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Introduction
Globalisation has made an enormous impact on human resource development. The
potential growth and development of any country is perceived not only from the
point of view of physical resources with which it is endowed, but also more
importantly from the human resource potential. It is not sufficient to merely have a
large population, but a population with quality health, education and other amenities
combined with appropriate opportunities and infrastructure facilities are essential in
enabling optimal participation in the development of self and society. With these
objectives, India, a developing country soon after independence, appointed several
Committees and Commissions on Education. The University Education Commission
(1949) foresaw the need for building human resources beyond the disciplines of
science and technology.
Now that scientific discoveries and technological applications have altered our
physical environment profoundly in only a period of a few generations, some
readjustments on our social habits and institutions are required.. We have grown
strong in the mastery of the physical work but are very weak in our ability to manage
and direct the social forces that shape our lives. It is a false belief that scientific pre-
eminence is the only basis of national security and welfare.
The University Education Commission (1966) observed that education in the coming
years should be planned on the basis of general trends regarding manpower needs
and employment opportunities. The National Policy on Education (1986) highlighted
that ‘higher education provides people with an opportunity to reflect on the critical,
social, economic, cultural, moral and spiritual issues facing humanity. It contributes to
national development through dissemination of specialized knowledge and skills. It is
a crucial factor for survival’. Education mainly deals with the improvement of human
resources (Mohanty, 2004). It is through education that a nation transmits its heritage,
recreates its culture, strengthens its economy and conserves its values.
One of the important initiatives that was taken up during the post-independence
period of 1947 was introducing the National Science Talent Search Scheme (NSTSS) to
identify and nurture young talent of the country and encourage them to pursue
higher education. In this article through the case study of National Talent Search
Scheme (NTSS, previously known as NSTSS) an analysis is made as to how talent is
being identified; into which streams the talented students are opting in higher
education; whether this trend is in consonance with the general trend of other
students; what are the advantages and disadvantages of the skewed trends of talent to
specific streams; and what impact it will have on the country in particular etc.
Flight of Talent to Selective Academic
Streams and Its Impact
Sreekanth Yagnamurthy
5
Sreekanth Yagnamurthy
74
Academics often use the term ‘gifted’ and ‘talented’ together, though some
differentiate these two terms. Stanley et al. (1974) considered giftedness as talent in
specific academic areas, not necessarily reflecting an overall general intellectual
capacity. Taylor (1978) pointed out that our strongest single observation in all our
work is that there are multiple kinds of talents and therefore, multiple kinds of highly
gifted people, not just a single ‘the gifted’ type of person or student. Gowan (1980)
defines gifted as being verbally creative and talented as being non-verbally creative.
The most prevalent model to identify giftedness appears to be one based upon scores
from intelligence tests (Alvino et al. 1981). The profiles of gifted and talented
individuals have been worked out by the field researchers who categorise them into
different groups such as gifted (autonomous), academically talented, science talented,
maths talented, language arts talented, etc. (Betts & Neihert, 1988).
The National Talent Search Scheme (NTSS)
The National Science Talent Search Scheme (NSTSS) was introduced in 1963 by the
National Council of Educational Research and Training, an apex advisory body to the
government of India on school education to identify meritorious students who have
the potential for attaining excellence in future. The schemes had a two-fold objective:
to identify and nurture talented students in the country and support them until they
complete higher education. Initially, the scheme was confined only to sciences as this
was considered as a thrust area. Later in 1976, the scheme was extended to Social
Sciences, Engineering and Medicine as well. The scheme covered students of Grades
10, 11 and 12 and later only students of Grade 10. At present it is being conducted
only at Grade 8 in order to identify talent at a very young age. Every year, under this
scheme, 1,000 students are selected through two tests: The Scholastic Aptitude Test
(hereafter, SAT) and Mental Ability Test (hereafter, MAT) at state and national level,
and an interview at the national level. The types of items used in SAT and MAT at the
national level are as below:
Table 5.1: Item types of scholastic aptitude test-2006
Sl.No. Sub-test Item Number
1. Physics S1 to S14
2. Chemistry S15 to S27
3. Biology S28 to S40
4. Mathematics S41 to S60
5. History S61 to S74
6. Geography S75 to S87
7. Civics S88 to S100
Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams
75
Table 5.2: Item types of mental ability test-2006
Sl. No. Sub-test Item Numbers
1. Series M1 to M10
2. Matrix M11 to M12
3. Figure completion M13 to M15
4. Coding and decoding M16 to M20
M88 to M92
5. Direction Questions M21 to M25
6. Odd-one out M26 to M30
M46 to M50
M51 to M55
7. Meaningful equations M31 to M35
8. Figure pattern M36 to M40
9. Venn diagram M41 to M45
10. Relation M55 to M60
11. Analogy M61 to M65
M71 to M72
12. Mirror image M66 to M70
13. Cuboids M73 to M77
14. Paper folding & unfolding M78 to M87
15. Logical reasoning (premises) M93 to M100
The awardees pursuing the sciences, social sciences and commerce are eligible to
receive scholarship up to PhD level whereas the awardees studying professional
courses in medicine, engineering, technology, management and law are eligible to
receive scholarship up to second-degree level. The selection procedure is highly
transparent as the SAT and MAT use multiple choice items with four and five
alternatives respectively and computerized processing of results. In the interview, the
students’ abilities are tested personally by senior faculty members of reputed
institutions, which otherwise is not possible through written examination. This
selection procedure is a time-tested one, as it has been able to identify talented
students over the years and is a reliable procedure.
