A way forward for higher education
G. ANANTHAKRISHNAN
RECONSTRUCTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA: V. C. Kulandai Swamy; ICFAI Books, The ICFAI University Press, 52, Nagarjuna Hills, Punjagutta, Hyderabad-500082. $ 18
After the introduction of neo-liberal reforms, various sectors of the economy have grown at a rapid pace, generating great demand for trained manpower. This situation presents both a challenge and an opportunity, but as educationalist V.C. Kulandai Swamy narrates in this crisp overview of higher education, little has been done to build a solid framework for human resource development in India.
Kulandai Swamy, who has served as Vice-Chancellor of general, technical and open universities, draws from his considerable experience as an academician and educational administrator to document the ills that shackle what should otherwise be a vibrant education system; he then proposes a way forward.
Among the major stumbling blocks to development, he thinks, is the university affiliating system for colleges. He argues that it should be dismantled without delay in favour of universities and colleges that vary in size, student strength and academic offerings. They must also adopt the semester system and credit-based course pattern.
Macroscopic perspective
The book is a broad sweep with a macroscopic perspective, providing statistical analyses on India's attainments in the educational sphere. It encompasses not just the university system, but discusses the prospects for orderly growth of higher education with the active involvement of the private sector. There is an interesting, although brief account of how the Centre did not pursue legislation that would enable formation of good private universities. Poor preparedness to face international competition in provision of education as envisaged by the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is also similarly exposed.
The mediocre quality of higher education is analysed candidly, with an expose of the weak foundations of the system. It is revealed, for instance, that only a third of the colleges in the country fulfilled the minimum requirements specified by the UGC for recognition, during 2003-04. In the case of postgraduate courses and research degrees in most non-technical subjects, there is a climate of laxity and insufficient academic rigour.
Part of that problem, according to the author, can be traced to the low scale at which institutions operate. Many international universities of repute, by contrast, have large campuses and several thousand students. They are richly endowed with talented faculty and intellectual pursuits thrive in this milieu. A reconstruction of the framework of education would encourage such universities and deemed-to-be universities to come up in India.
The author traces the lack of initiative relating to expenditure on education as a percentage of national income. He emphasises the need for investment of at least 5.5 per cent in the Eleventh Plan. The reality of higher education becoming an economic good that must be paid for is also acknowledged.
There is of course a case for a longer discussion on equity in access to all in education when a significant section of the population suffers extreme deprivation. Can all sections purchase the economic good that education has become with their meagre resources? Should they be compelled to pay high fees through costly loans, or can they hope to benefit from recognition of entitlement and from endowment models based on community participation? This book presents material to take that debate further.
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