The tinkle of silver anklets drawing one’s eyes to pretty feet. The melody of chunkier bells lending their music to every known dance form in India. Who would have thought that there could be yet another connotation to this item of feminine grace? The recent disgraceful incident of shackling the legs of the students of Tri-Valley University in California, USA is a glaring example of double standards of a prosperous country wielding its clout over lesser mortals, to say nothing of the insensitive arrogance of their officials passing off the tagging as a hip and happening statement of fashion!
It is also a glaring example of the double standards of a people who flaunt their ancient culture and moral values yet grasp any opportunity to further their own interests at the cost of others. The sufferers are the students who, having become the victims of an ongoing education and immigration scam, are today facing the humiliation of criminal tagging, deportation and the loss of a precious academic year besides being treated on par with criminals under the US judicial system.
I recall someone saying that education is no longer education when it is sold; it becomes a business. And so it is. The proliferation of high-end schools and colleges all over India, most of them promoted by politicians, are a clear vindication of this view. The rampant selling of seats, the auction of ‘reservation seats’ meant for religious minorities (in itself an aberration) and the demand for so-called donations are such huge money- spinners that I feel sometimes that I may have missed my calling; honest toil does not pay such rich dividends as do these morally questionable ventures. Then there are others waiting to jump on the bandwagon — the training institutes that coach students for entrance exams, greedy parents and their now professionally qualified offspring whose dowry demands increase in indirect proportion to their investment in the education process, and so on.
No regulations
Schools for smaller children suddenly make their appearance in crowded localities, following no rules regarding the quantum of classroom space per child( try teaching a class of 70 active children or remembering their names and ability levels!), the minimum number of students per class, facilities for laboratories and sports, even the provision of basic comforts like fans in classrooms, or adequate dormitory and storage space for minimal privacy. I know of schools asking parents to contribute items of furniture, even fixtures like ceiling fans and water coolers. What does the Education Advisory Board verify when permissions and licences are applied for to set up these ‘temples of learning’?
I hate to say this but the problem with many of us Indians is our weak moral fibre. There is so much going for us that makes us the envy of the rest of the world, yet we will spoil it all and earn ourselves the scorn of the same world, thinking nothing of turning an honest opportunity for learning into an opportunistic channel for illegal immigration and undeclared profits. Is not the illegal entry of Bangladesh nationals into India a contentious issue with us? Why then should it not be so in the USA or across Europe, countries facing the worst economic and unemployment crises in almost a century?
How could students themselves, with their confidence and ability to trawl websites for the minutest details about foreign universities, fail to notice the very obvious flaws of this particular institution — the lack of infrastructure, the many grammatical, spelling and linguistic deficiencies in the website content, its lack of accreditation, the reported denial by professors whose names feature as faculty? Why did their parents and teachers not warn them against the university’s promise of a work permit from day one?
Enough to make one wonder whether the applicants were mostly job seekers with only a few genuine students thrown in? Are we ready to buy the claim of the now-defunct institution that one of their own staffers (of Indian origin) was running an immigration scam of which they were totally in the dark? Are we ready to admit that a thorough cross-check into the credibility of Tri-Valley was ignored by gullible youngsters (90 per cent of them from my home state of Andhra Pradesh) looking for greener pastures and wider horizons, and by irresponsible parents who should have conducted their own due diligence before parting with their money and their child? If there is a lesson to be learnt out of this experience for the scores of hopefuls all over the country it is that there is nothing to be gained from haste and temptation. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel with the latest news that the US government will allow students to either return home without a negative endorsement on their passports or take admission into another university.
- Vimala Madon is a freelance journalist based in Secunderabad, India.
