It is sad to see things that you have grown up with and got used to, go down. There is this sense of inevitability and helplessness. I have been through three educational institutions and seen them all rise and fall.
Sir M. Venkata Subba Rao Matriculation Higher Secondary School (VSR as we called it) in T.Nagar, Chennai was a reputed school in the locality. It is my alma-mater and will never forget its role in shaping what I am today. At its peak it boasted of a strength of about 2000 students, from kinder-garden to higher-secondary. The beginning of the end started in 2000. Teachers revolted in form of a strike and it never was the same again. The students strength reduced in half.
College of Engineering, Guindy is Asia's oldest technical institute started in 1794 and one of the top engineering colleges in the country. It is known popularly by the name of the university it is affiliated to - Anna University. A conservative Vice-chancellor followed by a populist move to curb entrance examinations saw the college's fall in rankings. Its recovering now but an institute of such stature should never have fallen in the first place.
KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research is as popular an institute as any in Mumbai. The Institute reached its zenith riding a wave of economic prosperity but is failing to hold its own in a downturn. A lack of leadership and vision is today seeing the fall of one of India's top B-Schools. Again inevitable and helpless.
It's sad to see these things happen. And in all cases it has been a leadership problem. Educational institutes are the only organizations where the biggest stakeholder (the students) has the least say its management. The leadership has to understand the enormous responsibility considering what they are shaping - careers and lives. They have fallen no doubt, but let us not forget that in the past they have also risen.
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