Urban advantage
We all talk about how everybody has right to education and access to education.
I travel around the country side a lot on work and try to strike conversation with students and youngsters while travelling in public transport. The places I visit could be large cities like Madurai and Coimbatore, medium sized towns like Tanjore and Cuddalore and smaller towns and localities. Of course, I interact with youngsters in Chennai and Delhi.
The youngsters studying in English medium in smaller towns do converse in English with a lot of prompting. They are able to convey ideas and matters even if the English is not gramatically correct. One thing common was the general awareness and knowledge of current events decerases as the size of the town decreases. There seems to be a critical density and total population threshold beyond which general awareness and knowledge of current events increase exponentially.
The youngsters in smaller towns are not aware of the opportunities and academic streams available. They tend to discover these only when they move to larger city or from relatives and family friends in larger cities. And those whose circle of friends and relatives are confined to smaller towns and villages are oblivious to such information. The situation of students studying in vernacular medium in smaller towns is even worse. By the time they move to a larger town and discover the academic opportunities, It is too late for them.
The English newspapers which have local edition tend to carry far less news than their large city editions.
On the whole there is an urban bias and urban students are at a great advantage. Hostel students in reputed colleges and institutions in smaller towns have an advantage as the hostels of such institutions tend to have students from larger cities thereby increasing the awareness level.
It would not be bad idea to start a free service for information on academic opportunities available by voluntary organisations in smaller towns and rural areas. The urban advantage has to be neutralised as much as possible to provide fair opportunity for everybody
I travel around the country side a lot on work and try to strike conversation with students and youngsters while travelling in public transport. The places I visit could be large cities like Madurai and Coimbatore, medium sized towns like Tanjore and Cuddalore and smaller towns and localities. Of course, I interact with youngsters in Chennai and Delhi.
The youngsters studying in English medium in smaller towns do converse in English with a lot of prompting. They are able to convey ideas and matters even if the English is not gramatically correct. One thing common was the general awareness and knowledge of current events decerases as the size of the town decreases. There seems to be a critical density and total population threshold beyond which general awareness and knowledge of current events increase exponentially.
The youngsters in smaller towns are not aware of the opportunities and academic streams available. They tend to discover these only when they move to larger city or from relatives and family friends in larger cities. And those whose circle of friends and relatives are confined to smaller towns and villages are oblivious to such information. The situation of students studying in vernacular medium in smaller towns is even worse. By the time they move to a larger town and discover the academic opportunities, It is too late for them.
The English newspapers which have local edition tend to carry far less news than their large city editions.
On the whole there is an urban bias and urban students are at a great advantage. Hostel students in reputed colleges and institutions in smaller towns have an advantage as the hostels of such institutions tend to have students from larger cities thereby increasing the awareness level.
It would not be bad idea to start a free service for information on academic opportunities available by voluntary organisations in smaller towns and rural areas. The urban advantage has to be neutralised as much as possible to provide fair opportunity for everybody
The Internet has levelled the urban advantage for those who know how to take advantage of it. Once broadband reaches a community, they are as good as any other place in the world in terms of access to information. With MIT and many other institutes putting their entire course contents up (with full videos of lectures), anyone with the determination can avail of the best quality education the world has to offer.
ReplyDeleteThe trick is to kickstart the process by getting the basic technology infrastructure set up and then getting the word out about these opportunities.
The rest will follow.
gcp