In 4 Fairclough’s CDA has a highly political agenda. Very much in line with the Marxist tradition, Fairclough argues that the CDA approach should be used, particularly, to reveal hegemonic discourses that maintain unequal power relations in a given society. The ultimate aim of CDA, according to Fairclough, is to speed up processes of social change, so that power relations may become more balanced.
By contrast, my research has no political agenda. I am merely interested in the effects orders of discourse may have on educational decision-making processes and students’ experiences of student-life. My use of CDA, then, may well be called NDA (N for neutral) as opposed to CDA (C for critical).
the fourth and fifth chapter, I will discuss how parents and students relate to the order of discourse.
2.3 Discursive Resonance Model
In an interesting research paper on people’s perspectives of noise pollution caused by flight traffic, Christian Bröer (2006) presents his “discursive resonance model”. He finds that the rhetoric of the dominant political discourse regarding noise pollution often “resonates” in the way people voice their own opinion of noise pollution. He distinguishes between three ways in which people may relate to a dominant discourse; by having (1) a consonant voice, (2) a dissonant voice or (3) an autonomous (or non-resonating) voice. (Ibid.: 55)
People who have a consonant voice more or less copy the rhetoric of the dominant discourse to frame their personal opinion. In the Netherlands, to stick to Bröer’s own research, the policy for flight traffic takes noise pollution into consideration, by . However, it also has to take into consideration the fact that Schiphol airport is very important for the Dutch economy. As a result, the adopted policy is aimed at planning noise pollution. The policy determines how many decibels an aeroplane may produce, or how many planes are allowed to fly into Schiphol airport on a daily basis. Consequently, Bröer argues that consonant people accepted noise pollution as a necessary evil, but complained when they thought the limits of the policy had been breached.
Dissonant voices, on the other hand, partially reflect and, at the same time partially counter the dominant discourse. Generally, dissonant voices use the rhetoric of the dominant discourse to point out what aspect of that discourse they oppose or disagree with. They enlarge certain aspects of the discourse to nullify other aspects. Dissonant people living around Schiphol, for example, argued that the benefits of having a modern airport in the vicinity easily outweighed the disadvantages caused by flight traffic. Furthermore, they cast aside complaints of noise pollution, arguing that these were exaggerated complaints.
Autonomous or non-resonant voices neither reflect nor counter the dominant discourse. Instead, they argue in their own terms or relate to an altogether different discourse. Some people, for example, argued that noise pollution resembled violence, because it damaged one’s hearing abilities. Another, rather unique, autonomous perspective was given by a man who complained about being reminded of the war.
In this research I will occasionally make use of Bröer’s model to indicate how people relate to the dominant discourse in the field of higher education in India.
Chapter III
Education in India
Farhan: Since birth, all I’ve heard is ‘life is a race.’
Raju: … And if you don’t run the race quickly, someone might jump in front of you.
Rancho: Son of a bitch! Even to be born, 300 million sperm had to run a race.
Raju: 5:15 pm, I was born.
3.1 Introduction
In the movie 3 Idiots it soon becomes apparent that, within the field of higher education in India, there is a tendency to view certain professional courses, especially medicine and engineering, as superior to other courses. We see how Farhan’s father looks down upon his son’s interest in wildlife photography and, instead, tries to encourage him to keep pursuing his career in engineering. The primary driving forces behind the stories in 3 Idiots appear to be financial security, which seems hardly surprising in a country where poverty is never far away, and the respective status of a particular course.
The leverage of these driving forces is apparently so intense (at least this is how it is portrayed in 3 Idiots) that students are bound for such professional courses from the moment of birth, as the anecdote on the previous page goes to show. According to the filmmakers, this supposedly widespread and rigorous attitude is the cause of a fierce competition within the higher education system; a so-called “rat-race” to which many Indian students, apparently, succumb.
Rancho, the hero character in 3 Idiots, appears to be the only student to recognize the extremity of this mind-set. He propagates an entirely different approach to education. He argues that students should pick a course that they find interesting. By doing so, Rancho argues, students will (a) enjoy studying, which might improve their grades, and (b) they will find time for leisurely activities, which will improve their overall state of mind and their experience of student life.
