The Nation's Got Talent

Education, Experimentation and Policy Discourses in India

Rachel Philip

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781032667836
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000799156
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Evaluation & Assessment in Education

This book explores the construction of the idea of the 'talented' student in India and its relationship to the discourse of the 'nation'. It historically situates the evolution of the National Science Talent Search (NSTS) and its subsequent avatar, the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE), with state-sponsored ideas and practices of 'nation-building'. It also delves into how individuals who wrote and cleared the examination inhabit this identity of the 'talented'.

Drawing on policy documents and institutional literature of over 50 years as well as interviews with past winners of the NSTS/NTSE, including a Nobel laureate, this book is a major intervention in the field of South Asian studies, public policy, and education.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• 1 The National Talent Search Examination: A History of Evolving Aspirations
• 2 ‘National Science Talent’: Historicizing an Articulation
• 3 In Search of ‘Talent’: Constructions in Indian Education Policy
• 4 The ‘Science’ in the Search: The Legacy of a Brief Experiment
• 5 The ‘National’ in the Search: A Social Geography of Talent Identification
• 6 The ‘Scholar’ in the Search: Memories of the Talent Search Programme
• 7 The ‘Scholar’ and the ‘Nation’: The Worldview of the ‘Talented’
• 8 Seeking ‘Talent’, Finding the ‘Nation’
• Index