The following comment of mine appears (under the name Ravi Ravi as Vuukle comments system has messed up my name as Ravi Ravi and does not give me an easy way to fix that) in The Hindu article dated May 29th 2014 covering the outcry about non-graduate Smriti Irani being appointed as HRD minister, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/judge-me-by-my-work-irani-on-education-qualification-row/article6060518.ece:
"Judge me by my work" - Terrific response by Honourble Minster for HRD, Smt. Smriti Irani. She certainly is an articulate speaker and has achieved great success in her chosen field(s) of work at a young age. Hon'ble PM, Shri Narendra Modi, had said in an April 2013 speech, paraphrased - Today in our education system employability is low... We must work on skill development with a lot of energy. end-paraphrased-part. ... HRD minister has to bring in administrative determination and will to change the Indian academic system (at least those parts that are funded by taxpayer money) to better serve the needs of its students. That needs a strong personality who has self-confidence. A PhD qualification is needed for research and not administration. In fact, many times, PhDs are disconnected from ground realities and are poor administrators. Let us give Smt. Irani a chance to change the Indian academic system to deliver job oriented skills to youth thereby making them employable.
--- end comment ---
Notes on Shri Modi's April 2013 speech referred above are available here and the youtube video of his speech is here. The notes related to Shri Modi's comments on education are as follows:
[@ around 1 hr. 45 min. 00 secs.] Skill development. Today in our education system employability is low. Everybody says ten people came but none were of use (worthy to hire). We must bring a change in this. And we must do this with a lot of focus. We must work on skill development with a lot of energy.
--- end notes on Shri Modi's comments on education ---
Now the above-mentioned comment on The Hindu website has 43 up votes and 32 down votes with one opposing (down) response - Abhinesh responded that it's not a child's play to give her a chance and that (in his view) it is a blunder. He also said some school kids speak fluent English and that does not mean they can be made ministers.
This above response has 74 up votes and 24 down votes.
So, going by the cumulative up and down votes (reversing the up and down for opposing response), it is 67 in support of my comment and 106 against! Interesting :).
My response to the above response as shown on the web page is as follows (slightly edited to fix a typo):
Thanks Abhinesh for your response...In my view, Smt. Irani is a self-taught (beyond 12th std. or F.Y.B.A) and self-made person. She has shown her intellectual ability in debates she engaged in as a spokesperson of the BJP. You cannot prejudge that she will not be able to handle the Minister of HRD responsibility...Mr. Modi has received a clear mandate to be the PM of the country in a quasi-presidential style election. Now we have to give him freedom to appoint his team of ministers and some time for performance. He is reported to have asked for 100 day agendas from ministers. So let us give both Mr. Modi and Ms. Irani 100 days. If during that period her work does not come out to be satisfactory then I think citizens can suggest a change.
--- end response ---
The above response got 7 up votes and 0 down votes.
[I had first submitted a response with this additional paragraph at the bottom, "Very importantly, the constitution does not dictate that ministers have to be graduates or have higher qualifications. We have to abide by the constitution or seek to amend it through constitutional means." As that did not get shown initially I resubmitted the comment without the above paragraph, and that comment got shown. Later my earlier comment was also accepted and is now shown towards the bottom of the comment thread on the article web page.]
Abhinesh made a further comment (in response to another person's comment in the same comment thread) saying, in essence, "we might have missed scope of development which could be accomplished if it was some other knowledgeable person" (instead of Irani). The following two responses of mine are now shown below that comment:
I think I understand how you feel about this qualification issue. But, it seems to me that, some of the HRD ministry main challenges now are political like getting more funding from govt., ensuring more effective utilization of funds, dealing with various pressure groups trying to get their way (and get the taxpayer funds for their groups/states), and dealing with a very messy legal situation about the lack of power in UGC and AICTE to punish poor performance and/or malpractices in universities and colleges…UPA-II tried to bring in a new bill to establish National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) replacing UGC and AICTE, but that bill ran into problems with some pressure groups....My view is that expert advice on higher education policy & implementation is available in plenty to the minister from senior academics like UGC chairman and imp. members, AICTE chairman and imp. members, Planning commission experts on education etc. and the officials of MHRD, UGC & AICTE.
...
I must also add that my interest in higher education is in UGC and AICTE regulated institutions which serve the vast majority of higher education students in the country and so I have not mentioned anything about the elite IITs or IIMs (besides medical education sector as a whole).
--- end 2 part response ---
The above 2 comments have so far received 1 up vote and 0 down votes.
In addition to the above-mentioned Hindu article, there are a couple more interesting articles related to this matter:
1) This supports Smriti Irani as HRD minister and gives a not-so-positive view (author's view not mine) of three of the four previous HRD ministers who were well qualified, http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/PwVQxqfEWjPw8C2gzl1uHL/Smriti-Irani-as-HRD-minister-Why-not.html.
2) HRD minister Smt. Smriti Irani aiming for education reform! Here's the article, http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140531/nation-current-affairs/article/nda-mulls-new-education-policy.
A small extract from the article, "The aim is to equip students with skills and knowledge to eliminate manpower shortage in science, technology, academics and industry."