The two different mind-sets presented in 3 Idiots can easily be described as two conflicting discourses within the “order of discourse” of higher education. (Fairclough, 2001: 235) The former, which advocates that the “sensible” educational decision is a professional course, like engineering or medicine, appears to be dominant, whereas the latter, advocating that one should choose an academic discipline according to one’s interests, is portrayed as unique (belonging only to Rancho). Nevertheless, Rancho’s power to imprint his view of life onto his friends suggests that his mind-set, this unique discourse, has the potential to change the hegemonic order of discourse.
Instead of going deeper into the conflict of discourses that is portrayed in 3 Idiots, in this chapter I will examine whether the dominant discourse, as mentioned above, actually exists in contemporary India. If so, how does it function?
To answer this question, we must briefly return to Fairclough’s conceptualisation of ‘discourse’ as a form of social practice that is both constituted by other social practices and constitutive of other social practices. In this chapter, I will focus on the former, that is the socially constituted elements of discourse, by looking at some major historical events and policies in the field of higher education in India. I will turn to the constitutive power of discourses in later chapters.
3.2 History of Higher Education in India
3.2.1 Education until 1970
Historically, education in India was a concern of the elite (Cheney, 2005). The knowledge of reading and writing was a privilege of the highest caste Indians, the Brahmin caste, which consisted mainly of Hindu priests. To other castes this knowledge was less meaningful and therefore most of the Indian population was illiterate.
When the British colonized India they ‘… reinforced the pre-existing elitist tendencies by tying entrance and advancement in government service to academic education.’ (Ibid.: 1) As a result, Brahmin caste people were able to take up relatively powerful positions in the colonial political system. Although a few other high castes were quick to realize the connection between education and increased power, the majority of the population remained illiterate.
When India became independent from the British, in 1947, it ‘… inherited a legacy of large-scale illiteracy and lack of proper provision for education.’ (Kingdon, 2007: 171) The drafters of the new Indian constitution, spearheaded by Dr. Ambedkar, who himself belonged to one of the lowest castes in India, decreed that, by 1960, education should be free and compulsory to every child up to fourteen years of age. Despite the goodwill of Dr. Ambedkar and his consortium, this goal remained elusive, as universal education still hasn’t been achieved today. (See PROBE team, 1999; Cheney, 2005; Kingdon, 2007)
Despite the overall agreement that education should become more accessible in India, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who was to become the first Prime Minister of India, quarrelled over the mode of development that post-colonial India should embark upon. (Francis,
2011: 299-230) Gandhi, hailed for his politics of non-violence, was unable to convince the people of India that traditional arts and craftsmanship ought to be maintained and developed for the benefit of the nation. Nehru, on the other hand, much in the spirit of his time, was devoted to science and technological advancement. (Francis, 2011: 300) He insisted that:
It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, of a rich country inhabited by starving people […]. Who indeed could afford to ignore science today? At every turn we have to seek its aid [...] the future belongs to science and those who make friends with science (Ram 1961: 564f, in Francis, 2011).
Not surprisingly, therefore, Nehru was a great proponent of the establishment of the IITs, which happened shortly after independence. The first Indian Institute of Technology was established in 1950. Following a report by the Sarkar Committee, an institute for technological higher education, based on the example of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was founded at Kharagpur in 1950, on the spot of the former Hijli Detention Camp. Jawaharlal Nehru, who had by then become Prime Minister of India, held a famous convocation speech here in 1956 in which he proclaimed, once again, that he saw technological advancement, particularly in the field of engineering, as the way forward for India:
Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands this fine monument of India to-day representing India’s urges, India’s future in the making. This picture seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India. […] we wish to solve our problems in India, that is to say, we want to advance in the technological sphere and the scientific sphere rapidly. […] the time has now come when the Engineer plays an infinitely greater role than anybody else. […] We are building up a new India and the administrator who is completely ignorant of engineering does not help much in administering. He cannot understand this new domain. You will find in a country technologically developed, how Engineers and Scientists play a far more important role even outside their sphere of Engineering and Science. That is right and that is bound to happen in India.