However, it is not without any limitations. Due to the set type of items in SAT and
MAT, the coaching effect is very prominent. Questions have to be innovative and
different, like the accounts of many mathematical Olympiads (Vakil, 1996) show
problem solving is the most stimulating activity for the mathematically talented – not
the standard textbook problems, but rather colorful, even whimsical, problems that
attract and hold teenagers’ attention. In the National Talent Search Scheme (hereafter,
NTSS), there is also an urban bias due to this coaching factor. The talent is confined to
more scientific and mathematical domains, leaving children with abilities in art,
aesthetics and literature, etc. unaddressed. The scholarships given are too few in
number for a country with such a large number of students. Hence, many talented
students go unrecognised. In addition, the amount the scholarships provide is also
Sreekanth Yagnamurthy
76
inadequate to support the needs of the talented students. The scheme also lacks sound
publicity, though an advertisement is issued in all important dailies of the country.
There is a need to provide more information on this scheme nationally. For instance, a
scheme with a descriptive level examination at least at the second level in different
subject areas (with appropriate ratios of scholarships to student enrolment and
sufficient scholarship amount to cover tuition fees, books, accommodation, etc.) will
be more conducive to attract the right talent. Publicity through circulars to the schools
will be far more effective in attracting talented students from remote areas of the
country.
Performance in Other Examinations and Areas of Interest
The scholarship awardees selected under this scheme performed well academically,
as their progress was continuously monitored by National Council of Educational
Research and Training (NCERT) and the continuation of scholarship was based on
them obtaining minimum marks of 50% during the course and 60% at the end of each
course. However awardees obtained much higher marks than this as per the data
obtained directly from them in a five day nurturance programme conducted on 17-21
December 2007 for the NTSS awardees of the eastern region of India (consisting of the
states of West Bengal, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar). The following
information was procured from the awardees, which indicates their performance at
Grade 10.
Out of the total 51 awardees that were present in the programme, the lowest
percentage obtained in the Grade 10 Public Examination was 87.2%, the highest was
98.6% and the mean score was 94.02%. This indicates that the awardees not only
performed well by the standards set in the NTSS, but also by those of which were set
by Board Examinations of different states.
It is interesting to note that the above mentioned awardees, when asked to indicate
their choice of higher education responded as follows:
Table 5.3: The interest of the NTSS awardees in higher education
Sl.No. Area of Interest in Higher Education No. of Students
1 Engineering 21
2 Science research 9
3 Medicine 7
4 Science teaching 4
5 Management 3
6 Civil services 3
7 Sports 1
8 Army 1
9 Politics 1
10 Undecided 1
Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams
77
The above table gives a picture of the interest of the NTSS Awardees in different
streams of higher education. It may be observed that Engineering is at the top with 21
out of 51 awardees opting for it, followed by science research and medicine. Out of the
nine students indicating interest for Science Research, seven of them have expressed
their interest to pursue engineering and then to go for science research. None of the
51 awardees showed interest in social sciences, languages, art, aesthetics etc., which
indicates awardees’ apathy to some streams and immense interest in others. This is
further made clear through a larger picture of the NTSS awardees pursuing different
courses of higher education in the following discussion.
Flight of Talent to Selective Streams
India has one of the largest pools of trained and educated manpower, equipped with
considerable scientific and technological capabilities. And yet the country’s capacity
and capabilities are inadequate to meet the growing demand that is being made on
our educated youths and managers in various disciplines of higher education
(Radhakrishna, 2008).
Indian education, both technical and vocational, according to the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), has been slow in responding to the
changes in the Indian industry since globalisation, and the consequent lowering of
tariff barriers and liberalisation of the investment regime (Khattar, 2007). The clamour
for engineering seats, especially information technology and allied courses, has many
a student making a beeline for these courses. As a result, only a few students pursue a
degree in the pure sciences, i.e., subjects such as physics, chemistry and mathematics.
An even smaller percentage of these students enter the field of research. This skewed
trend has become a great cause for concern amongst academicians and scientists today
(Rao, 2007).
Figure 5.1 below shows that at undergraduate level, a very large number of NTSS
awardees had opted for Engineering followed by Medicine. A very small percentage
of students opted for other courses which included Bachelors Degree in Science, Arts
and Commerce. The trend indicated that the students had a preference in in
engineering compared to any other subject, which is largely due to the availability of
employment opportunities and remuneration anticipated in this area. The prospects
showed a positive trend in comparison to the early 90’s, mainly due to the factor of
globalisation and the opportunities available abroad. The decline in the interest of
students in the areas of the basic sciences, arts and commerce has become a cause of
concern not only among academicians but also the administrators and policy makers.
Sreekanth Yagnamurthy
78
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
N
o
.o
f
S
tu
d
e
n
ts
Year
Eng
Med
Figure 5.1: Distribution of NTSS undergraduates
Figure 5.2 shows that the students opting for post-graduation were on a decline in
most of the subjects from the year 1985 to 2004. This decreasing trend indicates that
students were interested in joining for remunerative employment, rather than in the
interest of pursuing higher studies and research. Most students joined the outsourcing
industry and as a result catered to the demands of other countries. This trend resulted
in India looking to other countries for inputs due to a lack of their own substantial
research and development.
The disinterest in higher education in the sciences was largely due to salary packages
offered, the lack of passion for science and other related issues. By the time a scientist
completed his post-doctoral studies and found an opening at a reputed academic
institution, he would be in his 30s. A software professional would have an established
career by his mid-20’s (Rao, 2007).
Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams
79
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
N
o
.o
f
stu
d
e
n
ts
Year
MD/M S
PGDM
M.A
M.Co m
M.Sc
M.Tech/
ME
MCA
Figure 5.2: Distribution of NTSS postgraduates
Figure 5.3 shows the NTSS undergaduates and postgraduates in Engineering and
Medicine. The number of undergraduates far exceeds the number of postgraduates.
Similarly, there is not much improvement in the engineering field in the decade of
1980 and early 1990s. This is largely because the students completing graduate courses
in Medicine and Engineering have better employment opportunities as many of the
NTSS awardees pursue their studies in reputed engineering colleges such as Indian
Institute of Technologies, National Institutes of Technologies etc. and Medical
Colleges such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences. This discourages them to go
in for post-graduation and then research as after all this their remuneration will be no
better than what they would get otherwise after completing graduation. In fact, it is no
exaggeration to say that the entry-level remuneration for the graduates of these
reputed institutions is higher than the senior faculty of the Institutes from which these
students have graduated from.
Sreekanth Yagnamurthy
80
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
N
o
.o
f
S
tu
d
en
ts
Year
Eng
Grad
Eng PG
Med
Grad
Med PG
Figure 5.3: Distribution of NTSS undergraduates and postgraduates
Impact of Lopsided Education on Development
The flight of talent has made some of the crucial streams of knowledge less relevant,
leading to lopsided development. India’s market oriented education system caused
personal or individual interests to take priority over those of the societal/state’s. As a
result, the state lost its prerogative of providing equitable distribution and nurturance
of different areas of knowledge for the sustainable development of the society/nation
as a whole. At the same time, individuals seldom take into consideration the total
perspective of the society, as it is neither feasible nor possible. As outlined by Bhat
(1986), a common man is influenced by pragmatic philosophy of education accepting
only those disciplines which are based on immediate experience and which are
helpful to the individual in promoting and furthering his life and existence. Hence,
this puts individual and national interests in contradiction with each other.
As a result, there is disparity in the quality of facilities, teaching and course materials
in those areas that do not receive market attention and this further makes those
subjects vulnerable, leading to gradual redundancy or elimination. The imbalance
created in the area of education influences different sectors of economy, as it is not
only confined to academics, but extends to any area of human activity. The impact of
the lopsided development is quite visible. The Indian economy is still staggering due
to the unavailability of ‘right’ people in ‘adequate’ numbers in areas such as
Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams
81
automotive, plastic, insurance, banking and finance industries (Khattar, 2007). For
instance, in the area of sports and games in India, cricket is pumped with a lot of
money. So while other games are languishing from the lack of funds and support,
cricket is making progress in giant strides transforming itself through test series to
one-day matches and to the present 20-20 matches.
This kind of lopsided development in India is quite prominent even in agriculture,
which used to be the chief source of employment and income till the 1980’s. However,
this domain has been largely neglected in the recent past. The disquieting trends in
Indian agriculture that have persisted since the mid-1990s include: declining
profitability of agriculture, increasing risks, degradation of natural resources, a plunge
in technological innovations in agriculture and collapsing agricultural extension
(Radhakrishna, 2008).
The crop productivity and production cost in India is far below and far above world
averages respectively. The benefits and momentum of green revolution that was
received by few crops and areas such as paddy and wheat and their cultivated regions
did not extend to other regions and crops. As a result of this, neither of these crops can
survive in the competing markets due to negligible attention paid to enhance the crop
productivity and quality. This has lead to the adoption of a few varieties in the form of
mono-cropping, which is still disastrous in terms of sustainability.
The private sector participation that is crucial to development especially after the
process of liberalization in India that has taken place in the early 1990’s is further
accentuating the divide among different sectors by accelerating educational
development in very few sectors, which have market orientation. A review committee
appointed on the role and functioning of the Indian Council of Social Science Research
(hereafter, ICSSR) has observed that resources must be provided from public funds to
ICSSR as the private sector is not interested in supporting social science research,
because of its inability to produce marketable inventions or products (Joshua, 2007).
The committee has requested for an increase ten times the current budget outlay to
ICSSR to give a big boost to social science research which is a poor cousin of research
in science and technology.
This is further substantiated by the views of Dutta (2007) that unaided private
colleges, especially in the engineering and medical spheres, constitute a large
proportion of the aggregate, having doubled in number since 2000-2001. Andhra
Pradesh, a state in India had only 27 engineering colleges both in the government and
private sectors in 1990 but in 2000-2001 it rose to 105, out of which only 12 were public
and the remaining 93 came under private Higher Education Institutions.
All this creates large-scale disparities within society, which is not conducive for
healthy all-round development. This is because, while the areas which receive market
support thrive on due to the huge financial benefits they receive, other areas which do
not receive attention will gradually lose their significance, leading to an acute crunch
in those areas. As a result and with the passage of time, it creates an imbalance, which
Sreekanth Yagnamurthy
82
would be very difficult to rectify. This is already happening in many sectors of
education, which in turn is influencing the very process of development itself.
