What Ails Our Higher Education
The higher education in India is suffering and the malaise is increasing multifold while our policy makers both in the field of political decision making and the educational administration are looking indifferent. However, there appears to be a bunch of reflections available on different aspects of the problems prevailing in the higher education system in India in various quarters of public sphere and there have been a good number of experiments at different levels in the name of reforms but without any meaningful dividends. Let us start with some basic issues: First, the recruitment level. We have various kinds of systems of the recruitment of the faculty in different states. Largely the creation of new posts has been stopped by most of the state governments in state universities and colleges with government aid. Even filling up the vacancies created by retirement or death of the teachers has not happened in many a places. Some state- owned universities and colleges have been compelled to depend upon either the retired teachers or the semi-eligible or in-eligible candidates of the choice of the people at the level of decision- making for the purpose of completing the courses and or for engaging the classes. Most of them are underpaid and largely exploited. Some of them are exceptionally brilliant and would have faced any stiff competition had they been given any opportunity to excel themselves. Most of these people known by different names in different states and receiving different remuneration or honariaum in different universities and colleges are the ones who do not have any clear picture of their future in the field of higher education and therefore, usually lack commitment and conviction besides being deprived of avenues and facilities for achieving excellence and expertise in their fields of work. Thus, mostly our recruitment system has failed to a large extent. In some other places like central universities, this recruitment process and the creation of new posts have been a regular phenomenon thanks to the step- motherly treatment of our governments at the centre. But there also the recruitments are reported to have been made on grounds other than the merit or not only on merit rather primitive grounds like caste, religion, region, language, money, political patronage or the linking of the head of the department are told to be prevailing. The case in the newly created privately owned universities and self-financing institution is having murkier situation. For the purpose of having recognition or affiliation these institutions tend to invite people with full eligibility to attend the interview, submit their papers, face the visiting committees and handsome amount is paid to them for this small exercise and then they are advised to disappear as the institution will employ people of their choice with lesser salaries and lesser qualifications. In addition to that the nature of working in these institutions is largely undemocratic and market-like. The scenario is greatly disappointing and discouraging to those who wish to make teaching in higher education institutions their career of life. The reports have suggested that even in the case of appointments being made by selection commissions and some state public service commissions the process of selection has been inflicted by these diseases. And in these days of information revolution and communication technology these things are not classified information rather everyone having a little interest in higher education is privy to this. Therefore, the atmosphere is not at all conducive for better intake of faculty. The concomitant result is that we fail to have better students, better graduates and better researchers. Some recent studies have suggested that around seventy five percent of our graduates are unemployable. So we are producing a great amount of incompetent human resource while the competent chooses to be employed either abroad or by foreign multi-national companies in Indian mega-cities.
The next aspect of higher education system deals with the dissemination of knowledge. Here also the tragedy is that barring a few state universities and most of the central universities, the large chunk of colleges and so-called mofussil universities throughout the country have been facing resource crunch and lack of fundamental infrastructure and other facilities. The criminally uneven and imbalanced distribution of five year plan grants to the universities decided by the University Grants Commission on the recommendations of the high- profile committee needs proper scientific research with wide publication of its findings. Anyone who has been a witness to the visit of these UGC Plan Committees to the universities would instantly endorse that the recommendations are, unfortunately, not based solely or largely on the requirements, achievements, commitments, prospects and assessment of the specific institution rather there also ‘other’ issues greatly influence the report of the committee. Unfortunately, the same has appeared to be true in the case of highly- revered evaluation by another national body called National Accreditation and Assessment Council. Again, the state universities in most of the states have dearth of resources and therefore, are unable to accept the demands of the faculty for more staff, for better- equipped classrooms, for greater number of books and journals in the library, for newer facilities and modern equipments and audio-visual aids for teaching, for separate rooms for the faculty, for leaves for study and for other academic purposes and so on. The increasing number of students in every class every year, thanks to our long unattended problem of population explosion and thanks to the populist measures of various governments, has also created multiple problems such as incapacitated classrooms, greater demand for text books in the library thereby resulting in lesser amount available for standard reference books, greater workload on the faculty and lesser time for self study and research. This problem is doubled by the fact that due to lesser number of faculty members available the authorities in universities and colleges essentially have to depend upon some of them for non-academic works which in turn adversely affects the teaching and research at campus. Therefore, the aspect of dissemination of knowledge has also suffered severely at hands of unimaginative policy making.
The other dimension of higher education is knowledge production. The knowledge production is largely dependant on the service conditions available to the faculty on and off campus. This also depends on the access to higher learning, exposure to the better academic environment and greater intellectual autonomy coupled with democratic atmosphere ensuring increased involvement and participation of the faculty in academic decision-making. This process paves the way of innovative knowledge and skilled functioning with original thought process. For achieving this, the academic, administrative and financial procedures have to be restructured and re-oriented in such a way that the faculty members do not fell of being the followers only rather they should be made participants of their own creative and imaginative work systems. More we adopt methods which are alien to our ground realities and conditions prevailing in the heartland of the country and which are suitable only for urbane and mega-city centric institutions, more we are susceptible to failures. More we create the models coupled with indigenous methodologies and Indianized techniques which have the essential ingredient of participation and involvement from all quarters of our educational functioning and all levels of rational thinking, more we are destined to march ahead in the direction of becoming an educational super-power. This will not be achieved only by political masters but participant- observation from the incumbent academia has also to crave out its role. But, unfortunately, our academic fraternity is suffering from various diseases like intolerance to new ideas, un-acceptance to innovation, resistance to change, adherence to stereo-type, absence of application of own mind, existence of increased ego, dearth of appreciation, exuberance in superficial hierarchy and so on. The remedy to these ailments lies in the re-defining of our traditional structures of learning and acquiring innate knowledge through sanctified procedures so as to keep the purity of the academic process intact and sane.
