HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA : ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
Dr. G.K. NAGARAJU
Assistant Professor of Economics
Government First Grade College, Tumkur
Email:gknagraj2009@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
India has a rich tradition of learning and education right from old age. The Hindu civilization is molded and shaped more by religious than by political or economic influences in the course of its history. Tradition of learning and education were handed over generations to generations through oral or through writing. The silent feature of education is a systematic attempt toward learning basic facts about humanity. Earlier students were taught to appreciate the balance between human beings and nature. Education system focused both on learning and physical development. The vital idea behind value education is to cultivate essential values in the students so that the civilization that teaches to manage complexities shapes our world outlook and attitude. Values are the bases of our existence. They make us realize what we are and what we have to become. The approach of our forefathers to life is cherished with spiritual values. Their political and social relatives are not narrow geographically bounded, and their attitude towards life was characterized by vision and duty with devotion. Multi dimensional progress of all mankind was the sole objective of their education. Now the education system in India stress on studies only. It has become exam oriented not learning. The students are not focusing on what they are learning instead they are concentrating more on marks. This will leads to lack of research knowledge, self confidence and openness to criticize etc. This paper will discuss the issues and challenges of higher education in India.
The quality society can be produced only through quality education. In this line, the higher education of India needs mechanisms to improve the quality of education provided through universities and other degree awarding institutions. The mechanism should pay attention on refining and upgrading higher present education and research programmes. Indian higher education system is very large and diverse in the world. There are different types of universities, colleges and institutions offering engineering, technical, medical, sciences, humanities and social sciences at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral level, besides research and extension activities. Also, they vary in their types and duration of programmes, geographical conditions, size, infrastructural capacity etc. Education in India is provided by the public sector as well as the private sector, with control and funding from central, state, and local levels. India has made progress in terms of increasing primary education attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population. India's improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic rise of India. Much of the progress, especially in higher education and scientific research, has been credited to various public institutions. The Indian Education system is the world’s third largest higher education system, having a rich Government and private institutes. Higher Institutions in India offers degrees that are competitive in the world market in terms of quality. India offers quality education and research, and students will earn internationally renowned degree.
The Gross Enrolment Ratio of India in higher education is low as compared to the developed as well as, other developing countries. There is no equity in gross enrolment ratio among different sectors of the society. According to previous studies the gross enrolment ratio in higher education in India among male and female varies to a greater extent. There are regional variations too which reflect significant imbalances within the higher education system. With the increase of enrolments at school level, the supply of higher education institutes is insufficient to meet the growing demand in the country. Quality in higher education is a multi-dimensional dynamic concept. Ensuring quality in higher education is amongst the foremost challenges being faced in India today. However, Government is continuously focusing on the quality education. Still Large number of colleges and universities in India is unable to meet the minimum requirements laid down by the UGC and our universities are not in a position to mark its place among the top universities of the world. Poor infrastructure is another challenge to the higher education system of India particularly the institutes run by the public sector suffer from poor physical facilities and infrastructure. Most of the educational Institutions are owned by the political leaders, who are playing key role in governing bodies of the Universities. They are using the innocent students for their selfish means. Students organise campaigns, forget their own aim. Faculty shortages and the inability of the state educational system to attract and retain well qualified teachers have been posing challenges to quality education for many years. Large numbers of NET / PhD candidates are unemployed even there are lot of vacancies in higher education, these deserving candidates are then applying in other departments which is a biggest back step to the higher education system. There is inadequate focus on research in higher education institutes. There are insufficient resources and facilities, as well as, limited numbers of quality faculty to advice students. Most of the research scholars are without fellowships or not getting their fellowships on time which directly or indirectly affects their research. Moreover, Indian Higher education institutions are poorly connected to research centres. So, this is another area of challenge to the higher education in India. Indian education faces main challenge is lack of transparency, and professionalism. As a result the main focus on studies and academics and research is fallen down.
Other countries are upgrading their higher education with the aim of build well trained professionals. As India has to compete in a globalised economy in areas that require highly trained professionals, the quality of higher education becomes very important. The competition that we are facing form other parts of the world will suppress our moderately trained graduates. Even a small difference will leads to big problems. Many graduates who are well trained will leave the country for advanced studies abroad and not return back. The present system of higher education is not serving the purpose for which it has been started. Further the education has become profitable business and the quality has been lost. In other words the drawbacks of higher education will leads to unemployment.
Most observers agree that Indian higher education, the significant and impressive developments of the past few decades notwithstanding, faces major challenges in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Perhaps the clearest and boldest statement of this issue can be found in the Report to the Nation 2006 of the National Knowledge Commission which concludes that there is a quiet crisis in higher education in India that runs deep, and that it has to do with both the quantity and the quality of higher education in India. Recognizing this dual challenge, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, severely criticized in his speech the serious qualitative deficiencies in Indian higher education while at the same time announcing plans for a major expansion of the system. Knowledge is the base for overall growth and if the nation has to be competitive and to be at par with the globalization pace. Quality of education delivered in most institutions is very poor. While India has some institutions of global repute delivering quality education. It has very narrow range of course options that are offered and education is a seller’s market, where is no scope of incentive to provide quality education. There is clearly a lack of educated educators and teaching is not an attractive profession. It’s a last choice in terms of career. Number of Ph.D.s produced each year is very low and those required by academic is far higher. In fact, at many institutions fresh graduates are employed to teach, leading to poor quality of classroom instruction.