(P.M. Jawaharlal Nehru, 1956. Source: http://www.scholarsavenue.org/news/convocation-address-by-shri-jawaharlal-nehru-at-the-first-annual-convocation-held-on-21st-april-1956/)
Although the field of engineering, at the time, was still relatively small, Nehru continued by stating that his government would make sure that jobs would be provided for these highly skilled engineers and for future engineers to come:
[…T]he proper course should be for our big enterprises, either run directly by Government or indirectly as corporations, which are all the time hankering after Engineers and the like, to keep in touch with such Institutes all the time, to tell the Institute-we want this type of trained person or other so that even before the person has finished his course here, he has practically been allotted to a special job elsewhere […] There is going to be no lack, in India, of trained people having opportunities of doing worthwhile work. (Ibid.)
Establishing the link between education, modernity and financial security through job availability was one of the ways in which the government tried to promote higher education. However, due to a lack of access to education at the primary level, the enrolment ratio for higher education remained quite low. In spite of this fact, in 1961, the government declared the IITs to be Institutes of National Importance and deemed them worthy of a substantially large proportion of the government’s budget for education.
3.2.2 Education: 1970 – 2000
The period of 1970 – 2000 is marked by two historical events that greatly affected (higher) education in India; alterations in the government’s “reservation policy” and, later, India’s economic liberalization in the 1990s.
‘“Reservation”, also sometimes denoted as “affirmative action” or “positive discriminations”, refers to a policy or program, of giving certain preferences to certain groups (usually under-represented groups) over the other.’ (Laskar, 2010: 29) Until 1980, the reservation policy in India dictated that HE colleges and institutions should reserve 22.5% of their seats for members of the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), who represented the most disadvantaged groups in Indian society. (Weiskopf, 2003) In 1980, however, following a report by the Mandal commission, it was decreed that another group, known as the ‘Other Backward Castes’ (OBC) should be represented in the reservation policy. (de Zwart, 2000) For most colleges, certainly those controlled by the government, this meant that an additional 27% of admission seats had to be reserved, taking the total percentage of seats reserved for certain underprivileged groups up to 49.5%. Whether these amendments in the reservation policy had a positive or negative effect on India’s education system remains uncertain. ‘There have been costs (in terms of loss of efficiency) and benefits (in serving equity objectives) of this policy; however equity-efficiency trade-off has rarely been empirically studied.’ (Agarwal, 2006: 95) It seems likely, however, that the reservation policy played a
significant role in increasing the general enrolment ratio (GER) for higher education in the 1980s. (See fig. 2)
Although the alterations in the reservation policy may have had an effect on the GER for higher education in the 1980s, it is clearly overshadowed by the events of the 1990s, as the graph clearly shows. (See graph)5 At the beginning of this decade, the Indian government was faced with a looming financial crisis and, as a result, was forced to initiate a set of economic reforms in order to receive financial support from international lending agencies. (Rao, 2008: 48) Reductions on tariffs and
duties on imported goods provided and incentive for foreign companies to investigate the potential of the Indian market. Furthermore, industries which were previously owned and run by the state, like the banking and investment sector, were opened up to the private sector. (Lukose, 2005)
These reforms resulted in an enormous increase in jobs throughout India, especially in the technological sector. (Ahmed & Devarajan, 2007 in Rao, 2008: 49) More important, however, was the fact that multinational companies used different employment tactics than the traditional state- and family run companies. Instead of taking family ties as the most important measure for employment, these companies employed workers on basis of merit. As such, they were particularly interested in the highly skilled, yet comparatively cheap, labourers that India had to offer. (Rao, 2008)
As a result of these economic reforms, the Indian middle class started to expand rapidly. These middle and higher income groups were quick to realize the connection between education and job opportunities and higher salaries. Now that they had more money to spare, they were
5
This graph by Agarwal is simply used to show that both enrolment and the number of institutions expanded rapidly since independence. I do not intend to argue that there is, or is not, a relation between the two.
Growth of Institutions an Enrolment in Higher Education
willing and able to pay higher tuition fees, in return for better quality education. Entrepreneurs, in turn, recognized that higher education was turning into a viable market. ‘The state – [incapable of coping with the rising demands for education alone] – was left with no alternative but to allow the entry of private enterprise in the area of higher education.’ (Agarwal, 2006: 8)
This marked the beginning of a period in which new private colleges and institutions shot up like mushrooms. These colleges recognized the demand for professionally trained workers and started to offer professional courses, such as engineering, medicine and management, rather than undergraduate programs in arts, science and commerce. ‘During this period, very few universities and colleges were set up by the government sector and fewer still were also brought within the ambit of government funding.’ (Ibid.) As a consequence, the newly found higher education institutions were either aided by state governments or relied solely on tuition fees. The IITs, on the other hand, continued to receive large amounts of government funding due to their status as Institutes of National Importance. Another IIT was established t Guwahati in 1994, following student protests at not having an IIT in the vicinity. With specialized courses in engineering already firmly established at these institutions, IIT graduates were among the first to be employed by multinational companies.
