Higher Education in India

Ashok Sharma
The fact that no Indian university or other institute of higher learning of India figures in the list of top 200 universities or  institutes of higher learning across the globe shows that India has still a long way to go to be able to compete with the developed countries of the world in terms of imparting quality education and promoting research at higher level.The rankings done by the Times Higher Education (powered byThomson Reuters) World University, 2013, however places one Indian university (Panjab University, Chandigarh) and four IITs of Delhi, Kharagpur, Kanpur and Roorkee among the top 400 universities of the world. Surprisingly,Panjab University Chandigarh has beaten all other Indian universities by being placed in the (  226 to251)rank while the IITs quoted above have been bracketed in the( 351to400) category.The survey based on thirteen perfornance indicators and then analysed and grouped  into five areas including teaching, international outlook, industry income, research and citation gives first place to California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the ranking and second  place to The University of Oxford (UK) and Harvard University (USA) jointly.In all, 77 universities of USA and 31 of UK figure in  the list of top 200 universities of the world.The only consolation for India is that she has improved her tally from two to five in the list of top 400 universities across the world.
These results should serve as an eye opener for the educational planners, intellectuals, , academicians and teachers as to what is wrong with our higher education system and where do we lag behind the countries which have high rankings on this front and how to plug the loopholes and improve the ranking of our universities.The fact is that the system of higher education in India  is in doldrums.With the mushrooming of institutions of higher learning including colleges,especially in the private sector, the quality of education has declined.It must be borne in mind that  opening of more colleges without provision of adequate infrastructural facilities such as well equipped laboratories and libraries is not going to deliver the things.More important is the selection and posting of well trained, highly motivated and deeply committed teacherswho have a knack for teaching and research.But the tragedy is that in many cases we have teachers of conservative bent of mind and mediocre intellect who fail to inspire their students and rarely encourage new and fresh ideas of their students.The students too are  not  allowed to optimum subjects as per their own choice and aptitude but are forced by their over ambitious parents to make a choice of subjects which do not suit their intellect, interests and aptitude.Moreover, education at primary and secondery level too suffers from several flaws and indiscriminate promotion of students and  memorisation of facts by rote learning being the only objective of the teachers too adds to poor academic background of students joining colleges and universities.The teachers are concerned only with the completion of syllabus and not with the clarity of concepts, especially in the science subjects.Little  focus is given to research and creativity.There is no system of incentives and disincentives for the best performing and worst performing teachers and students.Private tuition centres and tutorial colleges serve only as money minting machines without bringing improvement in education.A large no of vacancies in schools and colleges also results in poor motivation and performance of students.Then there is no revision of syllabi for years together and students are forced to study outdated topics having little relevance with the changing times.The fact that the teachers and alumini of Caltech which has the unique distinction of being the no.1 university in the world have won as many as 33Nobel Prizes so far should make all of us  introspect where do we stand vis- a -vis the world.Even the President of India , while addrssing the convocation function of North Eastern Hill University at Shillong on Oct 22, , 2013 regretted that no Indian university had found place in the top 200 global ranking list and that our syllabus is not upto the highest standards as rcognlsed by world universities.He stresworld.Evenving enhanced focus on research activities and promoting a culture of excellenc, besides fostering greater linkages with international universities for teacher and student exchange.
The need of the hour is , therefore,to take earnest steps to revamp the whole system of education  at school and higher level in tandem with the changed global realities .Plato said long ago,”If the state ignores education, it does not matter what else it does.”Thus the first and foremost duty of the government is to introduce a comprehensive package   of reforms in our educational system to bring it at par with the best system in the world and formulate such an educational policy as promotes research, curiosity and knowledge culture right from the school level.Science subjects  should be taught by following the principle of’ learning by doing ‘ and students must be allowed to spend more time in libraries and laboratories.They must be motivated to complete projects and best performers should be appreciated and suitably  rewarded to boost their morale. DIETs and SIEs need to be activated and entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring practical work in science subjects in High and Hr. Sec. Schools and also educating the teachers amd students at zonal level with regard to making science models and preparing projects .Similarly, students at school and college level should be encouraged to take part In debates, essay/article writing, symposia, etc to enable them to display their talent and foster interest at a younger stage for creative activities. Best and highly motivated faculty having quest for knowledge should be recruited and there should be a mechanism for easing out the shirkers  and non performers. Strict quality control and accountability should be maintained and level of competency that a student is expected to acquire at a particular stage needs to be clearly specified at each stage.Students should be taught in such a manner that they develop skills of problem solving and original thinking.Instead of serving as knowledge transmitters, the teachers should focus on research and production of talented and employable workforce , Universities should be provided liberal funds for research work and other projects..Financial and other resources should be utilized to their optimum level to achieve the desired objectives.For the achievement of excellence, it is imperative that universities and other institutions of higher learning should function as fully autonomous bodies free from political and bureaucratic interference.The Vice Chancellor should be appointed from a panel of aclaimed academicians, able administrators  and men of integrity and repute and he should be given a free hand to run the university.
It will be in the fitness of things that all universities and other institutions of higher learning including the ‘branded’  ones such as IITs and IIMs are graded and judged as per their performance and provided funds accordingly. We have had great centres of learning in India at Taxila and Nalanda in the days gone by where people from the world over  would converge in thousands in quest for knowledge.Why not regain the lost glory by building such centres again and catapult our country to newer heights of excellence and glory?
(The writer is serving as lecturer in English ,Govt.Hr, Sec.School, Barolla (Udhampur).

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