With reference to Ajit Balakrishnan's column, "Broken educational systems" (November 30), is not the number of zeros in fees charged by educational institutes in India shocking? Is it because these so-called international schools and professional colleges (often deemed universities) run as for-profit, possibly on Hawala or other illegal overseas fund transfers?
Is the capacity of quality institutions like the IITs and IIMs, not being choked - one reason being reservation - even as the population has grown 400 per cent? This is driving the Indian youth to go abroad for studies if their parents can afford the fees (the new liberal forex policy helps).
In 1918, the US dollar was worth 2.50 to a rupee; in 1966 (nearly 50 years and a World War later) its value stood at 4.5; now it is worth 66 to a rupee. This deterioration in the value of the rupee due to 60 years of bad economic policies is responsible for the fees of educational institutes to soar to Rs 50 lakh a year, apart from the smaller factor that fees charged by institutes in the US is four times what they were 50 years ago.
Dr Prakash Hebalkar, Mumbai
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