English Quiz: Comprehension Test for IBPS RRB Office Assistant Mains

The modern world requires us to
repose trust in many anonymous institutions. We strap ourselves in a flying tin
can with two hundred other people not because we know the pilot but because we
believe that airline travel is safe. Our trust in these institutions depends on
two factors: skills and ethics. We expect that the people who run these
institutions known what they are doing, that they build and operate machines
that work as they are supposed to and that they are looking out for our welfare
even though we are strangers. When one of these factors is weak of absent, trust
breaks down and we either pay a big price in safety – as in the Bhopal tragedy
– or a large ‘welfare premium’ such as the elaborate security measures at
airports. Trust – deficient environments work in the favour of the rich and
powerful, who can command premium treatment and afford welfare premiums. Poor
people can command neither, which is why air travel is safer than train travel,
which in turn is safer then walking by the road side. Every modern society
depends on the trust in the skills and ethics of a variety of institutions such
as schools and colleges, hospitals and markets. If we stopped believing in the
expertise of our teachers, doctors and engineers, we will stop being a modern
society. As the institution among institutions, it is the duty of the state to
ensure that all other institutions meet their ethical obligations. The ‘Indian
state has failed in its regulatory role’. Consequently, we cannot trust our
schools to turn out good graduates, we cannot trust our schools to turn out
good graduates, we cannot ensure that our colleges turn out well trained
engineers and we cannot graduate that our engineers will turn out to be good
products. Last year, I was invited to speak at an undergraduate research
conference. Most of the participants in this conference were students at the
best engineering colleges in the State. One student who was driving me back and
forth recounted a story about the previous year’s final exam. One of his papers
had a question from a leading textbook to which the textbook’s answer was
wrong. The student was in a dilemma: should he write the (wrong) answer as
given in the textbook or should he write the right answer using his own
analytical skills. He decided to do the latter and received a zero on that
question. Clearly, as the student had suspected, the examiners were looking at
the textbook answer while correcting the examination papers instead of
verifying its correctness. The behavior of these examiners is a breakdown of
institutional morals, with consequences for the skills acquired by students. I
say institutional morals, for the failure of these examiners is not a personal
failure. At the same conference! met a whole range of college teachers, all of
whom were drafted a examiners at some time or the other. Without exception,
they were dedicated individuals who cared about the education and welfare of
their students. However, when put in the institutional role of evaluating an
anonymous individual, they fail in fulfilling their responsibilities. When some
of our best colleges are run in this fashion, is it any wonder that we turn out
unskilled engineers and scientists? If, as we are led to expect, there is a
vast increase in education at all levels and the regulatory regime is as weak
as it is currently, isn’t it likely that the trust deficit is only going to
increase? We are all aware of the consequences of ignoring corruption at all
levels of society. While institutional failures in governance are obvious, I
think the real problem lies deeper, in the failure of everyday institutions
that are quite apart from institutions that impinge on our lives only on rare
occasions. It is true that our lives are made more miserable by government
officials demanding bribes for all sorts of things, but what about the everyday
lying and cheating and breaking of rules with people who are strangers? Let me
give you an example that many of us have experienced. I prefer buying my fruits
and vegetables from roadside vendors rather than chain stores. To the vendor, I
am probably an ideal customer, since I do not bargain and I do not take hours
choosing the best pieces, instead, letting the vendor do the selecting. The
market near my house is quite busy; as a result, most vendors are selling their
wares to strangers. It takes a while before a particular vendor realizes that I
am a repeat simple rule: if a vendor palms off a bad piece whose defects are
obvious, I never go back to that person again. It is amazing how often that
happens. In my opinion, the failure of institutional ethics is an much about
these little abuses of trust as anything else. Everyday thievery is like
roadside trash, if you let it accumulate the whole neighborhood stinks.