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Faults of education sector brought to the fore

Adressing the academia: Lok Sabha Secretary-General P.D.T. Achary delivering the Kannur University Foundation Day lecture on the Thalassery campus at Palayad on Wednesday.

THALASSERY: Lok Sabha Secretary-General P.D.T. Achary has called upon decision-makers and educational experts to address the problems facing the education sector including lack of resources, inadequate access, growing politicisation of campuses, poor quality of teaching.

Delivering the Kannur University’s 12th Foundation Day Oration on the Thalassery campus at Palayad near here on Wednesday, Mr. Achary said that expansion of educational infrastructure alone could not solve all problems. Moulding of the youth into responsible citizens with balanced judgement and openness to new ideas was the primary social agenda of education, he said. The education system in India had contributed in some degree to what he called “increasing cynicism among the youth about the functioning of the country’s democratic institutions.”

“We have developed a high degree of intolerance towards everything which we are not in agreement with,” said Mr. Achary said. Emphasising the role of education in inculcating secular and liberal ethos among students, he said that growing attraction of the youth towards religious bigotry exposed the failure of the educational system.

Terming the system of examination a ‘perennial curse’ of the education system, Mr. Achary said that the existing system that tested a person’s capacity to remember encouraged uncritical learning. Citing lack of resources as a major hurdle in the higher education sector, he said that though the National Policy on Education insisted allocation of six per cent of the gross domestic production, the country was not even able to invest more than 3.38 per cent of the GDP in education. The investment in the higher education should have been at least 1.5 per cent as against the existing 0.7 per cent, he added.

Mr. Achary said only seven per cent of the students in the eligible age group managed to get access to higher education in India. The Knowledge Commission had estimated that the country needed at least 1,500 universities by 2015. India had nearly 350 universities today, he said.

Outdated curriculum was a serious problem. “Our universities are not doing any research in science,” he added. Though there was huge increase in the number of higher education institutions, the quality of education remained poor. None of the Indian universities was a match to the best in the world, he pointed out.

English being the only language of international communication, Mr. Achary called for a course of correction in the policy relating to the medium of instruction in schools. Poor quality of teaching was a major problem in the primary education sector, he said, adding that rulers and academicians paid no attention to what children should learn in schools. University Vice-Chancellor P. Chandramohan presided over the function. Pro Vice-Chancellor K. Kunhikrishnan welcomed the gathering. Syndicate member B.K.M.H. Ansari, university Registrar K.M. Abdur Rasheed and University Union chairman T.V. Prasad were present.

Eighty-five rankholders of the university were presented merit awards. Retired staff members were given mementos.

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