Opportunity or Crisis?
"In the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity" is a quote often attributed to Albert Einstein. In the age of social media where fake news descends on us by the minute like hurricanes, truth is the casualty. Anybody can fearlessly write anything and attribute it to anyone famous or remotely famous. It is immaterial whether Einstein actually said so or not, but I have been given this alluring piece of advice in countless motivational sermons I have listened to. It is only fair that I in turn give this powerful and motivating piece of advice to my children. I have used it in the many training sessions I took up. I have done it without attribution. Well; it's a great piece of advice to receive in a situation of crisis. I am having a rethink.
Recently, I was driving from Kottayam, my home town, to Cochin. At every prominent junction, over the 60 kilometre route, I saw hoardings and advertisements of agencies inviting prospective candidates to go abroad for studies. Each board screamed "opportunity to study abroad". Ironically few boards were even nailed upside down. Was this shower of opportunities an ominous sign of a crisis?
Figures
Kerala, ‘God’s own Country’, boasts of almost 100% literacy. A survey on the state of higher education in Kerala was conducted in 2020 under the aegis of the Kerala State Higher Education Council. its findings were made public in June 2021. Table No 2 of the survey report reveals that Kerala has 18 Universities and 1504 colleges. It included 701 Arts and Science Colleges, 167 Engineering Colleges, 102 Medical Colleges that include Allopathy, Ayurveda, Dental, Homeo and Allied Health Science colleges, 5 Agricultural colleges, 4 Fine Arts Colleges and 177 Paramedical Colleges, which include Nursing, Paramedical sciences, Pharmacy, Optometry, Medical Laboratory Technology and Pharmaceutical Science institutes. Nearly 13 lakh students were reported to study in these institutions.
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Many who do not take admission to colleges within Kerala go their way to other Indian states to study. A significant number also goes abroad to study. According to people involved in the ‘study abroad’ business, approximately 30,000 children from Kerala have gone abroad to study recently. In the absence of authentic data in the public domain, the numbers might not be ‘the truth, nothing but the truth.’ The cumulative numbers might anyway be much larger. Reports suggest that students from Kerala can be found in 54 countries, their migration facilitated by student recruitment agencies or educational consultants, most of them without any government accreditation or approval. Even Curacao, a small Dutch Caribbean country, that is a landmass of just 444 square kilometers with a population of 1.5 Lakh people, hosts Malayali students. War in Ukraine and COVID breakout in Wuhan troubled Kerala because there was a sizable Malayalee population studying there. Why is the Malayalee youth running out? Are Malayalees looking for better things to study?
Pursuit
Is the exodus because of inadequate seats for studies? A prominent online news portal reported in Dec 2022 that more than 23,000 seats for B Tech were lying vacant in various engineering colleges under the Kerala Technological University. It also reported large vacancies, unfilled seats, in the arts and science colleges also. It was also reported that many self-financing colleges were willing to reduce the fees just to fill vacant seats. Certainly, the rush out of Kerala is not because of unavailability of avenues for studies.
Is the outbound flight driven by pursuit of knowledge and skills? If Malayalee youth felt that the courses available in Kerala were not good enough they could easily enrol themselves for better courses outside the state, within India, maybe at slightly higher costs but far lesser than what they spend abroad. Many do that. The best colleges under Delhi University are getting more Malayalees every year. The truth is that most of the students going abroad to study are taking up nondescript courses and subjects. Such subjects and courses are available in Kerala at a fraction of the cost incurred by parents of the child going abroad for studies. Then there is something else.
Erosion
Some people say that students take admission outside Kerala because the examination system is more lenient and offers convenience for those not academically brilliant. The rising number of students from Kerala securing seats in Delhi University undergraduate programs and that too in prestigious colleges that demand very high and stiff cutoffs weaken this argument. Moreover this argument holds water if everyone is rushing to a particular university, considered to have porous systems of examination and evaluation. It is not the case. The rush is mostly to many different self-financing institutions in Tamil nadu and Karnataka, which accept low scorers from Kerala at higher financial contributions. Though some of these colleges are reputed, most are not. Many children taking up technical courses in these colleges never end up completing or passing the course. They at best waste their parents money and get something worthless in the competitive job market.
Those in power in Kerala certainly are aware of the poor quality of research and institutional inability and hesitation to upgrade academic infrastructure. To them it doesn't matter that the majority of educational institutions in Kerala are not accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Militant student unions have played their part in eroding academics and the education system beyond immediate redemption. What happens to the others doesn't seem to bother them because their future seems assured and taken care of. String of exposes where student union leaders and party members have been caught manipulating the system to get certificates have come to light. Erosion of the system from within is complete.