At a global level, even a big country like India with more than a billion in population
is not doing sufficiently well to generate knowledge. This is evident from the fact that,
in a recent 2004 survey, there was not a single Indian University among the top 100
Universities of the world. In the list of 500 best Universities/Institutes of higher
learning, there were 168 Universities from the United States of America, 40 each from
Germany and United Kingdom and 30 Universities from Japan. There were only three
from India and those too were almost at the bottom of the list (Kale, 2004). Not only in
terms of institutions but also the research papers produced in terms of different
countries is not quite in line with the size of the country, population, development
and the progress in the recent past. For instance, the number of research papers cited
among the top 1% in the world were 205 from India, 375 from China and 23,723 from
the United States of America (Chopra & Suri, 2005). This indicated that institutionally
as well as from the point of view of outcomes even a much hyped country like India
was performing shoddily. All this was compounded by the fact that there was a lot of
dependence on the transfer of knowledge, as shown in the table below:
Table 5.4: Technologies used in the Indian industry
Source: P. Rama Rao, Science Summit, in Kale (2005)
Government Initiatives and Their Impact
The government has initiated several measures such as awarding scholarships to
students and recognising the talent of young scientists, among a host of other
initiatives. In a 2004, the Minister for Science and Technology stated that in order to
give further impetus to science and technology, the government has taken several
initiatives such as raising the level of investment on Science and Technology to at least
2% of Gross National Product (GNP) by the end of the 10th Plan (2002-2007). He said
this would by accompanied with enhanced participation in research and development
investment by industry, strengthening infrastructure in universities and higher
educational institutions including establishment of several centres of excellence in
frontline areas of science and technology, sophisticated analytical instrument facilities,
nano materials science and technology initiative, fast-track schemes for young
scientists manpower development programmes and providing various fiscal
incentives for promoting research and development in industry. In the 11th five-year
plan, it has been proposed for a 10-fold increase in outlay for higher and technical
education (Gohain, 2007).
S. No Foreign/Indigenous Status % in Use
1 Foreign Used without alteration 50
2 Foreign Modified and adopted to suit
needs
45
3 Indigenous - 5
Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams
83
The Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana is a programme initiated by the government
of India to encourage science, engineering and medicine students to take up careers in
research in these fields (Asthana, 2007). The programme aims to identify and select
students who demonstrate talent and aptitude, and encourage and assist them in
pursuing research careers in their chosen fields. This programme hopes not only to
assist the students to realize their potential, but also to ensure that the best scientific
talent is tapped for research and development establishments in the country: A
generous scholarship is provided (up to the Pre-PhD level) to the selected students. In
addition, summer programmes in prestigious research and educational institutions in
the country are organised, and preferential access to facilities such as libraries,
laboratories and museums are provided.
A National Science Olympiad Programme covering mathematics, physics, chemistry
and biology is operational in the country with the active support of the Department of
Science and Technology, Department of Atomic Energy and Ministry of Human
Resource Development (Luthra, 2005). The programme aims at promoting excellence
in science among pre-university students and selecting teams to represent India at the
respective International Olympiads. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prizes are awarded
annually for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biological,
chemical, earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary, engineering, mathematical, medical
and physical sciences.
Despite these schemes, there is still there is much to do to remove the imbalance that
exists. The fact that India’s Prime Minister on the 60th Independence day on 15th
August 2007 expressed that India must not become a nation with islands of high
growth and vast areas untouched by development, indicates the immensity of the
problem. He said that in order to promote science and professional education, large
number of institutions were going to be established. In line with the Prime Minister’s
announcement, 30 new central universities, seven Indian Institutes of Management,
five research institutes called Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, 20
Indian Institutes of Technologies, two schools of architecture and 330 colleges in
educationally backward districts are to be set up in the 11th five-year plan period
(Gohain, 2007).
In spite of the best efforts of the government in providing encouragement to those
who have potential to excel, the national scenario desired in terms of equitable
distribution of talent is far from reality. This is mainly because the incentives are too
few for those who are interested in selecting different streams and the remuneration
too minimal compared to other professions with far more attractive pay packages.
This works as a push and pull factor in human resource mobilisation and
development.
Sreekanth Yagnamurthy
84
Conclusion
The subject ‘flight of talent to selected streams’ as outlined in this paper is significant
to policy makers, educational administrators and academicians. It needs a serious
dialogue among all those who are concerned because educational policies and their
implementation as human resource management is an essential and fundamental
activity for the country’s future growth. The skewed development leading to
abundance of talent in some areas and lack of it in others will be detrimental to the
welfare and development of a country. It is clear from the above discussion that a
developing country like India needs to diversify its human resources and not confine
it to merely selected areas, which may result in some areas literally being annihilated.
The present pattern of flight of talent to selected areas establishes the theory of
survival of the fittest in terms of development of disciplines, largely driven by market
forces.
While the democratic countries provide freedom to individuals to choose their
profession/occupation and do not restrict the mobility of the people, it is also
necessary to provide a facilitating environment in which people choosing different
professions/occupations can thrive. Also, encouraging effective public-private sector
collaborations and creating conducive environment for development of all areas of
education and involvement of the community in influencing the need for
development across the areas and all-round development are necessary.
Our notion of extension being a part of educational programmes, or of concern of the
university with the community or even of education’s orientation towards vocations,
will not be able to be put into effect without providing links between educational
institutions and the development departments of the government (Uberoi, 1995).
Unless talent is nurtured in all areas of knowledge development, as noted in the above
case study of NTSS’s talent flight to engineering and medicine, it will prove
detrimental to the interests of the nation. As highlighted by Ahmed (1995), there could
be colleges where stress would be on sports or physical education, or on various
cultural activities from music and drama to making of advertisements or feature films,
or still others, which emphasize community or rural development activities. For such
endeavours, educational policy makers have a huge responsibility of bringing in
balance through influencing the government and public. This no doubt will be a
gigantic task. It requires large amounts of investment in the development of
‘neglected areas of human excellence’. The allocation of resources must take into
consideration the areas which have lost prominence. This is so that with a further
boost in resources in these areas, they may be brought at par with others. For instance,
the resource allocation to the above mentioned ICSSR will have to meet the
committee’s recommendations because any compromise will put them in a vulnerable
position.
Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams
85
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to my employer, the National Council of Educational Research and
Training (NCERT) , for the data obtained on National Talent Search Scheme (NTSS).
References
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Flight of talent to selective academic stream and its impact

  • 1. 73
  • 2. 72
  • 3. 73 Introduction Globalisation has made an enormous impact on human resource development. The potential growth and development of any country is perceived not only from the point of view of physical resources with which it is endowed, but also more importantly from the human resource potential. It is not sufficient to merely have a large population, but a population with quality health, education and other amenities combined with appropriate opportunities and infrastructure facilities are essential in enabling optimal participation in the development of self and society. With these objectives, India, a developing country soon after independence, appointed several Committees and Commissions on Education. The University Education Commission (1949) foresaw the need for building human resources beyond the disciplines of science and technology. Now that scientific discoveries and technological applications have altered our physical environment profoundly in only a period of a few generations, some readjustments on our social habits and institutions are required.. We have grown strong in the mastery of the physical work but are very weak in our ability to manage and direct the social forces that shape our lives. It is a false belief that scientific pre- eminence is the only basis of national security and welfare. The University Education Commission (1966) observed that education in the coming years should be planned on the basis of general trends regarding manpower needs and employment opportunities. The National Policy on Education (1986) highlighted that ‘higher education provides people with an opportunity to reflect on the critical, social, economic, cultural, moral and spiritual issues facing humanity. It contributes to national development through dissemination of specialized knowledge and skills. It is a crucial factor for survival’. Education mainly deals with the improvement of human resources (Mohanty, 2004). It is through education that a nation transmits its heritage, recreates its culture, strengthens its economy and conserves its values. One of the important initiatives that was taken up during the post-independence period of 1947 was introducing the National Science Talent Search Scheme (NSTSS) to identify and nurture young talent of the country and encourage them to pursue higher education. In this article through the case study of National Talent Search Scheme (NTSS, previously known as NSTSS) an analysis is made as to how talent is being identified; into which streams the talented students are opting in higher education; whether this trend is in consonance with the general trend of other students; what are the advantages and disadvantages of the skewed trends of talent to specific streams; and what impact it will have on the country in particular etc. Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams and Its Impact Sreekanth Yagnamurthy 5
  • 4. Sreekanth Yagnamurthy 74 Academics often use the term ‘gifted’ and ‘talented’ together, though some differentiate these two terms. Stanley et al. (1974) considered giftedness as talent in specific academic areas, not necessarily reflecting an overall general intellectual capacity. Taylor (1978) pointed out that our strongest single observation in all our work is that there are multiple kinds of talents and therefore, multiple kinds of highly gifted people, not just a single ‘the gifted’ type of person or student. Gowan (1980) defines gifted as being verbally creative and talented as being non-verbally creative. The most prevalent model to identify giftedness appears to be one based upon scores from intelligence tests (Alvino et al. 1981). The profiles of gifted and talented individuals have been worked out by the field researchers who categorise them into different groups such as gifted (autonomous), academically talented, science talented, maths talented, language arts talented, etc. (Betts & Neihert, 1988). The National Talent Search Scheme (NTSS) The National Science Talent Search Scheme (NSTSS) was introduced in 1963 by the National Council of Educational Research and Training, an apex advisory body to the government of India on school education to identify meritorious students who have the potential for attaining excellence in future. The schemes had a two-fold objective: to identify and nurture talented students in the country and support them until they complete higher education. Initially, the scheme was confined only to sciences as this was considered as a thrust area. Later in 1976, the scheme was extended to Social Sciences, Engineering and Medicine as well. The scheme covered students of Grades 10, 11 and 12 and later only students of Grade 10. At present it is being conducted only at Grade 8 in order to identify talent at a very young age. Every year, under this scheme, 1,000 students are selected through two tests: The Scholastic Aptitude Test (hereafter, SAT) and Mental Ability Test (hereafter, MAT) at state and national level, and an interview at the national level. The types of items used in SAT and MAT at the national level are as below: Table 5.1: Item types of scholastic aptitude test-2006 Sl.No. Sub-test Item Number 1. Physics S1 to S14 2. Chemistry S15 to S27 3. Biology S28 to S40 4. Mathematics S41 to S60 5. History S61 to S74 6. Geography S75 to S87 7. Civics S88 to S100
  • 5. Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams 75 Table 5.2: Item types of mental ability test-2006 Sl. No. Sub-test Item Numbers 1. Series M1 to M10 2. Matrix M11 to M12 3. Figure completion M13 to M15 4. Coding and decoding M16 to M20 M88 to M92 5. Direction Questions M21 to M25 6. Odd-one out M26 to M30 M46 to M50 M51 to M55 7. Meaningful equations M31 to M35 8. Figure pattern M36 to M40 9. Venn diagram M41 to M45 10. Relation M55 to M60 11. Analogy M61 to M65 M71 to M72 12. Mirror image M66 to M70 13. Cuboids M73 to M77 14. Paper folding & unfolding M78 to M87 15. Logical reasoning (premises) M93 to M100 The awardees pursuing the sciences, social sciences and commerce are eligible to receive scholarship up to PhD level whereas the awardees studying professional courses in medicine, engineering, technology, management and law are eligible to receive scholarship up to second-degree level. The selection procedure is highly transparent as the SAT and MAT use multiple choice items with four and five alternatives respectively and computerized processing of results. In the interview, the students’ abilities are tested personally by senior faculty members of reputed institutions, which otherwise is not possible through written examination. This selection procedure is a time-tested one, as it has been able to identify talented students over the years and is a reliable procedure. However, it is not without any limitations. Due to the set type of items in SAT and MAT, the coaching effect is very prominent. Questions have to be innovative and different, like the accounts of many mathematical Olympiads (Vakil, 1996) show problem solving is the most stimulating activity for the mathematically talented – not the standard textbook problems, but rather colorful, even whimsical, problems that attract and hold teenagers’ attention. In the National Talent Search Scheme (hereafter, NTSS), there is also an urban bias due to this coaching factor. The talent is confined to more scientific and mathematical domains, leaving children with abilities in art, aesthetics and literature, etc. unaddressed. The scholarships given are too few in number for a country with such a large number of students. Hence, many talented students go unrecognised. In addition, the amount the scholarships provide is also
