Viewers' Voice

14/08/2010

Bihar’s MBA Craze

Indra R Sharma

 

Dabloo came and introduced. He is son of one of my cousin sisters. He has completed his MBA from a school of management in Meruut. As anyone passing through the highways near around any city in India can notice hundreds or perhaps thousands of these schools of management have grown in all part of India. Noida and Greater Noida have many such schools and colleges of engineering, medicine, and management. One can see its ads in every media. Dabloo wanted me to help him in getting a suitable job. I have been out of touch from the industry for almost a decade or more. I hardly know anyone near around Noida who can help Dabloo. But my relatives and acquaintances think me as a big name known in industry and remember me still when someone needs job. I have written to some acquaintances about Dabloo, but it hardly helped Dabloo.
As I understand, the method of job search has changed of late. Now it is through agencies and consultants or on-line facilities such as naukari.com or monster.com assist the jobseekers efficiently. After I came to know of this, I informed Dabloo.

My cousin sister also called me and requested me for helping Dabloo. It’s very difficult to convince anyone in Bihar that one can get job without recommendation (pairawi), if he is properly educated in area of specialization in a job market that is facing shortage of talent.

I wonder, why would have Dabloo preferred for getting a MBA degree. He comes from a remote village in Bihar. The family has farming background. I don’t know how good he did in his pre-MBA courses in school or college or if he just managed his certificate required for joining the MBA course. With the overcapacity in the management schools, the seats are not getting filled up. Many management schools are not very serious about verifying prequalification for the course.
MBA course has become a craze today perhaps a little more than engineering. Medicine is not that popular as perhaps it costs too much to be affordable. Parents even in rural India know about management course. And additionally the management course doesn’t require science subjects as basic minimum requirements. It is unfortunate that parents still hardly understand and appreciate the need of knowledge, and are happy if their children pass some examinations somehow even if it means using fowl means.

I had been writing about the state government failing to get the required number of private engineering colleges, medical colleges and management schools in the state. But I was wrong, at least, about the management schools. According to an article by Pallavi Singh in Mint as a part of Bihar Series, “Today, there are roughly 100 B-schools in the city alone, most offering distance education courses, positioning an MBA degree as a ticket to a well-paying job.” Only few are on the line of other private management schools in NCR region with separate buildings and infrastructures. Most of them are hardly school of management in right sense. For example, Arcade Business College in Rajendra Nagar, with cramped classrooms and a handful of faculty, act as study centres for universities such as the Madurai Kamraj University or Sikkim Manipal University. Many of the institutes may be just selling the certificates like some blamed of doing that even in US and UK in old days.

However, there are few with better facilities too. Two young IITians, Gaurav Singh and Aman Singh with great academic credentials and good working experience have set up Indian School of Management (ISM). Chandragupta Institute of management is another one that I know. Unfortunately, Bihar couldn’t get an IIM, though it has now an IIT around Patna.

But let me assure that some of the rural parents and the students are also aware of the information about the institutes from the web and have their own way of evaluating the institutes. The information has become easier and accessible with cyber café everywhere even in small towns. I find the children coming to Noida from all types of family background in Bihar for joining engineering and management courses, Parents are trying to meet the cost by resorting to all possible means including the selling of land.

I wish the parents appreciate the need of good education and learning at school level up to class XII that is the basic requirement for professional education. They shun supporting their children for the wrong means to pass the examinations that are so often practiced.

Can’t some agency educate the rural parents through media such as TV and radio and help them in understanding the aptitude of the child for the course and not on basis of general prevailing perception?

I wonder if the state government spends more on skill development centres to take care of the majority passing out the school examination. There is hardly any use of pass courses at graduate level in colleges.

A college either provides a good quality education for the knowledge society or get out of the business.

The views expressed by the author are personal.

Comment

comments...

Doing MBA or any profession course is certainly a good option to uplift individual and society as well. The problem lies with guardian they keep talking about Pairavi and getting admission with donation and that all is filled in the student’s mind. The result will be that even brilliant and hardworking (majority of Bihari’s) guy also heads a perception of those bad things and start going low in morale and confidence. Guardian job should be to show confidence praise him and given enough push in terms of courage to do anything. Let there be at least lacs of MBA’s from Bihar alone to help the state and country with high morale and confidence to excel.

Sri Krishna Kumar