3.2.3 Education: 2000 Onwards
Since the economic reforms of the nineties, the Indian education apparatus has been growing rapidly. With regards to primary education, a number of researches suggest that India is getting closer and closer to attaining universal elementary education. (See PROBE-team, 1999; Cheney, 2005; Kingdon, 2007) The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the governing body for matters concerning education in India, similarly portrays these statistics; the GER reaching over 100% and school drop-out rates
decreasing. (See table)
In part, these encouraging statistics are the result of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) - the education for all movement – which, though set up in 1993, did not become fully operational until 2001. Its main goal was the construction of new primary and secondary
schools, as access to education appeared to be the main obstacle preventing universal education. UNESCO reports:
During 1990-91 to 2004-05, the number of primary schools increased from 0.56 million to 0.77 million. However, the annual average growth rate of primary schools was 1.31% from 1990-91 to 2000-01 and it increased to 4.7% during 2000-01 to 2004-05. Similarly, the annual average growth rate of upper primary schools was 3.14% during 1990-91 to 2000-01 and it increased to 7.43% during 2000-01 to 2004-05. This increase in number of primary and upper primary schools may be attributed to the launching of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in the country. (UNESCO, 2008: 32)
As for higher education, the number of colleges and institutions also continued to grow at a rapid pace, in spite of the fact that the central government offered little or no funding. (see table) A noteworthy trend of the past decade is the growing number of degree-granting colleges and universities. (Agarwal, 2006) Many private colleges sought to get degree-granting powers through state-legislature, in order to attract more students.
Furthermore, the number of IITs went from six in 1994, to sixteen in 2012, to cope with the annually increasing amount of applications. However, as we will see in the next section of this chapter, the number of applicants still far exceeds the number of seats available in the IITs and, as a result, the admission rate is decreasing every year.
3.3 The Contours of a Discourse
The previous outline of India’s higher education history allows us to reassess the possibility that a discourse, such as the one portrayed in 3 Idiots, can exist in India. First of all, we have seen that the Indian education system, both elementary and higher education, underwent periods of rapid growth, particularly in the last three decades. These expansions were the result of growing demands and improvements in the accessibility of education – partially due to the reservation policy and the actual establishment of educational facilities by SSA and other governmental projects.
Secondly, as far as higher education goes, we have seen a continuous prominence of technological and professional education in India. Science and technological advancement were put forward as the main driving forces that would lead India into modernity. From independence onwards, the Indian government has put its prestigious IITs on a pedestal, giving them much more funding than other institutions of higher education. Then, as a result of the economic reforms and the concomitant demand for workers specifically trained in just these branches, technological and professional education received another major boost in the 1990s. According to Agarwal, this trend is not unique to India:
The growth of professional higher education follows similar trends elsewhere in the world. Higher education system, these days, is no longer dominated by the arts and the sciences. Now these core subjects are covered by layers of professional education: first, by the liberal professions; then by technical professions, principally the many branches of engineering and the technical sciences that accompanied the successive waves of industrialization including the latest wave of the information sciences; followed by the caring professions which were stimulated by the growth of the welfare state and the most recent by the new upsurge in enterprise professions, centered upon, management, and accountancy. The intellectual effects of the shift from liberal education to professional training have often been observed, but their cumulative effects may only become decisive now in re-shaping higher education. (Agarwal, 2006: 48)
Based on these findings, we may safely assume that the 3 Idiots discourse exists. In the next section, I will briefly describe the current format of elementary education in India, to see if a preference for technological and professional education is still discernible in the education apparatus. Furthermore, to conclude this chapter, I will take a quick glance at education in the Indian media, since the media tend to have a profound impact on public discourses. (See for example: Bell, 1994)
3.4 The Current Education System
3.4.1 Current Format of Education
