I assume I am meritorious :D So I use the 'we' in the title.
When I think of the reasons why I turned out to be meritorious (relatively speaking) 3 key reasons come to my mind:
1. I was born into the right family. My parents were pretty serious about education and wanted me (and my siblings) to do well in academics. More in academics than say - in sports, art or music. They were financially capable of sending me to a good school.
2. I went to an English medium school. I studied the language which rose from being a colonial language imposed by the British to the lingua franca of the corporate world. I was trained to master the language and leverage this to earn a more than average job.
3. I went to a private school and not a state school. I remember that the Kendriya Vidyalaya of Ranchi was one of the worst schools in town and all the rogues went there. The Bihar board school was a fictional concept. Teachers were absent most of the time. They utilized their free time coaching students!
Maybe the 3 reasons are similar for many who consider themselves (and maybe are!) meritorious.
A little elaboration of the points would be good I guess...
Born into the right family
If I had to rank the reasons into an order, I would rate reason number 1 as the biggest factor. Emotional and financial backing was very important. Some of my cousins did not do as well in academics although they were richer. Their parents were not as exacting and serious about studies as mine. So they did not study hard and were not toppers in their class. However, they applied themselves into business, and today earn more than me! Did they lack in merit - NO!
Consider an intelligent person born into a poor family. This poor person might me the scrap-collector in the street or a assistant in the kirana shop. In the current educational system, would he/she ever be able to qualify as 'meritorious'? I don't think so! The reason obviously is that he/she was not born in the right family. His parents were not financially capable. The question of interest and ambition did not come up!
English Medium and Government School
I am reminded of my neighbours when I was a kid. There were two boys my age in the family. They went to a Bihar board school, where the medium of instruction was Hindi. One of them was particularly astute in science and mathematics. I would ask him the most difficult of problems, and he would solve it in a jiffy! He went on to study mathematics and commerce and then took the CAT. He could not succeed. His percentile in Mathematics was an iota less than 100! However, his grades in reading comprehension were abysmal. And why not, he never studied English properly. Today he might not be able to find a job that may qualify as decent, whereas the graduates from IIMs set salary-records every year! Who was to blame here - the medium of instruction. So much so that despite the intelligence, he would not qualify as very 'meritorious'.
Reason no 4?
Today, we are questioning whether a 4th reason had a role to play, viz, 'Caste'. I am sure that this was not a contributing factor in my case. My cousins did not do well in their class despite being the same caste. The friend that I mentioned was a Rajput (a high class), but failed because he did not go to the right school!
From the reasons, we could arrive at the plausible solutions to improve the overall 'meritocracy' in the population. Financial support for primary/secondary education could atleast empower otherwise intelligent students to access education. Privatization of the school system would improve efficiency and help do away the absenteeism of public school teachers. Conversion of all Hindi medium schools into English ones would enhance the chances of many to make into IIMs, other 'elite' institutions and also earn better jobs after education.
Will caste based reservation do any good?? I wonder!
