Course corrections in education

SEQUESTERED ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS do not augur well for the creation of a knowledge society in India. One of the urgent necessities for a healthy economy has also been one that has been oft-neglected: an active interaction between industry and academia. Consequently, despite continuous and handsome increases in the literacy rate since Independence, including the jump from 52.2 per cent to 64.5 per cent during the last decade, paradoxes persist in technical and higher education. For, the quantitative jump in the number of students trained in technical education contrasts glaringly with the manpower shortfall faced by industries, be it information technology or pharmaceuticals. With allocations under way for the Tenth Five Year Plan, course corrections are called for in the approach to education as a sector, particularly higher and technical education. While it has been a recent conviction that societal improvements are higher for investments made in primary education, the growing requirements of the unfolding industrial setting require balancing of priorities between primary and higher education. There can be no understating the importance of improving literacy levels, yet it should be the objective of the nation's planners to ensure a sustained and healthy growth in higher and technical education as well.

The consequences of the changed focus in Plan expenditure from higher education towards primary education should be weighed. Research and development, which has also remained an area of neglect, needs to be encouraged in a manner that academia and industry complement each other and do not operate as compartmentalised entities. For, among the several lessons learnt from the past decade an important one is the growing realisation among nations that the stronger they are on domestic human capabilities, the better they are placed to compete in the emerging global economic setting. The diminishing barriers to international trade and the accent on protection of intellectual property rights only further strengthen the need for a strong technical education system. The recommendation made earlier this year by the task force on human resource development in information technology, calling for a total re-orientation of technical education and training, merits consideration. The performance of southern States in the rapidly growing IT sector, for instance, corresponds to the higher number of technical institutions in these States. The examples of Tamil Nadu, with 336 institutions offering degrees and diplomas in engineering and technology, and Karnataka, with 258 such institutions, are proof of the positive co-relation between the flow of industrial activity and technical education.

While there is no diminishing the importance of the quantitative increases made, the malaise that requires correction is the quality of education. A wholesome curriculum, which provides the basic fundamentals, along with the current and emerging trends in the discipline, should be a crucial correction. Widening the expanse of knowledge among the faculty, through continuous interaction with the industries related to the discipline as well as a cross-disciplinary engagement, is another. These two areas provide the initial meeting ground for industry and educational institutions. As the country readies itself for the Tenth Plan, policy-makers should bear in mind that many of the critical issues facing technical education as outlined in the Ninth Plan - especially infrastructure development and governance of institutions - continue to stifle the system. Among the reasons cited for liberalisation was that the limited resources with the Government would be garnered for social priorities such as education and health. One of the indicators of the success of the liberalisation process would be the qualitative improvements brought about in the country's education system, especially higher and technical education.

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