  • 6. Sreekanth Yagnamurthy 76 inadequate to support the needs of the talented students. The scheme also lacks sound publicity, though an advertisement is issued in all important dailies of the country. There is a need to provide more information on this scheme nationally. For instance, a scheme with a descriptive level examination at least at the second level in different subject areas (with appropriate ratios of scholarships to student enrolment and sufficient scholarship amount to cover tuition fees, books, accommodation, etc.) will be more conducive to attract the right talent. Publicity through circulars to the schools will be far more effective in attracting talented students from remote areas of the country. Performance in Other Examinations and Areas of Interest The scholarship awardees selected under this scheme performed well academically, as their progress was continuously monitored by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and the continuation of scholarship was based on them obtaining minimum marks of 50% during the course and 60% at the end of each course. However awardees obtained much higher marks than this as per the data obtained directly from them in a five day nurturance programme conducted on 17-21 December 2007 for the NTSS awardees of the eastern region of India (consisting of the states of West Bengal, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar). The following information was procured from the awardees, which indicates their performance at Grade 10. Out of the total 51 awardees that were present in the programme, the lowest percentage obtained in the Grade 10 Public Examination was 87.2%, the highest was 98.6% and the mean score was 94.02%. This indicates that the awardees not only performed well by the standards set in the NTSS, but also by those of which were set by Board Examinations of different states. It is interesting to note that the above mentioned awardees, when asked to indicate their choice of higher education responded as follows: Table 5.3: The interest of the NTSS awardees in higher education Sl.No. Area of Interest in Higher Education No. of Students 1 Engineering 21 2 Science research 9 3 Medicine 7 4 Science teaching 4 5 Management 3 6 Civil services 3 7 Sports 1 8 Army 1 9 Politics 1 10 Undecided 1
  • 7. Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams 77 The above table gives a picture of the interest of the NTSS Awardees in different streams of higher education. It may be observed that Engineering is at the top with 21 out of 51 awardees opting for it, followed by science research and medicine. Out of the nine students indicating interest for Science Research, seven of them have expressed their interest to pursue engineering and then to go for science research. None of the 51 awardees showed interest in social sciences, languages, art, aesthetics etc., which indicates awardees’ apathy to some streams and immense interest in others. This is further made clear through a larger picture of the NTSS awardees pursuing different courses of higher education in the following discussion. Flight of Talent to Selective Streams India has one of the largest pools of trained and educated manpower, equipped with considerable scientific and technological capabilities. And yet the country’s capacity and capabilities are inadequate to meet the growing demand that is being made on our educated youths and managers in various disciplines of higher education (Radhakrishna, 2008). Indian education, both technical and vocational, according to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), has been slow in responding to the changes in the Indian industry since globalisation, and the consequent lowering of tariff barriers and liberalisation of the investment regime (Khattar, 2007). The clamour for engineering seats, especially information technology and allied courses, has many a student making a beeline for these courses. As a result, only a few students pursue a degree in the pure sciences, i.e., subjects such as physics, chemistry and mathematics. An even smaller percentage of these students enter the field of research. This skewed trend has become a great cause for concern amongst academicians and scientists today (Rao, 2007). Figure 5.1 below shows that at undergraduate level, a very large number of NTSS awardees had opted for Engineering followed by Medicine. A very small percentage of students opted for other courses which included Bachelors Degree in Science, Arts and Commerce. The trend indicated that the students had a preference in in engineering compared to any other subject, which is largely due to the availability of employment opportunities and remuneration anticipated in this area. The prospects showed a positive trend in comparison to the early 90’s, mainly due to the factor of globalisation and the opportunities available abroad. The decline in the interest of students in the areas of the basic sciences, arts and commerce has become a cause of concern not only among academicians but also the administrators and policy makers.
  • 8. Sreekanth Yagnamurthy 78 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 N o .o f S tu d e n ts Year Eng Med Figure 5.1: Distribution of NTSS undergraduates Figure 5.2 shows that the students opting for post-graduation were on a decline in most of the subjects from the year 1985 to 2004. This decreasing trend indicates that students were interested in joining for remunerative employment, rather than in the interest of pursuing higher studies and research. Most students joined the outsourcing industry and as a result catered to the demands of other countries. This trend resulted in India looking to other countries for inputs due to a lack of their own substantial research and development. The disinterest in higher education in the sciences was largely due to salary packages offered, the lack of passion for science and other related issues. By the time a scientist completed his post-doctoral studies and found an opening at a reputed academic institution, he would be in his 30s. A software professional would have an established career by his mid-20’s (Rao, 2007).
