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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Delink education from politics
Encourage community participation
Campus NoteS
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Delink education from politics IN the preamble of the French Constitution, which was written in 1946, the State guarantees education to both the child and the adult. Today, France can proudly claim of imparting cheapest education, right from primary to university level, to its nationals. It bears around 90 per cent of the total cost of education, whereas in India, the students have to pay almost 50 per cent of the cost of their education. It is undoubtedly ironical and paradoxical for developing nations like ours where people are still fighting for basic necessities. Where does the fault lie? Though India proclaims itself to be the largest democracy in the world, it has failed to provide the basic necessities like health and education to its citizens. The central university is perhaps the only institution where the needy student can get higher education. For example, I don’t know where I would have been if not for the heavily subsidised education I got from one of our reputed central universities, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. In the 1980s, the tuition fee at JNU was just 30 rupees, while the mess fee was around 100 rupees. There was also a provision of scholarships for the needy. This means the students of JNU and other central universities were getting, and are still getting, higher education at minimal cost. During five years of my stay at the university, I neither heard the teachers fearing for their salary and other benefits, nor the students crying for the reduction in tuition fees, research grants, etc. At times they had problems spending their grants by the end of the financial year. There is no denying the fact that to carry out good research, the academics and the students need a congenial, tension-free atmosphere. If teachers and students keep spending their energy fighting for their survival, it is humanly not possible for them to produce world-class research work. But the question is, with a population of over one billion, how many central universities do we have and how many students are actually lucky to get into them? During my stay in Delhi, Indira Gandhi during her visits to the university used to say that she wanted to see the entire country like the states of Kerala and Punjab—Kerala for its education and Punjab for its economy. Kerala is still topping the list in the field of education, but what has happened to Punjab? It is a known fact that Punjab government’s policies are not very pro-academic. Most of the institutions of learning, including schools, colleges, universities, medical and technical institutions, are in a shambles due to lack of funds. Teachers and students are either sitting on dharnas or taking out rallies for their right dues. It is happening in Faridkot, Ludhiana, Patiala, Chandigarh and other cities. Teachers are being thrashed in full public view. It is a bad business only talking good politics. How long do the politicians think they can fool the people with their sweet talk? Recently, Punjab had been given a golden chance by the Central government to save Panjab University from financial crunches after concerted efforts were made by the Panjab University Teachers Association. In a democratic set-up, an elected body’s demands are to be considered without fuss, especially when they are for a larger cause and public interest. But the Punjab Government is adamant to bring down the state of affairs of the university like other state-owned institutions. At a time when Punjab is reluctant to release its share for meeting the 40 per cent university deficit, Panjab University is left with no other option but to open educational ‘shops’ under the name of self-financed courses, where the students have to pay exorbitant fees to get admission. But how long these ‘shops’ will remain open depends on the paying capacity of the ‘clientele’. Moreover, nobody wants to head such institutions where everything is so unpredictable and precarious. Instead of grabbing the lifetime offer of the Centre to convert Panjab University into a Central university, it is shameful that the Punjab government thinks that if other universities in Punjab can linger on, this university can also do so? In the name of national heritage, under the garb of saving the vote banks, I wonder this time they end up losing both. The day is not far off when the youth of Punjab will rise against this apathy towards them. The writer teaches at Panjab
University, Chandigarh, and is author of ‘Le desir irresistible’
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Encourage community participation THE school-community partnership in education gives a right to the parents to choose the kind of education that their children should get. It can achieve many objectives, including increasing the relevance and quality of education, improving ownerships, reaching disadvantaged groups, mobilising additional resources and building institutional capacity. Through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Centre has put emphasis on people’s involvement and participation in universalising elementary education. The SSA calls for community ownership of school-based interventions. The programme strategises to universalise elementary education by community-ownership of the school system through active involvement of women’s groups, VEC members, and members of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). Concerted efforts are being made to mobilise the community to promote education, to help in the development of educational facilities and to oversee the functioning of schools. The SSA envisages cooperation between teachers, parents and PRIs. One of the