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Universities are losing excellence, says Ekbal

Staff Reporter

`Low employability of students a problem'

ON EDUCATION: B. Ekbal, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kerala, inaugurating a seminar on higher education organised by Kannur University in Kannur on Tuesday.

KANNUR: B. Ekbal, former Vice-Chancellor of University of Kerala, has said that the universities in Kerala have failed to give academic leadership even as the education sector in the State is facing a crisis.

Delivering the opening address at a two-day seminar on "Higher education in Kerala: past, present and future," organised by Kannur University to mark the golden jubilee of united Kerala, on Tuesday, Dr. Ekbal said academic excellence of the universities and their departments was declining. The fall in quality was a cumulative effect of what he called political crisis. A major shortcoming of the education sector here was that it had never been linked to the productive sector, unlike in western countries.

Neither was the higher education sector linked to the problems unique to the State. Higher education and research institutions in the State were hardly able to address problems such as agricultural crisis. Low employability of students here was another major problem, as the system had failed to impart domain and soft skills to them, he said.

As the education sector became professional education-oriented, arts and science colleges and university departments were neglected. The problems being faced by 1.77-lakh arts and science college students in the State were not discussed. Though there were innovations in the sector, they were scattered, he said adding that total anarchy prevailed in the sector.

"There is no clear policy on financing higher education,'' Dr. Ekbal said. The practice of levying total fees from students in unaided institutions was not prevailing even in the U.S.

Referring to the National Policy on Education, which termed education a process of empowerment and instrument of social change, Dr. Ekbal said the State's higher education sector had never been research-oriented. "There is an unprecedented knowledge explosion in the world; disciplines are being integrated and compartmentalisation is disappearing,'' he said. Knowledge monopoly was a thing of the past.

Information and communication technology had to be used as a tool to ensure that students were not passive recipients but active participants in the education process.

"We have to go for total restructuring of the higher education sector, human resource development planning and policy level initiatives,'' he said.

Kannur University Vice-Chancellor P. Chandramohan presided over the function. Pro Vice-Chancellor K. Kunhikrishnan and Registrar K.M. Abdur Rasheed were present. C.P. Narayanan, former Chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research and Planning Board member, spoke.

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