It's survival of the fittest in education sector

By Roy Mathew

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, SEPT. 30. Survival of the fittest will be the rule in the higher education sector now as the new Government has taken its hands off sanctioning new educational institutions.

The Cabinet last week cleared issue of essentiality certificates for as many as 81 new self-financing engineering colleges besides about 200 courses in other institutions. Last month, the Government issued more than 100 essentiality certificates for starting new medical and dental colleges.

The issue of essentiality certificates, which is a no objection statement from the Government for starting the colleges or courses, marks a radical departure from the policies followed by the previous (LDF) Government which sought to restrict new self- financing professional colleges in the private sector. According to the Chief Minister, Mr. A.K. Antony, the UDF had decided to sanction new professional colleges to help students of the State who had to seek admissions outside the State in the absence of sufficient facilities within the State. He noted that the restriction that half of the admission should be based on merit would give poor students too an opportunity to study professional courses.

Mr. Antony also said that the essentiality certificates had been issued for all applicants for medical colleges to avoid corruption and to speed up matters. However, for the engineering colleges and other courses, the Cabinet had decided to set up scrutiny committees. But, while giving final clearance, the Cabinet ignored the recommendations of the committees.

Apparently, corruption was one of the considerations here also. Mr. Antony knew well that if the Government sought to restrict sanctions, a lot of pressure and influence would be brought upon Governmental and political functionaries in the UDF. So, a blanket clearance was an easy way out. More than that, if the Government restricted the number, there was bound to be true, perceived and false complaints that certain sections or communities had been denied colleges. It was politically convenient for the Chief Minister to avoid that.

As the Government abdicated its responsibility to screen the applicants, the entry of bogus applicants was only to be expected. Applicants with little credentials have now obtained essentiality certificates. The Government argues that it is the responsibility of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and the affiliating universities to ensure that the colleges maintain the required standards. Though this is the case, manipulations cannot be ruled out. In fact, even the Government had tried that by posting teachers temporarily to the Pariyaram Medical College before the AICTE inspection. Now, what all things the private institutions would do is imaginable.

The over-politicised universities cannot be expected to do much in ensuring quality of education either. All the universities in the State have become notorious for political and academic infighting. The university functionaries hardly find any time to seriously attend to academic matters. So, they cannot be expected to shoulder what the Government has abdicated. In fact, the universities themselves are in need of Government intervention. Unless urgent attention is not paid to the administration and academic standards of the universities, the whole higher education sector itself may land in serious trouble.

As the Government profusely permit self financing colleges, there is every chance of an excess number of professional colleges coming up. Kerala would need only at most 25 engineering colleges in the near future. But more may manage to get the clearance from the AICTE.

Even if that does not happen, the parents will have an unenviable task of choosing between bogus and genuine engineering colleges. At least initially, they would have little idea of the standards each college is going to maintain. This had happened in the case of computer educational institutions in the State. Many lost large sums of money and studied useless courses, believing the promises of institutes that mushroomed in the State. Now, the worst of them are falling by. This might happen in the case of the engineering colleges and MCA, MBA and other courses also. But, before the fittest survive, it would take a toll of the resources of many parents and students. As of now, the Government has no system in place to guide the students such a grading system for the colleges.

Survival of the fittest is becoming the rule in school education also with the Government move to close down 2,644 uneconomic schools. According to the Planning Board, there is another school within a kilometre of every school proposed to be closed down. However, there could be some factors that forced some parents to send their wards to those schools when everyone else have walked away. Sometimes, the alternative may be an unaided college, where they would have to pay and lose various benefits available to poor and backward students. So, the Government would have to see that the discontinuation of the schools does not lead to higher number of drop-outs in the locality and lower level of enrollments. Necessary assistance would have to be provided in deserving cases.

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