Ravi: Fantastic! Way to go, HRD minister madam! I hope the proposed new commission on education will periodically share its findings and plans with the public and invite comments from the public.
"Judge me by my work" - Terrific response by Honourble Minster for HRD, Smt. Smriti Irani. She certainly is an articulate speaker and has achieved great success in her chosen field(s) of work at a young age. Hon'ble PM, Shri Narendra Modi, had said in an April 2013 speech, paraphrased - Today in our education system employability is low... We must work on skill development with a lot of energy. end-paraphrased-part. ... HRD minister has to bring in administrative determination and will to change the Indian academic system (at least those parts that are funded by taxpayer money) to better serve the needs of its students. That needs a strong personality who has self-confidence. A PhD qualification is needed for research and not administration. In fact, many times, PhDs are disconnected from ground realities and are poor administrators. Let us give Smt. Irani a chance to change the Indian academic system to deliver job oriented skills to youth thereby making them employable.
--- end comment ---
Notes on Shri Modi's April 2013 speech referred above are available here and the youtube video of his speech is here. The notes related to Shri Modi's comments on education are as follows:
[@ around 1 hr. 45 min. 00 secs.] Skill development. Today in our education system employability is low. Everybody says ten people came but none were of use (worthy to hire). We must bring a change in this. And we must do this with a lot of focus. We must work on skill development with a lot of energy.
--- end notes on Shri Modi's comments on education ---
Now the above-mentioned comment on The Hindu website has 43 up votes and 32 down votes with one opposing (down) response - Abhinesh responded that it's not a child's play to give her a chance and that (in his view) it is a blunder. He also said some school kids speak fluent English and that does not mean they can be made ministers.
This above response has 74 up votes and 24 down votes.
So, going by the cumulative up and down votes (reversing the up and down for opposing response), it is 67 in support of my comment and 106 against! Interesting :).
My response to the above response as shown on the web page is as follows (slightly edited to fix a typo):
Thanks Abhinesh for your response...In my view, Smt. Irani is a self-taught (beyond 12th std. or F.Y.B.A) and self-made person. She has shown her intellectual ability in debates she engaged in as a spokesperson of the BJP. You cannot prejudge that she will not be able to handle the Minister of HRD responsibility...Mr. Modi has received a clear mandate to be the PM of the country in a quasi-presidential style election. Now we have to give him freedom to appoint his team of ministers and some time for performance. He is reported to have asked for 100 day agendas from ministers. So let us give both Mr. Modi and Ms. Irani 100 days. If during that period her work does not come out to be satisfactory then I think citizens can suggest a change.
--- end response ---
The above response got 7 up votes and 0 down votes.
[I had first submitted a response with this additional paragraph at the bottom, "Very importantly, the constitution does not dictate that ministers have to be graduates or have higher qualifications. We have to abide by the constitution or seek to amend it through constitutional means." As that did not get shown initially I resubmitted the comment without the above paragraph, and that comment got shown. Later my earlier comment was also accepted and is now shown towards the bottom of the comment thread on the article web page.]
Abhinesh made a further comment (in response to another person's comment in the same comment thread) saying, in essence, "we might have missed scope of development which could be accomplished if it was some other knowledgeable person" (instead of Irani). The following two responses of mine are now shown below that comment:
I think I understand how you feel about this qualification issue. But, it seems to me that, some of the HRD ministry main challenges now are political like getting more funding from govt., ensuring more effective utilization of funds, dealing with various pressure groups trying to get their way (and get the taxpayer funds for their groups/states), and dealing with a very messy legal situation about the lack of power in UGC and AICTE to punish poor performance and/or malpractices in universities and colleges…UPA-II tried to bring in a new bill to establish National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) replacing UGC and AICTE, but that bill ran into problems with some pressure groups....My view is that expert advice on higher education policy & implementation is available in plenty to the minister from senior academics like UGC chairman and imp. members, AICTE chairman and imp. members, Planning commission experts on education etc. and the officials of MHRD, UGC & AICTE.
...
I must also add that my interest in higher education is in UGC and AICTE regulated institutions which serve the vast majority of higher education students in the country and so I have not mentioned anything about the elite IITs or IIMs (besides medical education sector as a whole).
--- end 2 part response ---
The above 2 comments have so far received 1 up vote and 0 down votes.
In addition to the above-mentioned Hindu article, there are a couple more interesting articles related to this matter:
1) This supports Smriti Irani as HRD minister and gives a not-so-positive view (author's view not mine) of three of the four previous HRD ministers who were well qualified, http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/PwVQxqfEWjPw8C2gzl1uHL/Smriti-Irani-as-HRD-minister-Why-not.html.
2) HRD minister Smt. Smriti Irani aiming for education reform! Here's the article, http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140531/nation-current-affairs/article/nda-mulls-new-education-policy.
A small extract from the article, "The aim is to equip students with skills and knowledge to eliminate manpower shortage in science, technology, academics and industry."
Ravi: Fantastic! Way to go, HRD minister madam! I hope the proposed new commission on education will periodically share its findings and plans with the public and invite comments from the public.
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