Education in India starts with primary school, when a child is at the age of 5 or 6. Depending on the location, there may be a choice of schools. Similar to higher education, India has private, private-aided and public primary schools. In accordance with the constitution, the public schools are funded by the government and require no tuition fees. ‘Quality of state-run schools ranges from top-notch to abysmal.’ (Cheney, 2005: 4) Private and private-aided primary schools, on the other hand, do charge tuition fees and are generally known to maintain higher standards of education. Not surprisingly, this three-tiered school system gives rise to an unequal distribution, since a relatively large proportion of Indian families cannot afford to pay tuition fees. Consequently, private aided schools cater primarily to children of middle class families and private schools, boasting air conditioning and English-medium instruction, cater to the elite. (Ibid.: 8-9)
Students complete five years of primary school before continuing on to “upper primary school” at the age of 11 or 12. It is at this stage that most schools, at least those that follow the national curriculum outline, will begin teaching science and technology, as well as social sciences and arts. (Cheney, 2005: 5)
The next step is from primary to secondary school, which happens when a student is around fourteen years of age. Secondary school, similar to primary school, is also divided into lower and upper secondary school. Lower secondary school is rounded up with a first real examination at the end of the 10th grade. The results of this examination may determine the student’s entry to a particular upper secondary school, as some schools have cut-off marks for admission. (Cheney, 2005: 8)
The Format of Education in India
Lower Primary School (Class 1-5, Age 6-11) Upper Primary (Class 6-8, Age 11-14) Lower Secondary (Class 9-10, Age 14-16) Higher Secondary (Class 11-12, Age 16-18) Higher Education
In a similar vein, the outcome of the 10th grade exam, may determine what stream a student is eligible for.6 In upper secondary school students have to choose a stream, a set of courses, in which they wish to continue. There are three streams to choose between: science, commerce and humanities. ‘The most prestigious stream (which also has the highest cut-off in terms of marks required in the grade 10 exams) is the science stream, the second is commerce, and the third is humanities (arts).’ (Cheney, 2005: 8)
According to one IITM student: ‘… all the smart kids go for the science stream, the less smart ones do commerce or humanities.’ (Int. 16, ♂, ME) Most other students that I interviewed agreed with this statement, though there was one who thought it needed some refinement:
Yes, a lot of class toppers go for the science stream. It’s common perception that science is for the smart kids, but usually they are simply better at science. They would probably suck at humanities, because they aimed at just one thing… [science stream], they may even have some extra tuition for it. (Int. 12, ♂, EP)
Clearly, both statements attest to a general association between science and intelligence, that is evident in the education system. As a direct consequence of this common belief, the Arts and Commerce streams are regarded as inferior; they are for the less intelligent students. This perception is also pronounced in 3 idiots when Virus, the principle of the ICE, mockingly tells Rancho: ‘If you prefer simple language join an Arts and Commerce college.’
Although being classified as intelligent can, in itself be a reason to opt for the science stream, it turns out there are more practical reasons to go for science, as was pointed out to me by another student:
First of all, to get into an engineering programme at an IIT you have to do science in school. So if you did humanities or commerce you can forget about that, but the other way round this is not the case. If you do the science stream, you can still decide to go to an Arts college if you want. (Int. 22, ♂, OE)
Choosing humanities or commerce apparently diminishes the options for higher education, while choosing science leaves all options open. Based on this fact, we could argue that the idea of the science stream being the most sensible option is embedded in the education system itself.
6
I exercise some caution here, because many students I spoke with argued that the results of the 10th grade exam should not be overrated. According to them, a student can always apply for any stream he or she wishes to pursue, just not at every school.
Padma Chandramouli, a Chennai-based professional who organises exchange programmes between German and Indian universities, further explained to me that: ‘… the science stream is, in fact, so immensely popular that many upper secondary schools do not even offer commerce, let alone humanities.’ (Int. 27, ♀, Professional) One of the reasons these schools do this, according to Chandramouli, is to be able to boast of a complete dedication to the science stream. ‘This may not matter so much to the students, but to some parents it is seen as very important. [The schools know] [t]hey will be willing to pay more for it.’ (Int. 27, ♀, Professional)
After two years of upper secondary school, each stream is concluded by a set of final exams in 12th grade. These exams, once again, are based on the respective state or national boards of education. The results of these examinations are extremely important for students who wish to continue their education. ‘Well known colleges specify cut-off marks for admission in various courses of study, which may sometimes be extremely high (over 90% marks not being uncommon.’ (Cheney, 2005: 9) Top-notch colleges and universities, like the IITs go even further, requiring their students to pass an entrance examination.