principal concerns of the SSA is the inclusion and participation of children, especially girls, from the SCs and weaker sections, minority groups, and children with special needs, in the educational process. In Punjab, for managing the school affairs, the community in the form of panchayat, parent-teacher association and village education development committee (VEDC) has been empowered to inspect schools, monitor the academic performance of children, attendance and quality of education, supervise regular supply of quality and hygienic mid-day meals, supervise and monitor aspects relating to distribution of textbooks, maintenance and repair of building, creation of infrastructure at the school and community levels, ensuring drinking water and toilets, ensuring cleanliness and sanitation, ensuring the proper utilisation of grants, participation in micro-planning process and organising community mobilisation activities for developing better coordination between various stakeholders. The VEDCs, which are particularly made for supervising the quality of elementary education, have been formed in almost all the villages. These bodies usually consist of seven-eight members, including Scheduled Castes and women members. The idea as such is a noble one, but experiences suggest that these bodies need to do a lot more to achieve the intended results. The findings of a study carried out by this writer suggest that a great majority of VEDCs/PTAs and gram sabhas don’t have education on their priority list. It was found that in Ferozepur district, issues relating to elementary education were not even discussed in more than three-fourth gram sabhas. Quality issues have no place in VEDCs meetings. In Moga, the proportion of gram sabha not discussing elementary education issues was as high as 90 per cent. Those VEDCs, which discussed something on education, took up only those issues that involved money, e.g., construction of building, toilets, and the repair of boundary wall. Sadly enough, more than one-fourth VEDCs members did not even attend the meetings. Those who attended were emphatic in saying that they attended the meetings just to complete formality and had no interest in quality issue of elementary education. Parents, who can afford, don’t even prefer to send their children to government-run schools. Majority of such parents were simply indifferent to the kind of education being imparted in government schools. The government’s move to involve community in education is laudable, though it is for the people to see in what ways this system can work well. With the global players entering into the field of education, we can’t wait for long as there are compelling reasons for us to strengthen our educational infrastructure sooner than later. The writer is Reader (Social Work),
Punjabi University, Patiala
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Campus NoteS The Department of Applied Physics has received Rs 1.95 crore as the first instalment of the Rs 5.93-crore grant sanctioned for the Development and Characterisation of Optical Material and Coatings for Photonics Systems and Devices project by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of the Ministry of Defence. The research work will be carried out by the faculty of the Department of Applied Physics with Professor Naval Kishore as Principal Investigator. The grant will be utilised mainly for procuring sophisticated equipment such as the ion-beam-assisted deposition system for synthesising the film coating for use in the beam combiner plate of light combat aircraft, optical limiters and scanning electron microscope for the characterisation of synthesised materials.
New proctor
Dr Rajesh Malhotra, Head, Department of Chemistry, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology has been appointed Proctor for a two-year term. The vacancy had arisen due to shifting of Dr M. S. Turan to the Institute of Chartered Accountants, New Delhi. Dr Karampal Singh of the GJU's Haryana School of Business has been appointed head of the newly established Commercial Technology Cell of the university.
CCS Haryana Agricultural
University, Hisar Haryana Agricultural University scientists have developed three single cross improved maize hybrids namely HM-8, HM-10 and HQPM-7, which have been recommended for cultivation at the all-India level. The maize hybrids HM-8 and HM-10 had been recommended for cultivation in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat, Orissa, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The adoption area for quality protein maize hybrid HQPM-7 was Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. HM-8 yields 6.8 tonnes a hectare. It is medium maturing and resistant to several diseases. Its grains are orange in colour. HM-10 maize hybrid's average yield is seven tonnes a hectare. Its gains are yellow in colour. Both these hybrids have been recommended for rabi season. The HQPM-7 variety yields 7.2 tonnes per hectare. The new varieties are resistant to diseases like leave blight and stem borer. —
Contributed by Raman Mohan
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In India, the National Policy on Education, 1986, visualises direct community involvement in the form of Village Education Committees (VECs) for the management of elementary education. The states are expected to evolve these institutional arrangements to ensure effective decentralised decision-making at the school level. The main responsibility of these institutions is community mobilisation, school mapping, micro-planning, renovation and construction of school buildings and improvement of pedagogical curriculum. These structures are supposed to provide voice to women, Scheduled Castes and parents. In this regard, the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments have also created a congenial ambience for panchayats to play a proactive role.