CHENNAI: The premier institutions of the country are elite, not elitist, say panellists at the ThinkEdu Conclave on Thursday. Speakers on the panel discussed the functioning of premier institutions and if they are elitist Leading institutions in the country such as the IITs and IIMs are not elitist institutions, but elite ones, said the panellists speaking at TNIE ThinkEdu Conclave 2020 on Thursday. They said that these institutions were not exclusionary by principle to be called elitist. The panel was chaired by Shankkar Aiyar, columnist and author.
At the discussion titled ‘Are Elitist Institutions Responsible for Two Indias’, Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore and Archana Shukla, Director, IIM Lucknow argued that being elitist meant that they prevent a segment of meritorious candidates from studying in the institution based on their identity. “We do not do that. In fact, no student at IIM will lose admission owing to the want of money,” said Rai, adding that the IIMs, on the contrary, actively work to promote pluralism within the institution.
However, Palanivel Thiagarajan, MLA and MIT alumni, argued that every society will have elite institutions and that the real question is if the government should fund them. “The majority of funds allocated for education gets pumped into a small number of institutions. It will be justified if it sincerely pulls people socially and economically upward,” he said.