Dr. D. Mukhopahyay
Universities have a great role in shaping the creative minds of people. Rabindranath Tagore gave a nationwide call to the young minds during the pre-independence era since he was convinced that it is the young people who can create, contribute, sacrifice self interest and build the nation as well as they can destroy social evils. Contribution of our students in Indian freedom struggle is enormous and shall remain memorable for ever as long as Indian civilization shall rule the Earth. Indian Universities are the confluence of knowledge creating rivers who run across the country. It is the most important aspect of life of everybody to become a good human being first. Only good human beings help their neighbors in making a congenial living environment and stand by its neighbors at the time and need of the hour of any socio-economic crises. Man is a gregarious living being and cannot live in isolation except Robinson Crusoe. It is the University of any country across the globe which plays a very important role in teaching socio-economic behaviour to a student after he or she enters the corridor of the University. Teachers play the role of mentorship and they act as friends, philosophers and guides of the students. We are all aware that the journey and genesis of Indian University system of education is the erstwhile gurukuls who used to make the disciples a complete human being who after completion of education and learning from their gurus used to rule the country, protect the sovereignty of the land, become judge and punish the wrong doers and what not.
Therefore the Indian University education system and role of Universities in shaping the minds of the young people is deep-rooted and it is of five thousand years old system . Now in modern era, modern University system of education has been evolved and they are the authorities to award degrees and diplomas in a particular branch of educational discipline and the same is accepted as the evidence of learning. There are more than 700 Universities and more than 36,000 colleges in our country. Pandit Jawharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minster of India had given a very relevant and significant definition of a University and the same may be quoted as ” A University stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for the adventure of ideas and for the search of truth. It stands for the onward march of the human race towards ever higher objectives. If the Universities discharge their duties adequately, then it is well with the Nation and the People.” Now there is a note of interrogation in the minds of the philosopher and social scientists that there is more or less social, economic as well political unrest ruling the society and the students of our Universities are not playing the same role as they used to play earlier in the field of creativity and reformation. University has a great role in the process of creation of knowledge and dissemination of the same in the society and they are the pivotal force in talent creation and developing intellectual capability of any society. Now we do not occupy any significant room in the map of performer of higher order of education across the globe and belong to the typical category of third world country. University is a place of teaching and research but it may be observed these are busy with some other activities which are not closely connected with quality education delivery system. There is more administrative and file related work left with a university teacher than academics. Universities should be made free from bureaucratic system of management or administration.
Tagore says……. where the mind is without fear and held is held high… is the fundamental spirit and essence of education. Teachers should devote maximum time with students. They need to guide them in research and help in day to day studies. Overall mentorship role should be given to a teacher. Character building of the students is the responsibility of a teacher. A person devoid of noble character cannot take part in nation building. Without having a firm character, a person cannot manage himself or herself from the act of wrong doing. But universities became platforms for politics for the politicians and students are used for the same purpose. Universities should be the foundation stones for human development. They have to play creative and constructive roles, they need to be the people of high order of integrity, person of compassionate minds and role models for the future generation. Indian Universities should be made free of politics. It should be the place for academicians only, only for the people who remain engaged in knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination. Vice Chancellor of a University is the symbol of wisdom and whose main responsibility is to raise and maintain the academic standard of the University. They need to create a simulative environment which would motivate a student to became a person of high order of wisdom but they are engaged mainly in pleasing the politicians who made him the Vice Chancellor. Merit should be the only be the criteria for the post of Vice Chancellor. In most of the Indian Universities Vice Chancellors are political posts. The extent to which a person contributed to knowledge is hardly examined in the selection process of Vice Chancellors. Moreover, teacher student relationship becomes too mechanistic and hardly there is any human relational approach. Now a days, students hardly respect their teachers. They want good marks by pleasing a teacher in different way rather than writing a good answer in the examination. Our society cannot progress unless Universities are attributed with the status of temple of learning and character building.
Universities should frame such course curricula which must contain developmental aspects in terms of humanistic approach and they should not be Degree selling shops. Degree without knowledge is nothing but a piece of paper which is used for nothing other than packaging. Quality of research in Indian Universities is very poor. Recently, University Grants Commission has developed a mechanism namely Academic Performance Indicators (API) and it is again half hearted effort to ensure quality control in academics. Teachers are busy just to attend seminars and conferences and publication in available paid journals in order to achieve promotional qualifying API at the cost of teaching and timely completion of syllabus of a subject. One humble question may be raised in this context is do we have dearth of good researchers and teacher of eminence when API system was not there .
The purpose of this article is not to criticize the present system of education delivery mechanism but to remind the society that policies by the policy making bodies are not implemented in pragmatic manner. The Universities should be given full autonomy including selecting its Chancellors also. In the western countries, Universities are hardly controlled or monitored by the government and bureaucratic mechanism and perhaps that is the only cause that they produce Nobel Laureate almost every year. Indian Institute of Science and Indian Institutes of Technology are considered to be the institutions for conducting high order of research and producer of knowledge in India but during last fifty years we do not find any significant contribution of knowledge in international level. If we compare our IITs with MIT,USA, where they stand is a question of a rationale mind. It is perhaps correct time to ask ourselves how to bring about considerable improvement in teaching and research in academics.
(The Author is Professor of Management, School of Business, Faculty of Management, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra)
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