Tamil Nadu’s success in education underlines empowering, assertive populism

Written by Sunny Jose, Bheemeshwar Reddy A |Updated: May 1, 2019 8:56:08 am

The writer is with the Birla Institute of Technology and Science-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus. Views are personal

The writer is with the Birla Institute of Technology and Science-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus. Views are personal.

Tamil Nadu’s success in education underlines empowering, assertive populism

The welfare policies were fortified with and paved a way for a carefully crafted micropolitics of identity creation and assertion. Identity-based reservation in education and employment was an important component of this form of populism.

Of the 860 institutions ranked, 182 institutions (accounting for 21 per cent) are from Tamil Nadu (TN). (Express Photo: Sahil Walia/ Representational)

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking for 2019 has just been released. This year, 860 higher education institutions are ranked, up from 445 in 2018. The NIRF ranking covers institutions from nine categories, such as overall, university, engineering, college, management, pharmacy, law, architecture, and medical. For what it’s worth, the NIRF ranking not only measures the performance of education institutions in India, but also, for good measure, expects them to measure up. Can the NIRF ranking exercise help enhance the quality of higher education?