Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Seeking better facilities

Any opposition to reservation in the form now employed (with profit mainly to politicians) is branded as politically incorrect. The alarming conditions in Tamil Nadu's colleges (`A fair deal for teachers,' editorial on May 23) should be seen as a telling aside on this burning issue. Government and aided universities are being treated as stepchildren in our so-called "knowledge society." Many have been going steadily downhill for over half-a-century, not because they are "government" but because reservation has turned them into captive vote banks, without improving the real educational status of deprived communities. Quotas in college and university do not address the basic deprivation at the elementary and high school level and end up ghettoising government institutions and devaluing their degrees and diplomas. This approach will only fuel resentful feelings of superiority and inferiority in innocent young minds that have not been given a level playing field to start out with. Hard decisions to improve government schools, attracting talented people as teachers, providing good buildings and facilities, and designing relevant curricula will receive more support from an increasingly education-hungry populace than invidious arguments perpetuating inequalities.

Vasantha Surya,
Chennai

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