Uplifting quality of education in India

Author: Prof. K. C. B. Rao, Head-ECE, JNTU-Vizianagaram

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, many Indian students went abroad in pursuit of higher education. Some of them came back to take part in the freedom movement. Now the situation has changed. While people continue to go abroad in pursuit of studies, they do not seem to be returning. Their reasons may be completely justifiable. At least two of them are noteworthy! Firstly, a degree from outside India has a higher value inside India. Secondly, the education opportunities outside India provide a more exhilarating experience of learning and research.

These reasons have emerged out of a history. Though this country has several prestigious institutions not many of them make it to the top of the global rankings. The Mathematical Prodigy, Ramanujan, also shone out of a foreign university; who knows if he lived to see today—perhaps, he might have had to clear NET to pursue his research in India. And if even if he did, he might have only gotten an ad-hoc and vulnerable position with fixed meager income, and several constraints to perform. Administrators, not educators, controlling budgets would have determined and capped his capacity to excel!

Add to these, the decay of libraries in educational institutions which is obvious beyond pity. Unfilled faculty vacancies even in national institutes is a tip of the iceberg. Enrollments and demand for quality education is exponentially growing, while the institutional capacities are radically lagging. Culturally wealthy and gifted for its curiosity, but intellectually incapacitated, education in India can be deeply disturbing.

In contrast is for example a small country called Finland, which has built its education system around competent and culturally diverse community of teachers. There, it is natural for one to aspire to be a teacher, while that is not an easy career option to pursue. After all, quality of teachers determines the quality of educational institutions.

The picture is not as gory as it may have been shaded. India has become signatory of Washington Accord for all UG-TIER-1 institutes of technical education under National Board of Accreditation [NBA]. There is National Assessment and Accreditation Council [NAAC] of UGC to improve the quality of education. And then there is National Institutional Ranking Framework [NIRF]. Now, there is a New Draft Education Policy, 2019, inviting institutions to invest in capacity building.

It is still not too late to reverse the tide. Instead of taking pride in supply of intelligence to the world, institutions could focus on retaining it for application within the country. There are several questions to ask, and several opportunities to introspect. Especially, what are the educational institutions doing towards their quality improvement initiatives? Perhaps, a good way to start is being adopting the standards of accreditation agencies such as NAAC and NBA.