BBA BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AT UNIVERSITY OF KERALA

 

The story dates back to the 1990s.

The University of Kerala faced with the fall in the standard of education and the lack of professional courses it offered, came up with BBA - Bachelor of Business Administration. Students were admitted to the course after getting through an entrance examination that was followed by an interview. 

The course had been designed by educationists proficient in management studies. The course content was drawn from what had been taught at the IIMs and similar institutions for their MBA programmes.

The BBA of the University of Kerala drew quality students. The teaching was of a high standard. The students were able to match the students from high profile institutes elsewhere.

Then the drift began.

Some of the students approached  a member of the Syndicate of the University of of Kerala. The gentleman was a clerk in a Govt.of India owned finacial institution. He headed the Union there. A basic degree must have been his qualification. However, he was high up in the political strata of Kerala. Militancy was his party's trademark. 

The students represented to him that the Syllabus for BBA was very tough. Obviously, they could have belonged to his paty's student wing. The Union leader cum University Syndicate Member batted vehemently for the dilution of the course content of BBA. He finally succeded in whittling down the well structured and well thoughtout Syllabus of the BBA course to less than  an ordinary  course in the  other states of India.

Imagine what the thoughtless action had done to our students.

Though they had the BBA degree no one was prepared to offer them employment or provide them admission in institutions of repute. And if at all they were offered a job, the compensation offered had been way down in comparison with what had been offered to the pass outs from  premier institustions elsewhere in India.

Recently it was in the newspapers that the current education minister of  Kerala had been clamouring to cut back the school syllabus by 25%. 

At the end, it is obvious Kerala would be churning out students from its institutions of learning who are qualified yet inefficient and unemployable.

On a personal note, after completing my MA,  I went job hunting. My SSLC was in Malayalam medium. After SSLC, I joined a college for Pre-degree - Physics, Maths, Chemistry. Afterwards I went for B.Sc. MA came after that.

While I had been aggressively on the look out for landing a job, I stayed at Hubli for a while. My uncle was there.  His elder daughter was in the IXth standard of the Karnataka SSC. One day I had a look at her text books. To my surprise, the IXth standard text contained what we had in our Pre-degree text books. No wonder the girl went on to finish her MSc and acquired a job at the Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad. She didn't cease in her pursuits. She upgraded her qualification to PhD and the last I heard was, she was being invited by foreign Universities to present papers.  

No one in Karnataka had striven to dilute the course contents.

Kerala, unfortunately, has politicized the educational field. Here, the students wish to learn as little as possible. The teachers are not particular, they should deliver quality education.

We are content to remain third rate. 

Politics is not bad. We need the system. But the politicians should never interfere in the quality of education offered to its students. As it stands, we are happy creating jobs that do not challenge the intellect. Creativity has no place here. 

Let the politicians rule the state. Let the educationists manage the education here.

If it doesn't happen the number of the unemployed youth in Kerala would forever be leapfrogging