Reservation in institutes stirs debate

Government endorses the idea of reservations for (SC/ST) students. Do you support reservations?

Should the private educational institutes make provision for reservation of seats for Schedule Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribe (ST) students? The Union Government endorses this view on the ground that students from these communities need special attention as they lag behind their general counterparts.

A Constitutional Amendment Bill has been passed in both the Houses of Parliament to this effect. However, the private institutes feel that it is an 'encroachment' on their functioning, which may affect the "performance, quality of education and economic health of these centres".

"Reservations will facilitate entry of many students, who are inferior to the students coming through selection process. This will affect the quality of intake and ultimately the performance," claims Ashok Ogra, Director Apeejay Institute of Mass Communications here. He says that the reservation provision would discourage private organisations to open new institutions.

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Manohar Chellani, Secretary General, Education Promotion Society for India, a body working as an interface between government, academia and industry on education issues, says that the new Bill would lead to economic crisis in the private institutes.

"The private institutes have spent a lot of money on infrastructure. They may not be able to maintain those facilitiies as reservation of seats would lead to squeezing of income of the institute," he claims.