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Ensure quality rather
than quantity So long as education remains a tool mainly to grab a prestigious position,
with the sole objective to enjoy individual promotion, financially,
professionally, politically or otherwise, it can never have quality.
Campus NoteS Academic success ‘key’ to happiness
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Ensure quality rather
than quantity IN recent past there has been an excessive insistence upon quality assurance in higher education, especially in the universities offering postgraduate degrees. Persistent and intermittent evaluation by national-level professional bodies like the NAAC has forced universities and colleges to show their worth in both quantitative and qualitative terms. As a consequence, various reformatory exercises have been incorporated in the name of quality and excellence, viz., semester system, interdisciplinary courses, seminars and conferences, continuous assessment and so on. Whether or not the quality has improved, but one thing for sure has happened, i.e., the number of courses being offered has increased manifold. More and more colleges are offering postgraduate courses, racing with each other to excel (in numbers). The number of pass-outs (though unemployables) in these courses has correspondingly increased substantially. More courses and more examinees also mean huge examination work. With the enhancement of evaluation and paper setting remunerations, the tasks have become much more attractive too, with enormous financial benefits. It, of course, is very good incentive offered to the teaching community which has to spend vacations marking the answer books. But the important question is that despite the hiked remuneration, why is there a greater incidence of irresponsibly set question papers, evaluation, etc.? Every other day, there is a ruckus created by examinees over the incorrect question paper (framed with the enhanced remuneration fee). Further, with greater claims of objectivity and excellence, merit seems to be sinking to its lowest, with politics paving the way to affiliation to new courses, recruitment to teaching and non teaching positions, handling students’ demands, tackling indiscipline among teachers and so on. One attribute that has surpassed anything else is an extreme indifference among both teachers as well as students towards the functioning of the system. With the coming in of globalisation and dissolution of national borders, there is a huge out flux of students to countries like the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc., because higher education in these countries is considered to be of a much better quality. The question still remains as to why the University Grants Commission (UGC), spending now immensely generous grants to universities, colleges and individual researchers, having worked hard to ensure quality assurance in education and research, has failed to achieve its objective. The answer is not that difficult to find. Most of the higher education institutions are run not by academics but politicians; more dangerously, a deadly combination of the two, who then mix their political agendas with teaching. They keep shouting for better quality of teaching and research, while pursuing their own personal interests, often damaging the well-being of others and even the institution that happens to be their alma mater. Often in highly powerful positions, it is these policy makers at higher education institutions who are the first to send their children abroad for higher studies on the plea that education here is no good (courtesy their own efforts). Earlier, these were a handful but now they dominate numerically as well as otherwise in the governing bodies of all universities and colleges. No institution can grow and show quality performance if its incumbents keep busy pursuing their own professional careers giving a hoot to the welfare of the institution, and exactly this has been happening. Very often, people remain a part of a public institution just for the tag it bestows upon them, which they use for benefits elsewhere. Is quality something that can be transplanted in an institution from outside by force, or by a mere policy or by incorporating a new system? Absolutely not! Quality comes with a cost and that cost consists of self-discipline as well as capacity and will power to discipline others under one’s influence; a respect for rule of law, with a zero tolerance for rule-bending; and most important, merging of personal and institutional interests. If we are not prepared to pay this cost, we have no right to complain against the poor quality of education in our own country, to which each one of us has contributed. So long as education remains a tool mainly to grab a prestigious position, with the sole objective to enjoy individual promotion, financially, professionally, politically or otherwise, it can never have quality. It’s only when you know how dirty the water is that you do not allow your own child to swim in it and that is exactly what is being done. While our planners and academic leaders have in the recent past been aggressively building a strong case for an “Inclusive India”, we have ourselves divided it irreparably into those squeezing the best here and then flying abroad and others with no option but to keep floating in the mud without complaining. Such has been the height of insensitivity that we don’t even waste a second in snatching the lawful right of another person who is more talented and deserving in matters of admission, recruitment or promotion. It is normal to go ahead crushing hundreds of more deserving “others” in the race for “success” because those others have no voice. We have done a huge harm to our public institutions, making a mockery of good governance, let us spare at least the “so-called” temples of learning, allowing our young children to inherit quality education, and not the political game playing, which directly hits at quality. The writer is Chairperson,
