The Hindu Business Line : Creating the grandmasters

The hunt for talent must be two-pronged: One, expand the base — look for talent among the poor. Identify and train gifted children, however poor, in good schools. Two, emphasise comprehension over rote learning. Cultivating brainpower is a public good, and the government should do it. But as this is not possible, private initiative is needed, says P. V. INDIRESAN.

Why is it that India has lost again and again to invaders? It could not be because the country did not have large enough armies: Invading armies were always significantly smaller. It could not be that the country did not have enough money to acquire superior arms. Invaders came to India only because it was far richer than they. In spite of much larger manpower, in spite of far greater wealth, India lost battles again and again to much smaller armies and to poorer nations because it did not have enough brainpower. Unlike the trees of the forest, brainpower does not grow on its own. It is like a flower garden; it flourishes only when it is planned and tended with utmost care.

Unfortunately, like the Greeks after their Golden Age, we concentrated on philosophy. Mundaka Upanishad lists areas of scholarship comparable to the four Vedas: Shiksha, kalpo, vyakaranam, niruktah, chando, jyotishmati (diction, rituals, grammar, etymology, prosody and astrology). It is interesting that the list does not include science or technology or management.

Divorced from real life

Once Greece became prosperous, tasks needing technology were considered beneath the attention of scholars and left to the slaves. As a result, scholarship got divorced from real life, lost its practical utility. We too separated theory from practice: Brahmins studied theory without trying them out in practice; Sudras worked on practice without studying its theory. That is how though we had money and manpower, we did not develop utilitarian brainpower; we did not even acquire, let alone develop, practical innovations like the clock, the magnet, or even the soap.

Skills of whatever type are not given to everyone. Nor is it possible to substitute one able person by a number of inferior ones: two half-wits do not make one wit; not even a thousand half-wits will make one wit. A champion chess player like Viswanathan Anand can take on a hundred opponents all at once even if they are fairly capable.

Our education system was geared to produce A-minus grade competence not A++ level Grandmasters of practical skills. So, we did not develop superior techniques, the type our invaders had. Their commanders were grandmasters; thus, though their armies were small, they defeated our much larger, but poorly led ones.

Cultivating specialists

Our politicians are unaware that the security of our nation depends on cultivating persons of exceptional skill. Dominated as it is by generalists, neither does our bureaucracy appreciate the importance of cultivating specialists. Hence, at top policy levels, there is little concern about helping gifted children become grandmasters of any art or profession. Chinese know better: they are producing world champions galore by catching gifted children at a tender age and giving them privileged education and training. In stark contrast, our concern is all about the incompetent, not about the gifted.

Basically, the rules that apply to the overwhelming majority do not apply to the rare few either at the top or at the bottom. Just as we need special programmes for the handicapped, we need special programmes for the gifted too — for the top one per cent (or even top one in a thousand) in music, sports, sciences, technology, or any field for that matter.

Overwhelming majority of our population is poor, concerned only about survival; it does not demand quality education. Therefore, our politicians see no political dividend in promoting quality education. On the other hand, our corporate sector is beset by global competition. Our politicians can win elections by dumbing down education, by spoiling school education first and then force badly educated youth into IITs. In contrast, our businesses can face global competition only when they field grandmasters. Hence, for their own survival, our businesses should themselves catch gifted children young and train them well at their own expense.

Illusion of wellness

Current rapid growth of our economy gives an illusion that all is well, that we can grow rapidly forever. Cut-throat competition for talent (The Hindu, December 6) is proof enough that we are already facing shortage of talent. In truth, whatever success we have had so far is because of the drive and the sacrifices made by our middle-class, which has educated its children at great expense in private schools. There are indications that middle-class talent is reaching its limit. In spite of education in very expensive schools and colleges, many middle-class children are unemployable even for routine tasks. Our examination-dominated education is virtually destroying what little talent they have; it is producing more and more F-grade manpower.

Then, the remedy lies in a two-pronged approach: One, expand the base; look for talent among the poor. Identify and train gifted children, however poor, in good schools. Two, emphasise comprehension over rote learning.

Wasted demographic dividend

Our education system has been captured by ideologues who will neither release our children from the shackles of rote learning, nor let gifted children get special attention. They are obsessed by the idea of mixing talented and untalented children in the same class. That is like asking test cricketers to practice with neighbourhood lads only. That policy may help the average person a little but will produce no grandmasters; it will waste the demographic dividend on which we are banking. Hence, as matters stand, our workforce will be weighed under the dead weight of mediocrity; our economy is likely to lose the global economic war the same way our huge armies lost to Babur, Ghazni and Clive.

There is little chance our politics will change soon. In any case, the government system has no place for grandmasters. Therefore, for its own survival, the corporate sector should itself invest in gifted children. Here is one possible strategy.

Identify in every tehsil four-five reputed schools with progressive ideas.

Get the schools to jointly select each year about 30 talented children.

Pay each child an adequate scholarship (including living expenses) tenable at any one of the select schools. The schools would do themselves much good if they waive fees.

Once the children complete the school, repeat the same process for college education too with scholarships tenable in select colleges.

Hold periodic tests on comprehension to decide on the continuance of scholarships.

This scheme is decentralised; it emphasises comprehension over rote learning. It will help gifted children even from remote areas. Competition will be keen among schools and colleges to be included in the scheme. It is that competition that will ensure high quality.

Our present policy of "inclusive development" is euphemism; it includes the less competent and excludes the more competent. It excludes the competent among some castes and includes the creamy layer of the others — once again excluding the gifted but poor children of those castes.

Cultivating brainpower is a pure public good; ideally, government should undertake the responsibility. As the situation is not ideal, private initiative is needed to cultivate brainpower. Individual businesses are not best geared to operate the scheme presented here, but collectively they can transform the intellectual potential of the country. If they are wise, firms, large small, will combine to operate this scheme. Otherwise, as the saying goes, those who do not hang together will hang individually.

(The author is a former Director of IIT Madras. Response may be sent to: indiresan@gmail.com)

(This is 189th in the Vision 2020 series. The previous article was published on November 27.)

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