Those championing the local mother tongue and localised syllabus to be mandated in the education system anyway send their children abroad. They do not want their children to be limited by local education. It is practical wisdom and not double speak. Deliberately turning blind eye to systemic flaws, pretending that nothing is wrong and turning against those pointing out deficiencies, letting loose the weight of the government machinery with all its vicious might is an effective and powerful political weapon. It envelops the society with fear and helps cover up. However, Kerala is not the only state suffering in this regard. But why is the youth running away to study abroad?
Is it a case of “Kahi Pe Nigahen Kahi Pe Nishana?*
Nigahen aur Nishane
A close look at where they go to study may reveal something! Canada, The UK, Australia and New zealand are their most favourite destinations. Some are heading for Europe too. This segment is now understood to be growing fast. According to people in the know of things, youth is not headed out in pursuit of academic qualifications but in search of ways to migrate. Incidentally, these countries allow Indian students to stay back as full time workers for two to three years once they qualify from institutions there. Industrious nature of the people involved normally culminates in them obtaining ‘permanent resident’ status in the host country, a migration of sorts, a shortcut.
In essence everybody going abroad wants to get out of Kerala and India. Hardly anybody comes back to Kerala for a job with a foreign degree. Those who come back are normally only those who had gone to study medicine, because they have to pass an examination in India to be part of the medical system in India. The others coming back to Kerala after studies are the ones who have failed to secure a ‘permanent resident’ permit.
More out of despair and less out of desire, children going to study abroad find ways and means legal or illegal to hang on somehow. It is because there are inadequate jobs and shrinking avenues for job creation within Kerala. Despite all the claims that the government makes, people habituated to fruits of militant trade unionism continue to bleed industrial establishments. Once known for quality, the state’s education system has suffered a serious blow to its credibility, due to misdeeds of political cadres. Those who can afford to therefore find escape routes to get out and never come back if they can manage to. The exodus of qualified nurses from Kerala to all over the world and the ease with which they secure permanent resident status there, strengthens this argument. Many nurses working in the gulf are slowly moving out to Europe, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is only a matter of time before the entire family of the nurse migrates to the new country. ‘Study abroad’ is just another way to gain a foothold in a distant land.
Costs
Nothing comes free, not even spirituality. There is a financial and social cost to the phenomenon of children going abroad to study. Parents work abroad or within India to raise the money required. According to data available Indian students spent over 30 billion dollars in 2019 for education abroad. This is expected to rise to 80 billion by 2024. Many parents feel that the risk and effort is worth it. Such migration commences with heavy financial cost. Students, actually parents, most of them pledging all their immovable assets, end up taking large sums, reportedly starting from Rs 8 lakh to 45 lakhs per person for meeting the expenses. Statistics released by the State Level Bankers Conference (SLBC) reveal that the total outstanding education loans in banks in Kerala have gone up from Rs 9841 Crores in Mar 20119 to Rs 11,061 in Mar 2022. Interestingly barring a few stray cases everyone repays. Unpayable debt culminates in human tragedy called suicides.
In Kerala the social cost is visible and exasperatingly aggravating. Many houses built with hard earned money are lying locked because the owners have now become permanent residents abroad. Clusters of such houses in some areas, some housing old, ailing and hopelessly lonely parents hoping to die sooner than later, have started haunting those with conscience. The current rulers in the state have found an opportunity in this crisis, otherwise a situation that is emerging as a human tragedy. They decided to levy additional tax on locked houses. Someone seems to have infused some sense of sanity and they have retracted their steps.
Kerala Story
This is not just a phenomenon confined to Kerala. Punjab is already struggling with the social cost of mass scale migration. Andhra and Telangana are also in hot pursuit. Tamil Nadu will catch up very soon. According to data available, US border patrol authorities are said to have intercepted more than 4,297 Indians crossing the Mexican border in two months in 2022. There are more than 34,230 Asylum cases pending in the American immigration courts in October- November. According to statements made by the Minister concerned to the parliament, a large number of people are giving up Indian citizenship in favour of other countries, the figures clearly showing an increasing trend. Thus, the student exodus may not be a purely a ‘Kerala Story’. Kerala could be a small part of the great Indian story, a story that many who know may not want to tell, and the masses who should know, remain ignorant lost happily in the Euphoria of excavation of the past.
Individuals might succeed in their pursuit of their Nishane with Nigahen elsewhere. But, if rulers have their Nigahen elsewhere the society may miss the Nishane.
* ‘Nigahen’ in Hindi means vision or sight and ‘Nishane’ in Hindi means aim or target. The reference is to a famous Hindi song by Shamshad Begum for from the movie CID released in 1956