  • 9. Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams 79 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 N o .o f stu d e n ts Year MD/M S PGDM M.A M.Co m M.Sc M.Tech/ ME MCA Figure 5.2: Distribution of NTSS postgraduates Figure 5.3 shows the NTSS undergaduates and postgraduates in Engineering and Medicine. The number of undergraduates far exceeds the number of postgraduates. Similarly, there is not much improvement in the engineering field in the decade of 1980 and early 1990s. This is largely because the students completing graduate courses in Medicine and Engineering have better employment opportunities as many of the NTSS awardees pursue their studies in reputed engineering colleges such as Indian Institute of Technologies, National Institutes of Technologies etc. and Medical Colleges such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences. This discourages them to go in for post-graduation and then research as after all this their remuneration will be no better than what they would get otherwise after completing graduation. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the entry-level remuneration for the graduates of these reputed institutions is higher than the senior faculty of the Institutes from which these students have graduated from.
  • 10. Sreekanth Yagnamurthy 80 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 N o .o f S tu d en ts Year Eng Grad Eng PG Med Grad Med PG Figure 5.3: Distribution of NTSS undergraduates and postgraduates Impact of Lopsided Education on Development The flight of talent has made some of the crucial streams of knowledge less relevant, leading to lopsided development. India’s market oriented education system caused personal or individual interests to take priority over those of the societal/state’s. As a result, the state lost its prerogative of providing equitable distribution and nurturance of different areas of knowledge for the sustainable development of the society/nation as a whole. At the same time, individuals seldom take into consideration the total perspective of the society, as it is neither feasible nor possible. As outlined by Bhat (1986), a common man is influenced by pragmatic philosophy of education accepting only those disciplines which are based on immediate experience and which are helpful to the individual in promoting and furthering his life and existence. Hence, this puts individual and national interests in contradiction with each other. As a result, there is disparity in the quality of facilities, teaching and course materials in those areas that do not receive market attention and this further makes those subjects vulnerable, leading to gradual redundancy or elimination. The imbalance created in the area of education influences different sectors of economy, as it is not only confined to academics, but extends to any area of human activity. The impact of the lopsided development is quite visible. The Indian economy is still staggering due to the unavailability of ‘right’ people in ‘adequate’ numbers in areas such as
  • 11. Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams 81 automotive, plastic, insurance, banking and finance industries (Khattar, 2007). For instance, in the area of sports and games in India, cricket is pumped with a lot of money. So while other games are languishing from the lack of funds and support, cricket is making progress in giant strides transforming itself through test series to one-day matches and to the present 20-20 matches. This kind of lopsided development in India is quite prominent even in agriculture, which used to be the chief source of employment and income till the 1980’s. However, this domain has been largely neglected in the recent past. The disquieting trends in Indian agriculture that have persisted since the mid-1990s include: declining profitability of agriculture, increasing risks, degradation of natural resources, a plunge in technological innovations in agriculture and collapsing agricultural extension (Radhakrishna, 2008). The crop productivity and production cost in India is far below and far above world averages respectively. The benefits and momentum of green revolution that was received by few crops and areas such as paddy and wheat and their cultivated regions did not extend to other regions and crops. As a result of this, neither of these crops can survive in the competing markets due to negligible attention paid to enhance the crop productivity and quality. This has lead to the adoption of a few varieties in the form of mono-cropping, which is still disastrous in terms of sustainability. The private sector participation that is crucial to development especially after the process of liberalization in India that has taken place in the early 1990’s is further accentuating the divide among different sectors by accelerating educational development in very few sectors, which have market orientation. A review committee appointed on the role and functioning of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (hereafter, ICSSR) has observed that resources must be provided from public funds to ICSSR as the private sector is not interested in supporting social science research, because of its inability to produce marketable inventions or products (Joshua, 2007). The committee has requested for an increase ten times the current budget outlay to ICSSR to give a big boost to social science research which is a poor cousin of research in science and technology. This is further substantiated by the views of Dutta (2007) that unaided private colleges, especially in the engineering and medical spheres, constitute a large proportion of the aggregate, having doubled in number since 2000-2001. Andhra Pradesh, a state in India had only 27 engineering colleges both in the government and private sectors in 1990 but in 2000-2001 it rose to 105, out of which only 12 were public and the remaining 93 came under private Higher Education Institutions. All this creates large-scale disparities within society, which is not conducive for healthy all-round development. This is because, while the areas which receive market support thrive on due to the huge financial benefits they receive, other areas which do not receive attention will gradually lose their significance, leading to an acute crunch in those areas. As a result and with the passage of time, it creates an imbalance, which
  • 12. Sreekanth Yagnamurthy 82 would be very difficult to rectify. This is already happening in many sectors of education, which in turn is influencing the very process of development itself. At a global level, even a big country like India with more than a billion in population is not doing sufficiently well to generate knowledge. This is evident from the fact that, in a recent 2004 survey, there was not a single Indian University among the top 100 Universities of the world. In the list of 500 best Universities/Institutes of higher learning, there were 168 Universities from the United States of America, 40 each from Germany and United Kingdom and 30 Universities from Japan. There were only three from India and those too were almost at the bottom of the list (Kale, 2004). Not only in terms of institutions but also the research papers produced in terms of different countries is not quite in line with the size of the country, population, development and the progress in the recent past. For instance, the number of research papers cited among the top 1% in the world were 205 from India, 375 from China and 23,723 from the United States of America (Chopra & Suri, 2005). This indicated that institutionally as well as from the point of view of outcomes even a much hyped country like India was performing