Varanasi declaration: Second coming of Mahamana's first

Phygital form of education shall be encouraged using experience of Covid through calibrated model- online&offline education in balanced manner without need to move towards either of vulnerable extreme
Express Illustrations | Amit Bandre
Express Illustrations | Amit Bandre

Declarations, that signal the successful conclusion of summits and conferences, open up emerging pathways for development and growth. The pace of cooperation and action steps up when the declaration is global and is matched by a national response. That is what is expected to be the precise outcome of the three-day Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam (ABSS) the Ministry of Education (MoE) and University Grants Commission (UGC) are organising in Varanasi from July 7 to 9. The recent, June 22 BRICS Declaration, which had substantial references to education, will both provide and receive impetus from the Varanasi Declaration on Higher Education, an expected outcome of the ABSS and the free-flowing ideas and deliberations one expects to witness at the summit.

The Samagam will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NEP 2020 ideator and accelerator. The traffic of thoughts and action from some of the best academic vehicles will converge at this platform to take forward the actionable agenda of NEP 2020. The deliberations will be held across ten thematic sessions covering broad areas of higher education, ranging from the vocational to innovation. The summit will hopefully be the springboard for institutions to dive deep into the waters of progressive creativity and not swim towards the shores of regressive safety. As a participant individual representing an implementing institution, I look forward to the dream-come-true moment with the following possible Varanasi Declaration aligned to the ten themes.

The Declaration may announce a “realistic and phased-out timeline” for the much-awaited Higher Education Commission of India. The body will have a multi-stakeholder representation at all levels -- policy, implementation, evaluation and assessment. It will also accommodate the best practices that pre-date NEP 2020 and ensure diversity in its composition and action, symbolic of the complexity in India's vast higher education landscape.

The growing relevance of “holistic education”, especially in the current phase of post-pandemic revival, will be addressed by providing full independence to higher educational institutions (HEI) to organise multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary engagements. The exercise can be taken up through internal reforms or external models of engagement.

A critical component of the Declaration will be to ensure that “research, innovation and entrepreneurship (RIE)” does not become the exclusive preserve of ivory-tower-type HEIs and becomes accessible to all HEIs irrespective of their categorisation. The “democratisation” of the RIE apparatus can unleash India's knowledge capital that is available aplenty in particularly the grassroots-level institutions.

The Declaration is wont to align the governance of HEIs with Prime Minister Modi's 'minimum government, maximum governance' principle. Deserving HEIs shall be freed from regulatory shackles and given full administrative, academic and financial autonomy aligned with the globally acknowledged but nationally dismissed spirit of owner-led institutions being more responsible and accountable than owner-less institutions.

The process of ensuring high quality teaching methods and teachers will have an oversight in the form of the Higher Education Advanced Development for Sustainable Teaching using Robust Technology (HEADSTART). It is an autogenous mechanism that engages the teaching eco-system in a process of continuous improvement through continuous training and development.

The Declaration will call for evaluating the quality of higher education institutions on the basis of the building blocks of Hind Swaraj, insisting on improving instutional quality based on on home rules for home-grown institutions.

The 'phygital' form of education shall be encouraged using the experiences from the pandemic times through a calibrated model that blends online and offline education in a balanced manner without the need to move towards either of the vulnerable extremes.

Focussed attention on local language and Indian knowledge system shall strengthen the cognitive abilities and native wisdom of all learners during the formative stages of their careers and build a sense of pride in indigenous forms of knowledge and language.

There shall be a massive unbundling and liberalisation of vocational and skill education by enabling all HEIs to offer various certificate and diploma courses based on local and regional needs to enrich the socio-economic fabric of India's rich economic clusters in rural areas which are already functional as open-air universities without the need for any formal education.

The increase in the gross enrolment ratio through equitable and inclusive education shall be a product of all the pillars of educational growth which need to be built with foundational strength not only by cement and steel but also thought and action flowing from all directions through various partnership models with an ingrained focus on inclusivity, affordability,accessibility and quality.

India's leadership in higher education is not a new-found phenomenon. It is an ancient knowledge empire wanting to strike back in this 75th year of her Independence to become the Vishwaguru by the year 2047. There shall be a strategic framework for internationalising India's higher education not only through brick and mortar institutions but also using the bits and bytes of knowledge, making India an exporter of both hard and soft knowledge.

The ABSS is taking place in the holy city of Varanasi in which the inspirational Mahamana established the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) with almost nothing in his hand but everything in his strong mind. The Varanasi

Declaration shall not only reflect the multi-dimensional legacy that Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya left behind in the form of a magnificent BHU edifice but also the second coming of his own first self. In short, The Varanasi Declaration on Higher Education shall be the second coming of Mahamana's First.

Vice-Chancellor & Tata Sons Chair Professor of Management, SASTRA Deemed University, Tamil Nadu

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