The other aspect of higher education is closely related to the intake of the students. Here also the picture is capable of revealing the wounds that have inflicted upon the body-structure of higher education in India. Some of our so-called ‘Navratna’ universities and institutions, national level institutions, Central universities have the proud privilege of getting the best intake from all over the country and then boast for being one of the best. But look at the education providers in the in the remote areas of the nation and even the colleges and universities situated around hundred kilometers away from these elite institutions, the story changes altogether. The state governments have been lowering the evaluation standards at higher-secondary level so as to present a rosy picture and there have been clear-cut strategies for encouraging increased enrollment in higher education with amazing subsides, allowances, scholarships and other facilities to the students seeking admission in colleges and universities. This has reaped desired results and bitterness of the fruits has to be tested by the teaching fraternity because a large number of the admission seekers is here only because they have nothing else to do. A great number of them take admission for the want of scholarship. Most of them do not ever attend the classes. Large number of them does not even recognize their teachers. Some of them take admission for having a training of or acquiring the tenets of leadership through union-elections and thereby paving their own way of entry in to main political stream. And because of all this their attention towards learning is absent, their commitment to study is zero; their conditioning to a disciplined life is unthinkable; their respect for their teachers is missing; and their clarity towards the goals of their life is unaddressed. This has led to several unfortunate and unpardonable incidents of beating of the teachers by erring students in examinations, admissions and elections and in some cases leading to the unfortunate death of some of the teachers. In case of rest of the students who have taken admission for the sake of learning these rogues make the environment difficult both for the serious students and hard working teachers. But even then, thanks to the appreciable hard work of our otherwise deprived students and unconditioned integrity of our large chunk of teachers (emanating from our age-old value system and social-cultural patterns), a good number of students of these institutions of mofussil towns have excelled to an incredible extent in various fields of public life through out the country. And this is the real hope and real life line of our national ethos. We have to endeavour in the direction of sustaining this energy for a better future and better living conditions with greater knowledge and understanding of the world dedicated to our posterity.
The next dimension of higher education is educational training. This is a known fact that mushrooming growth of colleges providing Bachelor degree is Education in many states has, in fact, brought a bad name to the higher education institutions as such. The main reason behind all this is unmanageable number of colleges besides other reasons of rampant corruption prevalent in bodies providing permission, no-objection, recognition and affiliation to the colleges, motivated privatized control, profit-oriented attitude of the owners, etc. The result is poor quality of library, faculty, equipments and classroom facilities, low turn-out in classes, irregular practicals, delayed examination and results and somehow minimal training. The other training of the incumbent teachers is widely ignored as the fundamental construct that prevails in higher education institutions in India is that one who has cleared the eligibility criteria and passed all the examination with specified percentage of marks and other such required examinations is capable enough of directly entering the classrooms of undergraduate and postgraduate classes and start lecturing them on topics prescribed in syllabi. Sadly, the whole process begins without any specific understanding of the nuances of academic pursuit, knowledge dissemination and communication skills. The university Grants Commission has, of late, started some orientation programmes and refreshers courses through academic staff colleges established in a few universities through which it is intended that the existing faculty be provided some additional knowledge in the field of their own work besides some elementary understanding of some other disciplines. A separate note is required to comment on the state of affairs in these exercises, yet it may be safely mentioned that sufficient training and exposure to teaching techniques is required to equip our would- be faculty with necessary inputs and desired skills.
The other aspect of higher education is educational administration. In this area also the situation is alarmingly pity. The recruitment of the people on the highest citadel of educational administration in the whole country is largely faulty. The selection procedures for Principals of colleges do not promote merit or scholarship and not even administrative capabilities are taken into consideration. But other socio-economic factors along with political ones prevail upon the choice of the incumbent. The positions filled by seniority or by promotion are also susceptible to a situation of having someone incapable of performing this wholesome task of organizing people of different tastes and discipline and caliber, managing the academic, administrative and financial affairs of an educational body, generating a sense of belongingness towards the institution in the minds of all the people involved directly or indirectly, providing better opportunities of greater learning and research to both the students and the faculty, creating a democratic and open environment of liberal thinking coupled with essential adherence to traditional norms and value system, and thereby paving the way of overall growth of the institution and all its components. This requires some elementary grounding into the educational system, some innovative and visionary perspective, greater commitment than the fellow learners and colleagues, and necessary integrity towards the cherished goals of development, progress and excellence. But to our disappointment, most of our principals lack most of these pre-requisites and hence they usually fail in invigorating any sense of work either in faculty or in students or in employees. They tend to pass their time in enjoying the benefits and privileges attached to the post and avoiding any major decision-making which may alter the course of events or altogether change the functioning because of imminent fear of inviting any trouble from their own masters, be it management or government as the case may be. And same is true of our Vice- Chancellors of the universities also. There are some other areas also which need greater attention and serious impartial research. The problems are multi-faceted and so are the solutions. The only wish we can do that our teachers imbibe the qualities mentioned by the greatest of the Indian poets Mahakavi Kalidas as he declares:-
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laØkfUrjU;L; fo’ks"k;qDrkA
;L;ksHk;a lk/kq l f’k{kdk.kke~
/kqfjçfr"Bkif;rO; ,oAA
Of the teachers some may epitomize perfect grasp over eclectic and intricate knowledge processes; some others may be especially endowed with the craft off effective communication, but the one who blends both the virtues is the torch-bearer of the great mission called ‘teaching’.