The top students wanting to pursue professional school (medical, engineering, law) sit for additional school-based entrance exams to determine their admissions into these specific programs. Most science stream students try to get into the engineering or medical colleges as these have the most prestige within India. For the commerce line, students typically try to get admissions into a commerce, accounting, business or technology program of study. Most students in the humanities stream aim to enter the arts colleges. (Cheney, 2005: 9)
As one would expect given these conditions, the competition at the end of 12th grade is rather fierce. IIT-JEE, the entrance examination for admissions into one of the sixteen IITs provides the best example of this competition. Last year over 500,000 students sat for JEE competing for a total of 9,885 seats spread out over the 16 IITs. (The Hindu, 2013)7 This makes for an admission rate of less than 2% (by comparison, Harvard College in the US has an acceptance rate of around 8%). (Cheney, 2005)
7
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/9885-seats-available-in-17-iits-results-on-june-23/article4834329.ece
3.4.2 Shadow Education
In the light of this competition, educational entrepreneurs once again found a gap in the market. Since upper secondary schools busy themselves with following the curriculum set out by the state or national boards of education, they spend less time preparing students for entrance examinations. As a result, a shadow education industry, known locally as the “coaching classes”, began to develop, that resembles the juku’s and hagwon’s of Japan and Korea, respectively (see: Frost, 1991; Lee & Larson, 1999; Dawson 2010). While, private or extra-curricular tuitions were, in itself, not a new phenomenon in India, the rationale behind it has changed over time:
Originally tuitions were meant for students who were lagging behind in the syllabus due to sickness, change of school, change of Education Boards, or other factors. But over time, as admission to various professional colleges has become more competitive and sought after, tuitions have become a normal pursuit for adolescents. (Verma et al., 2002: 501)
Indeed, nearly all of my friends and interviewees at IITM had gone through at least one year of coaching classes that specifically trained them to “crack” (pass) JEE. Some of them had to move far away from their parental homes to be “coached” at one of the countries most renowned coaching centers in Kota, Rajasthan or in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.
Often, the preparation for the JEE begins as early as primary school. It culminates in the final year of secondary school that includes up to six hours of training and homework at the JEE coaching schools, in addition to regular school classes. The nature of teaching in the coaching centers is intensive and demands that students distance themselves from a normal adolescent life. (Varma & Kapur, 2009: 707)
In an article in The Hindu (2005)8, prof. S.S. Murphy, affiliated to IIT Delhi, estimates the
annual cumulative turnover of the coaching industry for JEE at around 1,000 crores (~125 million euro), totally spent by parents. According to Murphy’s estimates, this is ten times more than the annual expenditure of an IIT and he wrote this article in 2005. Since then, 9 extra IITs have been established and the number of applicants has tripled.
8 http://www.hindu.com/edu/2005/01/25/stories/2005012500140300.htm
3.4.3 Visible Evidence of a Dominant Discourse
Anyone who has lived in India for an extensive period of time and has read the newspapers, knows that in the months of April till June, local, regional and national newspapers thrive off stories concerning education, in particular about the bountiful and competitive examinations. Miracle stories about 12 year old kids passing JEE, for example, become a recurring theme.
Coaching centres also use this period to place full-page advertisements in newspapers, in which they congratulate their latest batch of successful JEE students. (See next page) These advertisements and miracle stories reproduce and circulate the idea that these students are intelligent (maintain the tradition of
excellence), successful and even content (Many smiling faces of success). Such advertisements or miracle stories are hardly ever
seen to be about students of arts or commerce. By linking the popular professional courses to notions of excellence and success, the newspapers strengthen the previously mentioned discourse.
It is not just in the newspapers, however, that this discourse is reproduced and circulated. Universities offering professional courses like engineering and medicine publicly promote their courses by advertising placement rates (the amount of students that get employed upon completing their education) and packages (the salary these newly employed students were offered). They do so on their websites, in newspapers, but also frequently on billboards along the highways and in the city. (see next page)
The content and the amount visible evidence of a discourse that favours professional education over other forms of education, not only reveals that this discourse should be considered the dominant discourse in India, but simultaneously gives an example of the extent to which it is being produced, reproduced, circulated and consumed as a discursive practice.
