There is “education” – and there is “training.”
Manipal and Symbiosis – India’s leading private “deemed”
universities – are only engaged in the latter.
MANIPAL: I have lectured twice in Manipal, on both
occasions at the TA Pai Management Institute. On the second occasion, my talk
was on “Unilateral Free Trade.” This was quite a long time ago – maybe ten
years or so.
TA Pai was an “edupreneur” – and he started it off with a
medical college. This is “training.”
Manipal is situated some 15 kms west of Udipi. It used to
be a village before the medical college was built. Today, it is a bustling town
– but with just one “main street.” All along this street are all the various
institutes of “training”: engineering, hotel management, software, hardware,
and what not.
Their MBA diploma is also “training.”
I once went to Manipal specifically to meet with their
Chancellor, hoping to interest him in an academy on what was called a
“classical liberal education.”
He turned out to be a “trained” medical doctor.
Anyway, I left him with a copy of Albert Jay Nock’s talk
on the difference between “education” and “training” – but he never reverted
back.
I met their Vice-Chancellor once, as well. He too turned
out to be a “trained” medical doctor.
It was here that I was once hauled out of a bar by the
cops, shoved into the back of a jeep, and locked up for a while. When I asked
of the brute-in-charge what exactly was the “charge” against me, he replied
“galata” – the Kannada word for “noise.”
Well, it is true that I was singing along with the songs
the DJ was playing – at my request – but if that disturbed anyone then it was
my waiter who ought to have requested me to tone it down.
But that’s another story.
SYMBIOSIS: My association with Symbiosis – which is based
in Poona – began with their Institute of Management and Human Resource
Development (SCMHRD), about ten years or so ago. One of their students had
attended a seminar of mine – and had invited me to lecture there. The Director
of SCMHRD, a very good fellow called Professor Pillai, took a great liking for
me. I was invited twice thereafter to speak at their convocation ceremonies. I
was also taken to lecture at their other campus, in Nashik.
After my second talk at an SCMHRD convocation, I was led
aside by the Vice-Chancellor of Symbiosis (Deemed) University – who took me out
for dinner at his swank club. Turned out that he was a retired GENERAL – and
when I probed further, he revealed that he was a military doctor, a former
Director of the Armed Forces Medical College in Poona.
Training!
Anyway, some years later, I was in Poona for some months –
and quite broke, as usual.
So I called on Professor Pillai at SCMHRD and offered some
courses. We struck a deal – and it involved lecturing regularly at both his
campuses, for both first year as well as final year students. I was to receive
a goodly fee in exchange.
The very next day, the papers informed me that Professor
Pillai had been FIRED!
The story said that the daughter of the founder of
this “brand name” had done the firing.
A few days later, I read that Professor Pillai had started
another management institute in Poona – with assistance from his former
students.
But I did not venture to meet with him again – lest he get
into any trouble on my account.
But it so happened that I bumped into this retired medical
general, the vice-chancellor, while I was on my regular walkabout one evening.
He lived in my neighbourhood. So, I visited his residence once, hoping to
interest him in some of my books meant for the “education” of those who only
receive “training.” One of these was my edition of Samuel Smiles’ Self-Help:
With Illustrations of Perseverance and Conduct, a very great book from the
glory days of Victorian England, a book that, in translation, fired the Japs in
their catch-up with the West after the Meiji Restoration – but he turned it
down.
Recommended Reading: This article from The Daily Bell
that says the International Bacclaureate programme is just UN propaganda.
