‘There is a great need for education to be an equaliser. We don’t have any time’

Amherst College supports 64 per cent of its students with financial aid. This is the highest number in any US college. It has been nearly a decade-long process.

But I support my policy with the simple belief that we have to make an effort to find talent. Those who have had privileged backgrounds are often visibly ‘talented’, but that is because they have had exposure. ‘Merit’ is often because of exposure. Young people who are poor may not be talented in an obvious way. One can’t assume that competition simply by itself will bring results.

If you have talent, we will pay for it. We are the most select college. But also the most diverse.

• What is the best way to reach out to poor scholars?

I have a strategy by which I ask students of the college to reach out to poor scholars. My favourite story is when a poor student told another student who was telling her about Amherst, “I believe you, about subsidised education, but my mother won’t.” The other student replies, “I will ask my mother to speak to your mother.’’

There has been a history of inequality in America. Amherst too, has had many students, historically, who were privileged Whites. Today, there is a greater need for education to be an equaliser. We don’t have time.

• Have you been able to set a precedent in the US?

Yes. Colleges like Yale, Princeton and Harvard, which have traditionally been catering to White, ‘privileged’ students, are also realising the social need to reach out to the less privileged.

• Can this be done in India?

I think the Indian and the US school systems have a parallel. At the primary and secondary school level, both countries are weak, there is inequality. Poor US neighbourhoods have poor schools and bad teaching, while rich neighbourhoods have very good schools. The divide is sharp.

There are two factors here: at the assessment level, we need to place the school, and therefore the child, in the correct context. Merit of the child often depends on what kind of schooling he has had. Another important aspect is teacher training, tests, and upgradation. The college system then, needs to realise where the child is coming from. Just like in the US, India also needs to realise this context. We need to find the talent we are not tapping.

• But hasn’t the situation become better today?

Today, the world is exploding — there is terrorism (as a force), there is inequality everywhere, social as well as economic. No society, not American or Indian, can progress with inequality. If you have affirmative action in education, it is a win-win situation for everyone — for the underprivileged person and the economy.

• What was your experience like in South Africa?

We had affirmative action based on race there in the secondary school system, around the eighties. Black students at that time had been subject to apartheid education, designed to keep them down. We gave these young people high quality courses for a year. The same students are doing very well. Nelson Mandela told me we need to make sure the doors of learning are always kept open. That is something we take very seriously.

• So you believe in quotas?

Actually no. Affirmative action has to be contextual. Race based, class based if necessary. Quotas are a mechanical system, which can be manipulated and filled anyhow.

• What would be your message for India?

I have come here to tell the country that Amherst has its doors open for talent. I have met highly placed education officers here and also academics from universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University. We need to work together and set precedents.

India is a place which has historically made an effort to integrate different people. You see a mosque and a temple side by side, and rulers like Ashoka and Akbar have built structures stressing co-operation. The world needs to learn this lesson.