Punjab's jagged education graph

From a British-educated lawyer and candidates with multiple degrees to those who haven't passed Class 12 and others who are plain illiterate, the nominees of leading political parties mirror the jagged education graph of people in Punjab. Learning curve

Updated on: Jan 24, 2012, 01:25:43 IST

Hindustan Times | By Aarish Chhabra, Chandigarh

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From a British-educated lawyer and candidates with multiple degrees to those who haven't passed Class 12 and others who are plain illiterate, the nominees of leading political parties mirror the jagged education graph of people in Punjab.

A comparative study of the educational backgrounds of candidates - based on voluntary disclosures made in affidavits submitted with nomination papers - shows that the Congress and former finance minister Manpreet Badal's People's Party of Punjab (PPP) lead the charts. On the other hand, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal's party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, paints a "SAD" picture.

Congress has the most number of candidates with a bachelor's degree or more. Of 117 candidates, 62 hold bachelor's degrees. PPP and SAD also score heavily on this front.

Forty-two of PPP's 90 candidates have bachelor's degrees, of which 13 have a master's degree to boot and four are doctors.

However, among the three major players in Punjab, SAD has the most number of candidates - 32 - who have not even passed class 12. The Congress has 35 names while the PPP has the least with 26 names.

Law a favourite

Among those who chose to get professional training at the bachelor's level, law emerges as the favourite. The PPP and the SAD have eight lawyers each. One of SAD's law graduates, Tejinder Pal Sandhu, also holds a journalism degree, making him the lone 'qualified' scribe in the main contenders' lists. In fact two of SAD's nominees have research doctorates (PhD).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aarish Chhabra
Aarish Chhabra is an Associate Editor with the Hindustan Times online team, writing news reports and explanatory articles, besides overseeing coverage for the website. His career spans nearly two decades across India's most respected newsrooms in print, digital, and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats — from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary — building a body of work that reflects both editorial rigour and a deep curiosity about the society he writes for. Aarish studied English literature, sociology and history, besides journalism, at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and started his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of ‘The Big Small Town: How Life Looks from Chandigarh’, a collection of critical essays originally serialised as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, examining the culture and politics of a city that is far more than its famous architecture — and, in doing so, holding up a mirror to modern India. In stints at the BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV, and Jagran New Media, he worked across formats and languages; mainly English, also Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project replicated across the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and content quality. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, he developed a website that simplified academic research in management. At Bennett University's Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing, to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from a small town to a bigger town to a mega city for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture — a perspective that informs both his writing and his view of the world. When not working, he is constantly reading long-form journalism or watching brainrot content, sometimes both at the same time.Read More

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