Newspaper Advertisements for Coaching Centres
3.5 Conclusions
By examining a number of historical events in the field of education in India, in the first section of this chapter, we established that the existence of a discourse that favours professional courses was likely. Professional higher education – particularly the technological courses – was promoted by the Indian government from the moment of India’s independence. Technological advancement would lead India to modernity and self-reliance, which, after decades of colonial rule, were high on the political agenda. The establishment of the IITs and their subsequent nomination as Institutes of National Importance stands testimony to this trend.
With the additional funding that these institutes received they were able to maintain high standards of education. The skills and credentials of students from these institutes were recognized worldwide, particularly after the Indian government was forced to initiate economic reforms in the 1990s. The meritocratic approach to recruiting employees, together with the overall increase in job opportunities, prompted an unprecedented demand for education at all levels. As for higher education, the Indian government was unable to keep up with the demand for professional education and eventually allowed private entrepreneurs to enter the domain of higher education.
As we have seen, this trend still continues today. A clear favouritism for subjects related to science is noticeable in the Indian education system, particularly at the secondary stage. The best students almost inevitably go for the science stream in school, which is a necessary prerequisite to be able to apply for a seat in India’s prestigious institutes of higher education, such as the IITs. Because of this trend, science students are often perceived as smarter than their commerce or humanities counterparts.
However, it is in the shadows of the current education system, India’s coaching class industry, that the preference for professional education and the associated prestigious institutes becomes most visible. Countless numbers of students are enrolled in extra-curricular coaching classes to prepare for the highly competitive entrance examinations. Finally, the media also have their share in spreading what can easily be defined as the dominant discourse in the field of higher education in India.
Chapter IV
Parental Involvement
Farhan wants to become a wildlife photographer instead of an engineer:
Farhan: Rancho has a simple belief – make your passion your profession, then work will become
play.
Farhan’s father: What’ll you earn in that jungle? Farhan: A small stipend, but I’ll learn a lot.
Farhan’s father: Five years from now, when you see your friends buying cars and homes, you’ll
curse yourself.
Farhan: Life as an engineer will bring only frustration. Then I’ll curse you… I’d rather curse
myself, dad.
Farhan’s father: The world will laugh!
4.1 Introduction
In the previous chapter we saw how certain historical events and policies affected the field of higher education in India and how they formed the contours of a discourse that favours the professional courses over the liberal courses. In the following chapter we will examine how the dominant discourse becomes visible in the EDPs of Indian students.
Once again, I will align my research with a hypothesis deducted from the 3 Idiots movie, namely that Indian parents are highly involved in their children’s education. As the anecdote on the previous page goes to show, the filmmakers argue that parents have an important role to play in the EDP of their children. What’s more, they suggest that parental involvement often happens along the lines of the dominant discourse; sometimes taking on rather pressurizing forms, which may work negatively on a student’s future experience of higher education. The latter proposition will be further examined in the next chapter. In this chapter, I will first examine parental motivations for children’s education and, secondly, I will investigate how parents try to influence their children’s educational careers from primary school onwards. Furthermore, we will see whether parental behaviour, with respect to EDPs, is consonant, dissonant or autonomous in relation to the previously described dominant discourse.
Strangely, very little appears to have been written about how parents are involved in their children’s education. Most researches that address the issue of children’s education tend to have a different primary focus, like the mother-father power equation within the household (Baral, Das and Dash, 1999: 57-82), differences between single- and dual-income families (Shukla, 1987) and stress (Verma et al., 2002; Rao, 2008). There are, however, plenty studies conducted with western samples which suggest that parents tend to have a rather strong influence on their children’s education. (For example: Eccles et al., 1990; Jodl et al., 2001; Brooks, 2003; Davis-Kean, 2005)
The findings presented in this chapter are primarily based on accounts given by IITM students, since most of their parents live far removed from the IIT. Not surprisingly, it soon became apparent that parental involvement was highest in the final years leading up to higher education; as a result, the majority of my interview questions were focused on parental involvement in secondary school.