Departments of Sociology and Women’s Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh
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Campus NoteS Four new pulse varieties released FOUR new varieties of pulses developed by Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University have been released for cultivation. According to an official press release, the Central Sub-Committee on Crop Standard, Notification and Release of Varieties for Agricultural Crops has released and notified these varieties. These include: MH-421 of moong, UH 04-06 (Haryana Urd-1) of urad, HFP-529 of field pea and Haryana Kabuli Chana-4 (HK-4) of chickpea. It said apart from high yield, these varieties were resistant to various diseases and other biotic and abiotic stresses. Moong and urad varieties had been released for cultivation in Haryana. The varieties of chickpea and field pea were released for the north-east and north-west plain zones, respectively. Enumerating characteristics of these varieties, the press release said HK-4 variety of chickpea was bold seeded (32g/100 seeds) and had extremely good-cooking quality. These qualities would fetch higher market price to the farmers. Besides, it was high yielding and resistant to wilt the major disease of gram. It was highly suitable for cultivation in Haryana also. Likewise, moong variety MH-421 was also high yielding and resistant to mung bean yellow mosaic virus. Being early maturing (60 days) this variety was suitable under rice-wheat rotation. Since its seeds were of medium size, the farmers would be offered higher market price than the bold seeded popular spring/summer variety. The HFP-529 variety of field pea was a high yielding, early maturing dwarf variety with wide adaptability. It was tolerant to powdery mildew and showed better resistance to rust and Ascochyta blight diseases. It was also moderately resistant to pod borers which caused immense loss to the crop. The UH-04-06 variety of urad was high yielding, early maturing and resistant to yellow mosaic virus. Weed scientist elected
IWSS Secretary
Dr Samunder Singh, senior weed scientist at Haryana Agricultural University has been elected Secretary of the International Weed Science Society
(IWSS) for four years. He is the first Indian scientist to be elected to this office. The election took place during the six-day congress of
IWSS, which concluded at Hangzhou, China, recently. Nearly 600 scientists across the globe took part in the congress, where Dr Singh also presented an oral paper. He also chaired a technical session on integrated weed management in plantation crops. He was honoured with an award for his outstanding service to society. In the congress, another HAU senior scientist, Dr Satbir
Punia, and a Ph.D student, Kuldeep Singh, also participated. They presented research papers on the management of parasitic weeds in sarson and tomato in India and a rapid resistance detection test for Atlantis against Phalaris minor, respectively. The work being done on parasitic weeds and herbicidal resistance at Haryana Agricultural University was highly appreciated in the congress.
NCC cadets win laurels
Two NCC cadets of Air Force Wing of the College of Home Science, Haryana Agricultural University, have been selected for Vayu Sainik Camps to be held at Patiala and
Bangalore. An official press release identified the cadets as Anjali Chawla of the B.Sc Home Science first year and Savita of the B. Sc Home Science second year. It said selection of both these cadets had been made on the basis of their performance in NCC 'B' Certificate Examination and Air Force Wing activities.
— Contributed by Raman Mohan
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Academic success ‘key’ to happiness
EDUCATION does make you happier, a new study has suggested. UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that higher the people’s level of general education, the more satisfied they were with their daily life and the more worthwhile they felt, the Telegraph reported. The ONS asked a group of more than 15,000 people to rate how satisfied they felt overall on a scale of 0 to 10, as well as asking them how worthwhile they felt their lives were. Almost 81 per cent of people with A-levels or equivalent qualifications were very satisfied — meaning that they rated their happiness levels at seven or above. But among those in the next educational group down — who had NVQ Level two qualifications or equivalent — the levels fell to 74 per cent. Among trade apprentices it fell to 67 per cent and only 64 per cent of those with no qualifications were very satisfied. Almost 85 per cent of those with A-levels reported higher levels of self-worth compared with only 62 per cent of those with no qualifications. “(This) suggests that adults aged 16 and over with higher levels of qualifications are more likely to report having medium or high satisfaction with their lives overall and also to report finding the things they do in their lives to be more worthwhile,” the ONS said.
— ANI
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IN recent past there has been an excessive insistence upon quality assurance in higher education, especially in the universities offering postgraduate degrees. Persistent and intermittent evaluation by national-level professional bodies like the NAAC has forced universities and colleges to show their worth in both quantitative and qualitative terms.