The growth of higher education in India has been largely guided by the serviceable pre requisite of the economy. After independence, the role of the state in planning out a
development path and also in building higher education institutions was guided by mutuality of purpose. Most observers of higher education in India feel that performance of higher education institutions has been less than satisfactory in terms of access, equity and quality. Now there is an urgent need to work for the development of the educational sector to meet the need of the emerging opportunities, increasing younger generation population and challenges.
Indian higher education system has undergone massive expansion in post-independent. India with a national resolve to establish several Universities, Technical Institutes, Research Institutions and Professional / Non-professional Colleges all over the country to generate and disseminate knowledge coupled with the noble intention of providing easy access to higher education to the common Indian. The Public initiatives played a dominant and controlling role in this phase.
It is important to realize that we live in a fast changing world, dictated by the developments in technology. Quick access to information has made knowledge creation fast, and the multiplier effect has made it even explosive. It is increasingly difficult to anticipate changes and respond to them with creative purpose. Designing courses with relevance to the future and developing the necessary manpower to deliver them is a challenging task. All this calls for a team of professionals in different areas to come together to develop proactive strategies for higher education to meet the future demands. A Strategy Planning Body and an Institution to design and develop futuristic courses for transferring them to the Universities and Colleges may be created.
Good Faculty is a must for any higher education institution aspiring for Quality. This has the advantage of quality control of the teaching faculty for higher education. A new Human Resource Development Policy shall be evolved to facilitate this. This could assure that there is continuous infusion of youngster in to the teaching cadre; which is not happening at the moment. With some restrictions on faculty appointments, the present evil of inbreeding can be eliminated.
In higher education, India has a low rate of enrolment i.e. gross enrolment ratio (GER), at only 19%. There is no shortage of funding for the top Indian Institutions such as IITs, IIMs and other institutes of national importance. However, budget for the Research is not under spent due to the insufficient good quality research work. Due to the limited focus on Research and Internationalization, very few Indian higher educational institutes are globally recognized. Number of Research papers published in India has increased continuously for the past few decades but reflected in low citation impact if compared with other countries. Indian higher education is facing with the problem of poor quality of curriculum. In most of the higher educational institutes curriculum is out-dated and irrelevant. In most of the state and central universities more than 30% of faculty positions are lying vacant. While the student enrolment in higher education is growing with faster rate in the last few years. Apart from the highly recognized higher educational institutes in India most of the colleges and universities lack in the basic and high-end research facilities. Many institutes are running without proper infrastructure and basic facilities like library, hostels, transport, sports facility etc. which is desirable to rank the quality institution. Presently there is a very less collaboration of higher educational institutes with industries. Low employability of graduates is one of the major problems in India. Only a small proportion of Indian graduates are considered employable. Placement outcome also drop significantly as we move away from the top institutes.
Since we have got independence we are facing challenges to establish a great and strong education system. Various governments came and gone. Off course they tried to establish new education policies in the system but this is very sad to dictate that they were not sufficient for our country. Still we are facing lot of problems and challenges in our Education System. India recognises that the new global scenario poses precedence challenges for the higher education system. The University Grants Commission has appropriately stated that a whole range of skills will be demanded from the graduates of humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and commerce, as well as from the various professional disciplines such as agriculture, law, management, medicine or engineering. India can no longer continue the model of general education as it has been persisting in for the large bulk of the student population. Rather, it requires a major investment to make human resource productive by coupling the older general disciplines of humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and commerce to their applications in the new economy and having adequate field based experience to enhance knowledge with skills and envelop appropriate attitudes. Concepts of access, equity, relevance and quality can be peritonealised only if the system is both effective and efficient. Hence, the management of higher education and the total networking of the system has become an important issue for effective management. The shift can occur only through a systemic approach to change as also the development of its human resource, and networking the system through information and communication technology.
There are many basic problems facing higher education in India today. These include inadequate infrastructure and facilities, large vacancies in faculty positions and poor faculty thereof, low student enrolment rate, outmoded teaching methods, declining research standards, unmotivated students, overcrowded classrooms and widespread geographic, income, gender, and ethnic imbalances. Apart from concerns relating to deteriorating standards, there is reported exploitation of students by many private providers. Ensuring equitable access to quality higher education for students coming from poor families is a major challenge. Students from poor background are put to further disadvantage since they are not academically prepared to crack highly competitive entrance examinations that have bias towards urban elite and rich students having access to private tuitions and coaching.
