The UP government got a whopping 23 lakh applications for 368 vacant posts of a peon. The requirements were meager, a 12thpass certificate and the skill to ride a bicycle. But what surprised everyone was the fact that around 255 applicants were PhD holders. So these ‘doctors’ were ready to opt for a rather humble post and work for the officials in the government. A PhD holder in the United States or any other country for that matter sweats it out in front of the jury that is supposed to assess their paper. PhD holders, here in India, do sweat, but while photocopying the documents in a ministry office. Sorry is the state of Indian intellectuals.
While other state ministers were busy taking digs at the situation, no one actually found out the flaw in the system of this country. No one really cared to investigate and ponder on the reasons of such sadly funny instances. Practically, no one is at blame here. The doctors chose to apply for the post. No one really forced them to. But if one tries to dig deeper, they’ll find out that there are potholes in our education system. The PhD is a mere document that one hangs on the wall and one gains the right to prefix the word ‘doctor’ to their names permanently. That’s how an educational degree of this nature is treated in India. By writing papers on bizarre topics like “A better approach to penile zipper entrapment”, people do get their doctorates with ease, but in the longer run, this doctorate is not enough to fetch them the bread and butter. Hence they resort to applying for such vacancies. But the role of the PhD awarding universities is questionable in such cases. The lack of regulation and supervision by the authorities is easily felt. When it comes to the universities though, the teaching staffs in some of these universities insidiously complete their PhD’s on issues sans novelty values. The universities do not object as it serves their purpose of having more professors, as the regulatory bodies insist on having a PhD done, to be called a professor. The universities giving such PhD’s must be taken to task. It is not a tough job to regularize the skewed system as PhD is not a classroom course. The UGC must step in and make sure that the committee before the paper is presented comprises of substantial people, those who cannot be bought. Employers too, must set a maximum qualification mark along with the already existing minimum qualification requirement. It should be a lesson and as well as a dawn of an age where one earns degrees and does not get them as a fruit of a flawed system.