Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

EDUCATION

The Indian higher education system suffers from a high degree of rigidity and over-centralisation which is not conducive to academic excellence. Recognising that a high degree of autonomy in decision making is necessary to promote a better academic environment, about 100 colleges have already been given autonomous status with financial incentives to improve college education. A beginning has been made to establish centres of excellence during 1963-64 in 13 departments of the Science Faculty and 7 depart- ments in the Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences. This programme was extended during the Seventies and early Eighties. Designated as the Special Assistance Programmes (SAP) it has three levels of assistance i.e., Departmental Research support which is the first level of support, Department of Special Assistance which is the second level and Centre for Advanced Study which is the third level of support. At present nealry 350 departments are covered under one or the other SAP schemes. On the recommendation of the Science Advisory Committee to the Cabinet another scheme known as CO- SIST was launched in 1985 to selectively strengthen the infrastructure of such Science and Technology Departments which are engaged in outstanding research teaching or have shown promise in these areas. This covers 101 departments. College Science Improvement Programme (COSIP), College Hu- manities and Social Science Improvement Programme (COHSSIP) were introduced during the Seventies under which good colleges were identified for assistance to introduce innovative methods of teaching- learning processes like student seminars project work or question banks. The University Leadership Project (ULP) is another pro- gramme under which some universities identified to provide leader- ship in curriculum reforms to the colleges in selected subject areas. The working group on Higher Education in the Eighth Plan has recognised the need to identify a maximum of 100 colleges in the first instance with a view to upgrading them as colleges of excellence wherein quality of education can be monitored under controlled conditions. It is no doubt true that India has the third largest pool of scientific and technical manpower in the world but the proportion of such manpower per thousand population comes to 4.5 in India as com- pared to 111.14 in Japan. Over 9000 doctorates are produced yearly in India by the institu- tions of higher learning, almost 70 per cent of these are in the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2 to 3 per cent in Engineering and Technology and 10 to 12 per cent in Agricultural Sciences. "No worthwhile effort appears to have been made in the direction of analysing the employment spectrum of those holding doctoral de- grees. No dependable statistics are unfortunately available for this crucial parameter. It may be surmised that about half of those holding doqtoral degrees are underemployed and most of the other half is absorbed mainly by the R&D sector including the system of higher education itself. What makes the situation particularly unsatisfactory is the fact that less than 1 per cent of the 'Doctors' are absorbed in the undertakings of the private and public sectors. The country can neither ignore research in institutions of higher learning nor keep talented human resources, developed at great cost, unutilised. The situation calls for the formulation of a planned strategy, which is socially acceptable, with a view to ensuring proper human resource utilisation." (S.K. Khanna)

planners of higher education. It would be disastrous for the economy as well as for education if the trend line of the growth of higher education is not speedily brought in line with the demands of socio- economic development in the current phase." (Moonis Raza and’Yash Agarwal) Special efforts have been made to extend the benefits of modem education to the weaker sections of society, particularly the Scheduled Castes, who constitute 15 per cent of the total population. While their share in all education was 12.6 per cent in 1977-78, their share in the general segment of higher education was 7.7 and 6.6 in professional education. The figures for 1979-80 were 7.5 for general education and 6.9 in professional education. Coming to the faculty-wise enrolment of SC candidates at the undergraduate level in 1979-81 Arts absorbed 9.84 per cent followed by Medicine with 8.78, Veterinary Sciences 7.87, Agriculture 7.74, Education 7.12, Law 6.79, Engg/Tech 6.30, Commerce 4.92 and Science 4.65. The proportion of SC students in the professional stream at the post-graduate level is considerably less than their corresponding share at the undergraduate level. In Education it is 3.49 per cent, Engg/Tech or fly 1.56, Medicine 4.77, Agriculture 4.06, Veterinary Sciences 1.69 and Law 5.33. In the case of the post- graduate levels in Arts, Science and Commerce, the figures are 11.78, 3.61 and 6.11 respectively. "The most disturbing phenomenon is the microscopic share of SC students at the post-graduate level in professional faculties. Their total number in 1978-79 did not cross even one digit in Veterinary Sciences, even two digits in Engineering/ Technology and was as low as 287 in Medicine. The extent of deprivation may be gauged from the fact that in that year as many as 105 million citizens of the Indian Republic were members of the Scheduled Castes". (Moonis Raza and Yash Agarwal). EXPENDITURE If Rs. 55 crores were spent on Education in 1947-48, Rs. 8000 crores were spent on Education in 1984-85. Within the Education sector, whereas only Rs. 8 crores were spent on Higher Education in 1947, it rose to Rs. 900 crores in 1984-85. As a ratio of GNP expen- diture on Higher Education rose from 0.2 per cent in 1947 to about 0.5 per cent in 1984-85. Allocation of Plan resources for Higher Education (University and College sectors) has also shown arising trend. As a percentage of allocation for total education, 9 per cent was for Higher Education in the First Plan. It went up to 25% in the Fourth Plan and it stabilised around 20% by 1980-85, i.e the Sixth Plan. It may be noted with concern that the share of Education in total Plan expenditure has gone down from 7.60 per cent in the First Plan to a bare 2.66 per cent in the Sixth Plan which indicates the decreasing interest of the Government in Education. The Radhakrishnan Education Commission had identified the ex- amination system as the aspect of education that needed to be reformed most. Even after more than three decades the system continues almost unchanged with the student being exposed to uniform external and end of term essay-type questions. Mass copying and other malpractices have further eroded the credibility of the system with the result that prospective employers are relying more and more on job specific recruitment examinations. The universities themselves do not rely on their own evaluations but have entrance tests to regulate entry to post- graduate and research courses and courses like medicine, engineering and management.