Education in basic sciences and subjects that are not market friendly has suffered. Research in higher education institutions is at its lowest. There is an inadequate and diminishing financial support for higher education from the government and from society. Many colleges established in rural areas are non-viable, are under-enrolled and have extremely poor infrastructure and facilities with just a few teachers. There are so many people in various parts of country which are still out of reach. This is when we have emphasized more on our education programs and made our system reachable to all areas. Government has to rethink on these areas to implement more on the policies. Money also plays a vital role for the education system which needs to unique for
all globally recognized syllabus and curricula. Take a look on our constitution which says that this is the responsibility of central and state government to build good education system. For that we need to have funds. But despite there was a large expenditure on the funds every year on Education where the fund goes and our system remains intact. Central government prepares policies and plan while responsibility of State government is run those policies on ground. The standard education facilities are higher in the states which are much rich. There is a need to change such defects from the country
education system which only can be influenced by increasing funding and providing better facilities to students. But we know there is always increase in the fund for the education system but never implemented in that area. Majority of fund goes in the pockets of officials working for this. There is a vast need to improve the quality and standards.
The time now is to modernize our education system so that our country can get much more technically graduated people which can help our country to developed state. Today’s youth always try to go foreign for his higher education as they have much better facilities and quality of their system. We have to stop this brain drainage so as avoid students to run away from country. Our governments trying for various challenges faced but no one is doing well for that. Government came and goes but system remains intact. Higher education is extremely diverse and the challenges and issues faced by higher education institutions are just as diverse. The process of education is not merely digesting books. It is also about doing several co-curricular and extra-curricular activities that give a broader meaning to life in general and education in particular. I believe that opportunities for such holistic development are not enough in India. Facilities for the same are lacking or not easily accessible in India. Even where facilities exist, there is a lack of information about the same. There is a lack of universities and institutes for education but one most important fact is that the quality of education is absent in higher education. There are very few teachers and their knowledge is very insufficient. Most of the teachers are making money with tuitions. I have seen my places where there tuitions. The teachers are not having proper knowledge of subject even and resources to student community are very poor. Students do not have any student-ship ethics, they just want marks in the subject and they study only for grabbing jobs. There is no creativity in students. Our top class students are hard-worker but not innovative. They are not capable enough to produce new technology. There is a great need to revolution in higher education. These are just some challenges which should cover all the aspect in the present scenario of education and we have to implement hard on them.
For quality improvement In order to extend the vision of India is a hub for higher education, the enrolment and bureaucratic systems in universities should be simplified. The foreign students should be given various concessions and scholarship to increase the intake of foreign students. In this line UGC has work with other countries in getting more students to Indian universities.
The Indian higher education must teach every individual how to classify and reclassify information, how to look at problems from new direction and finally how to teach himself/herself. Teachers are the best trained manpower for a nation. Because, they produce technologists, scientists, doctors, engineers, policy makers, businessmen and teachers. Therefore through quality assured training programs it has become necessary to produce, competent, professionals to meet the ever – growing demands of liberalization and globalization. Every system of education aims at molding the individuals to play their roles in the society most effectively. Simultaneously, efforts are being made to create a robust and vast system of higher and technical education. Building upon the existing capacities and recognizing the immense contribution to nation building that the large network of educational institutions has made in the post independent India; the country has embarked upon a second phase of expansion and establishment of centers of excellence in higher education. It is envisioned that strengthening the two ends of the spectrum, namely
In the context of multinational entering into the field of education, quality assurance has become a necessity. India will have to decide on what knowledge and /or skills would be most helpful to prepare students for encountering the continuing change. The student of today learning a specific content of information will find to his amazement that he is not prepared to face the life which he has to live for the next five decades because the knowledge furnished with, has become outdated long back. The coming few decades will be miracles in space craft, satellites, internets and others offshoots of scientific enquires. The recent developments in communication technologies have helped to cross the barriers of time and distance and those boarders have become porous and the sky open. The methods of teaching through lectures will have to be supplemented with the methods that will focus on self study, personal consultation between teachers and students and informative sessions of seminars and workshops. In engineering Indian society, knowledge creation, exchange, networking and highest utilization have become most vital for the advancement of higher education. India needs to make the system of education innovative and futuristic in order to respond to the changing demands of the modern society. Higher education has been finding it difficult to meet the challenges of unplanned expansion, educated unemployment, uneven growth, commercialization of education, financial crises, and the digital divide of quantity versus quality, equity versus excellence, and creativity versus conformity which are posing continuous threats to the higher education.
As the world becomes increasingly inter connected, so do the risks we face. The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped at national borders. It has affected people regardless of nationality, level of education, income or gender. But the same has not been true for its consequences, which have hit the most vulnerable hardest. This crisis has exposed the many inadequacies and inequities in our education system from access to the broadband and computers needed for online education and supportive environments needed to focus on learning, up to the misalignment between resources and needs. Reopening schools and universities will bring unquestionable benefits to students and the wider economy. In addition reopening schools will bring economic benefits to families by enabling some parents to return back to work. Those benefits however must be carefully weighed against the health risks and the requirement to mitigate the toll of the pandemic.
Conclusion
Education is a process by which a person’s overall development is strengthened. It brings head, mind and heart together and develop all round personality .Improvement in the Indian education system is an difficult task and has become very important. In India still a large portion of the population is illiterate. Even a primary education is not getting to a large number of children. Higher education in India also facing many challenges. It is expanding very rapidly after independence but it is not equally accessible to all. We have to overcome by all these challenges so that we can compet with the world.
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