When I was in highschool, my parents and I, both, almost assumed that I would proceed to some post-secondary educational programme. The dominant careers then had essentially three routes: a) prepare for civil service; b) become an engineer; c) or a doctor.Professional institutions for the latter two, and a university degree for the former were the primary educational routes available and sought.
There was no distance education; polytechnics were considered good for those who couldn’t make it in engineering colleges; if you couldn’t qualify for civil service, then you would become a ‘master’ (teacher). If there was no route to post-secondary education left, then you could open a shop or join in the family business.
Things have changed somewhat in these 40 years. Now, many more avocations, careers and educational routes are available. Becoming an entrepreneur and doing your own business is considered height of innovation, leadership and demands highest education. Competency-based learning and open & distance education have become more widely available as professional education routes.
It is in this changed context that University Grants Commission in India created a category of ‘deemed’ universities. These were supposed to be ‘degree-granting’ institutions in a specialized professional field.
Now comes the Report of a Review Committee set by Ministry of Higher Education in Government of India which makes a serious criticism on the ‘quality’ of education being offered in these ‘deemed’ universities. The Report recommends de-recognition of 44 amongst them. Nearly 200,000 students are studying in these 44 institutions, and their future (as that of their predecessors) is in jeopardy, for no fault of theirs.
If these were purely private institutions, students and their parents would have paid a greater attention to the quality issues themselves. But, recognition of the ‘deemed’ status for these institutions by the government creates a sense that these institutions are under regulation by some public authority.
That the regulators and their officials are ‘hand-in-gloves’ with these institutions, and provide them official recognition through corruption, was not publicly known (until recently), and students and their parents assumed their ‘bonafide’ credentials, until proven otherwise. In that sense, it is the government regulatory agencies and their officials who should be strictly penalized, not those students who are studying there.
The larger issue in this chaotic scenario is the need for legitimizing multiple routes for post-secondary education in India, and around the developing world. Mere literacy, primary or highschool education will not be enough in the world of tomorrow. Additional and continuing educational upgradation will be required for career and life improvements. Various forms and channels of post-secondary educational routes will need to be nurtured in each society within the larger framework of life-long learning.It is in this regard that new policies and mechanisms need to be evolved in India, and elsewhere.
And, this approach can be best promoted by students and their parents, who are the primary stake-holders in this regard.
Whither students’ unions on this account? Whither parents’ associations? Who else will raise the voice of sanity in this chaotic silence?
This is the month of Basant Panchami, the day we celebrate the Goddess of Learning—Saraswati. Have you noticed that the reverence to the goddess has diminished, of late.