shoddily. All this was compounded by the fact that there was a lot of dependence on the transfer of knowledge, as shown in the table below: Table 5.4: Technologies used in the Indian industry Source: P. Rama Rao, Science Summit, in Kale (2005) Government Initiatives and Their Impact The government has initiated several measures such as awarding scholarships to students and recognising the talent of young scientists, among a host of other initiatives. In a 2004, the Minister for Science and Technology stated that in order to give further impetus to science and technology, the government has taken several initiatives such as raising the level of investment on Science and Technology to at least 2% of Gross National Product (GNP) by the end of the 10th Plan (2002-2007). He said this would by accompanied with enhanced participation in research and development investment by industry, strengthening infrastructure in universities and higher educational institutions including establishment of several centres of excellence in frontline areas of science and technology, sophisticated analytical instrument facilities, nano materials science and technology initiative, fast-track schemes for young scientists manpower development programmes and providing various fiscal incentives for promoting research and development in industry. In the 11th five-year plan, it has been proposed for a 10-fold increase in outlay for higher and technical education (Gohain, 2007). S. No Foreign/Indigenous Status % in Use 1 Foreign Used without alteration 50 2 Foreign Modified and adopted to suit needs 45 3 Indigenous - 5
  • 13. Flight of Talent to Selective Academic Streams 83 The Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana is a programme initiated by the government of India to encourage science, engineering and medicine students to take up careers in research in these fields (Asthana, 2007). The programme aims to identify and select students who demonstrate talent and aptitude, and encourage and assist them in pursuing research careers in their chosen fields. This programme hopes not only to assist the students to realize their potential, but also to ensure that the best scientific talent is tapped for research and development establishments in the country: A generous scholarship is provided (up to the Pre-PhD level) to the selected students. In addition, summer programmes in prestigious research and educational institutions in the country are organised, and preferential access to facilities such as libraries, laboratories and museums are provided. A National Science Olympiad Programme covering mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology is operational in the country with the active support of the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Atomic Energy and Ministry of Human Resource Development (Luthra, 2005). The programme aims at promoting excellence in science among pre-university students and selecting teams to represent India at the respective International Olympiads. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prizes are awarded annually for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biological, chemical, earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary, engineering, mathematical, medical and physical sciences. Despite these schemes, there is still there is much to do to remove the imbalance that exists. The fact that India’s Prime Minister on the 60th Independence day on 15th August 2007 expressed that India must not become a nation with islands of high growth and vast areas untouched by development, indicates the immensity of the problem. He said that in order to promote science and professional education, large number of institutions were going to be established. In line with the Prime Minister’s announcement, 30 new central universities, seven Indian Institutes of Management, five research institutes called Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, 20 Indian Institutes of Technologies, two schools of architecture and 330 colleges in educationally backward districts are to be set up in the 11th five-year plan period (Gohain, 2007). In spite of the best efforts of the government in providing encouragement to those who have potential to excel, the national scenario desired in terms of equitable distribution of talent is far from reality. This is mainly because the incentives are too few for those who are interested in selecting different streams and the remuneration too minimal compared to other professions with far more attractive pay packages. This works as a push and pull factor in human resource mobilisation and development.
  • 14. Sreekanth Yagnamurthy 84 Conclusion The subject ‘flight of talent to selected streams’ as outlined in this paper is significant to policy makers, educational administrators and academicians. It needs a serious dialogue among all those who are concerned because educational policies and their implementation as human resource management is an essential and fundamental activity for the country’s future growth. The skewed development leading to abundance of talent in some areas and lack of it in others will be detrimental to the welfare and development of a country. It is clear from the above discussion that a developing country like India needs to diversify its human resources and not confine it to merely selected areas, which may result in some areas literally being annihilated. The present pattern of flight of talent to selected areas establishes the theory of survival of the fittest in terms of development of disciplines, largely driven by market forces. While the democratic countries provide freedom to individuals to choose their profession/occupation and do not restrict the mobility of the people, it is also necessary to provide a facilitating environment in which people choosing different professions/occupations can thrive. Also, encouraging effective public-private sector collaborations and creating conducive environment for development of all areas of education and involvement of the community in influencing the need for development across the areas and all-round development are necessary. Our notion of extension being a part of educational programmes, or of concern of the university with the community or even of education’s orientation towards vocations, will not be able to be put into effect without providing links between educational institutions and the development departments of the government (Uberoi, 1995). Unless talent is nurtured in all areas of knowledge development, as noted in the above case study of NTSS’s talent flight to engineering and medicine, it will prove detrimental to the interests of the nation. As highlighted by Ahmed (1995), there could be colleges where stress would be on sports or physical education, or on various cultural activities from music and drama to making of advertisements or feature films, or still others, which emphasize community or rural development activities. For such endeavours, educational policy makers have a huge responsibility of bringing in balance through influencing the government and public. This no doubt will be a gigantic task. It requires large amounts of investment in the development of ‘neglected areas of human excellence’. The allocation of resources must take into consideration the areas which have lost prominence. This is so that with a further boost in resources in these areas, they may be brought at par with others. For instance, the resource allocation to the above mentioned ICSSR will have to meet the committee’s recommendations because any compromise will put them in a vulnerable position.
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