Fine-tuning its space in higher education
G. MAHADEVAN
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The members of the Kerala State Higher Education Council held discussions with their counterparts in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
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The scope for fine-tuning the ‘space’ of the Kerala State Higher Education Council in a field where the Government and the universities were the only players till now was very much on the agenda for the discussions between council vice-chairman K. N. Panikkar and representatives of three similar councils in the country.
The idea – as Dr. Panikkar told The Hindu-Educationplus – in holding discussions with the councils in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh was to see whether Kerala could imbibe a lesson or two from the way the cou
ncils work in these States.
In Kolkata, Dr. Panikkar found that the council there played a role even in sanctioning colleges in West Bengal. According to Dr. Panikkar there was a lot of intellectual give and take between the council and the universities in that State. It was during these discussions that Dr. Panikkar came up with the idea of initiating a teacher exchange programme between Kerala and West Bengal. “Such a programme would enhance academic mobility in the country,” Dr. Panikkar reasoned.
Council representatives in West Bengal raised the issue of ‘numbers’ while discussing how to provide a qualitative boost to degree courses. The full implementation of the credit and semester system, it was felt, would help colleges overcome the issue of large numbers of students in degree classes while implementing quality improvement programmes.
“Continuous assessment in the credit and semester system always takes place in smaller groups. It is also not necessary that the same teacher does all the CE work. So the credit and semester system could lead to a reduction in the load on one teacher,” Dr. Panikkar told The Hindu-Educationplus.
During discussions with the representatives of the Andhra Pradesh Council for Higher Education, the team from Kerala found that applications for starting new colleges were submitted to the council and not to the universities. It is the council which, after due procedure, okayed a new college. The universities, after their own verification, grant affiliation. Another important role of the Andhra council, pointed out Dr. Panikkar, was to do liaison work with bodies such as the University Grants Commission and other Central agencies on behalf of the universities and colleges in Andhra Pradesh. This, the Kerala team found, was quite effective in cornering grants and other assistance from such bodies.
In Chennai too the Kerala team – of which the member secretary of council Thomas Joseph was the second member – found that the higher education council played a pivotal role in securing grants and projects for colleges and universities in Tamil Nadu.
According to Mr. Joseph the ideas generated at the three meetings would compiled and put up for discussions at the relevant committees of the council. According to Dr. Panikkar, the Kerala council is also debating the issue of evaluation of teachers by students in institutions of higher learning. This, said Dr. Panikkar, should be done in a manner that helps the teacher to improve his or her quality of teaching.
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