BENGALURU: Dr M. Mahadeva
Notwithstanding the advancement that has been achieved in the last seventy plus years of independent India, the outcomes of the educational systems of the country is neither path breaking nor uniquely development oriented. It is largely due to the fact that the country is yet to provide education to all, despite being the fundamental right and is yet to mainstream a good segment of people. If this is the overall situation, discriminatory practices in imparting education to the needy has been the hallmark, owing to shift in character of education from pure public good to pure private good.
During the globalisation process, the country invited private players to produce educational services and distribute the same to the needy. This paradigm shift paved way for division of educational seekers into affordable and unaffordables. But in rural areas, government continues to play a catalyst role as the largest supplier of education, especially school education. The painful issue is the disturbing continuation of discriminatory system of multi-curriculums for different sections, which has developed different capabilities with marked differences as well as non-development of the common curriculum for the entire country.
If the curriculum of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Council of Secondary Education (ICSE) could cater to the needs of the creamy layered society, the curriculum of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been catering to the regional needs at the state levels. Invariably, the outcome has been that of clear divide in absorptions in the employment market. If the first category has brought in superiority complex in the minds of the wards, the second category of curriculum has sown the seeds of inferiority among students with limited capabilities, beset with inadequate teachers, laboratory experiments and lack of other infrastructure.
Nowhere has anybody come across a practice of discriminatory curriculum in the school education system and promotion of division in the society from childhood, however diverse the society is. Instead, most advanced countries have common curriculum throughout the length and breadth, on the principle of ‘one nation, one curriculum’. Such initiative is equally warranted even in India, given its openness for global operations in the era of globalisation, which would throw open global opportunities equally with common capabilities.
Other Forms of Education
Technical education imbibed all the features of both school and higher education. Promotion of institutions of national importance like IITs, NITs, Central Institutes and other institutions of state and private sector funded is an issue in itself with huge difference in the curriculums and market linkages. That apart, promotion of digital or online education, which has assumed paramount importance in situations like Coronavirus in the limited funded institutions is a serious cause of concern over the level playing field in the supply and demand perspective.
Mushrooming growth of technical institutions, drop in admission enrolments, quality of teaching, etc. have been the subsidiary issues. Lastly, having assumed public, quasi and private goods to be imparted by the government, non-government and private sector, making higher education relevant and affordable to all is a challenge in the changing circumstance.
New Education Policy
The New Education Policy (NEP) has contemplated on four important segments:
The focus of the first is to ensure curtailing dropouts, learning centric, teachers, effective governance and standard & accreditation. Similarly, inclusiveness, institutional restructuring, including creating a National Research Foundation (NRF), promotion of multidisciplinary education, motivated and capable faculty, equity in the education, teacher education, vocationalisation, effective management, effective leadership & governance and use of technology have been the focus in the higher education segment.
The policy directs that all schools should provide effective and sufficient infrastructure at all levels, in order to prevent dropouts, especially girl students.
It also promises to provide regular trained teachers at each level to ensure that no school remains deficient on infrastructure support. More so, it is pointed that the credibility of government school should be re-established with up-gradation of the existing ones, new schools in unschooled areas, hostels for the girls and so on. Learning-friendly and flexibility are contemplated by reducing the curriculum content, thrust on experimental learning, flexibility in course choice and multilingual approach. National Curriculum Framework for School Education is also emphasised after stakeholders’ consultation by the NCERT, which would be revised for every 5 to 10 years and made available in regional languages.
Disappointingly, this leaves the fundamental issue of common curriculum for the entire country unattended. The policy considered that teachers are the nation builders and to increase their tribe, proposed to introduce merit-based scholarships for studying integrated B. Ed Programme and preferential employment. It has also recognised the necessity of provision of local housing for the teachers near or on the school premises, which was long due and a welcoming move. The best direction is that teachers can no longer be transferred according to whims and fancies except in the special circumstances, in order to encourage learning continuity from model teachers and to erase transfer inconvenience.
It has directed to do away with teachers’ recruitment holidays, as observed in many states including Karnataka and to ensure adequate number of teachers across subjects besides, encouraging them for continuous professional development and career progression. Lastly, the proposed action on standard setting and accreditation for school education is indeed warranted approach, especially for the government schools in rural areas as they are in pathetic positions, which has dented the image of schools and the learning atmosphere is in doldrums.
Holistic and multidisciplinary education with intellectual, aesthetic, social, physical, emotional and moral strength, achieving equity and inclusion are the main focus of higher education and to create opportunities to all individuals. To ensure the same, it suggests measures like exclusive government funds, target setting, setting up of higher education institutions in special education zones, financial assistance and scholarships to enhance the opportunities.
Under institutional restructuring, creation of National Research Foundation (NRF) is welcoming to promote academic research in the HEIs, as it amount to creation of fresh knowledge from the realm of civilizations to the modern times. It intends to fund peer-reviewed researches at the universities and to liaison between the researchers and the governments, industry, policy makers etc. Further, in order to create a culture of effective governance and leadership, the policy called for a graded accreditation to become independent self-governing institutions with a board of governors. It is also contemplated to appoint only persons of high academic qualifications with demonstrated administrative and leadership capabilities. Those persons are also expected to demonstrate strong alignment to the constitutional values.
The Nation Builders
On the occasions of the Teachers’ day, it is high time to realise the need to respect the teaching community with dignity like elsewhere and keep the teaching fratenity with all comforts in the country. Teachers, having accepted them as nation builders, need best remuneration, perks and incentives for their labour, which should be on par with any other frontline servants. It is indeed necessary to release them from the financial difficulties and stress, and to ensure meeting their family’s basic needs from time to time.
Development of social infrastructure, including residential housing in the school environment, as contemplated would go a long way not only in increasing consultations between the teachers and wards but would ensure continuous learning of the poor and the weak students. The other benefit is that such initiative would put an end to home tuitions.
Releasing the teaching communities from the non-academic treacheries is yet another need of the hour and a relief to facilitate them to rededicate themselves in the nation building activity. The present focus of faculty development scheme and design needs immediate attention to make it relevant to the industry and social needs on continuous basis than to only promotions and progressions of the teachers, especially in the higher education segment.
Refining Higher Education
The unavowed objective of higher education is (a) to produce fresh knowledge; (b) distribution of fresh knowledge emanated from research; and (c) to disseminate the fresh knowledge. These activities can be taken up by undertaking research, by teaching the findings of the research, and lastly to document/publish the fresh knowledge to facilitate further research. These objectives not only make higher education much sought after but also establishes the forward linkage largely to the employment market and to the society in general. Unfortunately barring some, most of the higher education institutions have by and large never engaged in realising these objectives but largely confined to teaching.
Undertaking independent or commissioned research works is very limited and perhaps totally absent in some disciplines. Lack of competitiveness and institutional supports are attributed for the present state of affairs in the universities. If this is the overall scenario in focussed research, there is hardly any conducive environment or sufficient attempts on the part of the faculty members for inter-disciplinary and multidisciplinary researches. It must be owing to lack of orientation or on job trainings at the higher level of the Indian higher education.
The author is a former research faculty in Economics at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru. Email: madaiahm1657@gmail.com