When government takes over any system which can otherwise be run well by other agencies the following take place:
1. The system becomes fossilized with no innovation allowed. The same tone I find in this article also. ‘We were doing a good job’. Even if there are umpteen ways of doing it better outside the government control.
2. Corruption sets into this moribund system.
3. The system collapses and the government spends the tax money on probes, commissions to fix responsibility, investigations, litigation, etc..
4. Finally when everything goes out of hand, it allows other agencies to do the job it bungled.
All these things have happened with the governments trying to control the admissions in the entire country. This is not a lone case. Take for example, the telecom department before it was opened up for private sector participation, liquor vending by the government agencies and the consequent deaths due to illicit liquor, the farm sector, the electricity sector, this is a long list.
The government should learn that it has been elected to govern and facilitate government. Not to take over the business of others.
Very informative piece by Mr Anil Swarup, who has also served as a former school education Secretary of the Govt of India. One can only hope that the recently appointed Committee, which has now sought the views of students and parents also on ways to ensure the sanctity of the examination process, will come up with actionable solutions to address this seeming mess in the testing process for admission to higher education institutions. The bigger expectation, though, would be that the suggestions put forward by the panel are implemented in both letter and spirit, and the recommendations do not remain confined to the files only.
When government takes over any system which can otherwise be run well by other agencies the following take place:
1. The system becomes fossilized with no innovation allowed. The same tone I find in this article also. ‘We were doing a good job’. Even if there are umpteen ways of doing it better outside the government control.
2. Corruption sets into this moribund system.
3. The system collapses and the government spends the tax money on probes, commissions to fix responsibility, investigations, litigation, etc..
4. Finally when everything goes out of hand, it allows other agencies to do the job it bungled.
All these things have happened with the governments trying to control the admissions in the entire country. This is not a lone case. Take for example, the telecom department before it was opened up for private sector participation, liquor vending by the government agencies and the consequent deaths due to illicit liquor, the farm sector, the electricity sector, this is a long list.
The government should learn that it has been elected to govern and facilitate government. Not to take over the business of others.
Very informative piece by Mr Anil Swarup, who has also served as a former school education Secretary of the Govt of India. One can only hope that the recently appointed Committee, which has now sought the views of students and parents also on ways to ensure the sanctity of the examination process, will come up with actionable solutions to address this seeming mess in the testing process for admission to higher education institutions. The bigger expectation, though, would be that the suggestions put forward by the panel are implemented in both letter and spirit, and the recommendations do not remain confined to the files only.
Miss the columnist’s tweets. Including what Chanakya didn’t say.