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Education
Encountering emerging challenges
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Globalisation has created a new approach of `dependencia' in the knowledge sector. Many institutions have lost their sense of direction. They have become profit earning educational shops, turning out graduates and doctorates in large numbers, to cater for the global and market economy.
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THE EDUCATION system in our country, after more than a century of existence, is yet to evolve a viable blueprint of higher education. Credit may be given to the New Education Policy (1980), which began to lay a road map for the knowledge sector. Parts of it were repackaged later with different brand names and marketed as `time-to-time policy' on higher education. No one knew exactly what to do with higher education.
In India, we have, as of now, nearly 300-odd universities with more than 12,000 colleges, mushrooming deemed universities and a few lakh students passing out every year. In a country that has one billion people and a growth rate of approximately 2.5 per cent, this number is not large. It is but a fraction of the growing as well as existing population. Students aspire for white-collar jobs, but many of them, end up in the unorganised sector. Some of these frustrated students even fall prey to unscrupulous elements and end up as criminals or terrorists.
In our society, parents believe that they are responsible for the destiny of their children. Their karmic dharma is to ensure a comfortable future for their children, by whatever `means'. A degree or diploma serves like a passport to a job. To secure this, parents and students adopt various (dis)honest methods. Parents should, instead, allow their children to choose their own area of knowledge. They should not impose their own views on children. The 10+2 system was started to know the aptitude of children towards particular areas of specialisation.
Students must realise that the fees that they pay with the help of their parents only covers 10 to 20 per cent of the total expenditure incurred on their behalf by an educational institution run by the State. The taxpayer's money, most of which comes from the salaried middle class goes into subsiding education, health and community development. Students must make the best use of the time and money that is invested in them.
Autonomy for educational institutions has produced both good and bad effects. Dedicated teachers are now few. Teaching has become a profession, not a service. Teachers, these days, are seldom interested in research. They often complain about the perks and privileges being enjoyed by their counterparts in the universities.
On the other hand, in the universities, the professor/teacher is more concerned about consolidating his power and authority. A university teacher, more often than not, is preoccupied with administrative work rather than with academic and research endeavours. As a result, he ends up as an academically non-productive person. Others become teachers out of sheer necessity and their contribution to the field of education is marginal. Recruitment of teachers must be done in an objective manner. Corrupt practices should be eliminated. Teachers should be selected for their expertise and knowledge in the subject, and the innovative methods adopted in teaching.
Like students, institutions are also varied. Institutions are evolved by dedicated teachers and knowledgeable students. The quality of the institutions depend on them, not on the infrastructure alone. Today, many institutions advertise their infrastructure through the media. Excellence is measured by the percentage of success attained by students. A `good teacher' is one who ends up giving `tips' or `notes' and not one who makes the students knowledgeable. So much so, many institutions have become `degree' or `diploma' manufacturing industries.
We can divide institutions into three categories: institutions of excellence, traditional institutions imparting traditional knowledge with quality, and mediocre rural or semi-urban institutions providing a basic knowledge of the subject.
Only in institutions such as Shantiniketan, Sri Aurobindo Institute of Education and a few others, are the students taught to acquire knowledge by self-experience, the teacher being a catalyst. All other institutions including deemed universities, IITs and IIMs rely more on imported knowledge. A teacher with a foreign degree, particularly from the West, is still considered superior to our own intellectuals.
Globalisation has further created a new approach of `dependencia', as far as knowledge sectors are concerned. Many institutions have lost their sense of direction and innovation. They have become profit earning educational shops, turning out graduates and doctorates in large numbers, to cater for the global and market economy.
Recently, of course, we have been airing concerns about two things. One is quality assurance and the second internationalisation of higher education. The NAAC was evolved in the 90s to look after quality assurance, first as an autonomous body and later as part of the UGC. The parameters evolved for assessment were broad. It attempts to provide a general assessment of the health of the institution, and this is far from realising its goals.
The second aspect is the fear of WTO provisions with regard to higher education. We are forced to open up our country for foreign institutions and to have a level playing field. Instead of being competitive, we end up becoming a franchise for foreign institutions. We thereby colonise our educational systems. It is time, we realise our potential, build on our strength and overcome our weaknesses, to encounter the emerging challenges.
The following suggestions, it is hoped, would provide temporary solace: Parents must allow their wards to choose their own area of interest and specialisation. They should make loans available to students, so that they become more responsible for the expenses incurred on their behalf. The Government encourages students with educational loans. Banks and the corporate sector can play a significant role in this aspect.
Students should be disciplined, develop social consciousness, be prepared to take up any job and contribute to the over all development of the country. It is important that they be apolitical, keep out of sponsored strikes and hartals and instead, develop a system of collective healthy bargaining and negotiation.
Institutions should be autonomous. Government or management interference should be minimal. The taxpayer's money should be spent largely on these sectors. Private institutions, deemed universities, colleges run by religious bodies and the corporate sectors should be closely monitored, encouraged to maintain quality, and provide subsidies and holistic education.
The concept of minority institutions should be discouraged. Education institutions should be open to all, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, sex or status. The job of these institutions is to instil quality education, preach universal brotherhood, develop a sense of patriotism, encourage them to be innovative and acquire holistic knowledge.
Politicians with questionable ethics, unscrupulous money launderers, self-proclaimed religious leaders, uncommitted, self-serving socialites and pseudo-intellectuals, should keep out of this field. Then, the quality of higher education will improve and we can scale high in higher learning.
V. Shivkumar
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