Who opts for teaching?
By Amrik Singh THIS QUESTION was posed to me sharply by someone connected with the ICSSR. Currently there is a controversy about who should become the next Secretary of this research body. The selection committee recommended a serving IAS officer and this created some controversy. It was put to me that, more often than not, it is when someone fails to get into the IAS or other services, that he opts for teaching. Therefore, if an IAS officer who has handled education is selected for the job, what is wrong with that? This is not a new issue. The view I have consistently taken is that there is nothing wrong, in principle, with an IAS officer being appointed to an administrative job in education. Everything depends upon the individual. There have been IAS officers who have shown considerable commitment to the cause of education while there have been others who have used their posting in education as a parking slot and moved on to other jobs. The manner in which the question was posed to m
