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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Foreign
is not always better Ignoring schools will
not do
Campus
Notes
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Foreign is not always better
THE Word Trade Organisation has listed higher education as one of the commodities for international trade through GATS. In India, the Ambani-Birla report has reiterated the policy of commercialisation and corporatisation of higher and technical education. The same sentiment has echoed in the 10th Five-Year Plan, too.
The acceptance of ideology and practice of globalisation by the Union Government has finally led to the progressive withdrawal of public funds for higher education on the one hand, and privatisation and commercialisation of higher education on the other. The World Bank has argued that higher education comes under non-merit goods, as the benefits mainly accrue to the individual concerned unlike schools education which is classified as merit, as the entire society benefits from its expansion. On the basis of this decision, the Centre reduced subsidies on higher education. However, there cannot be any trade-off between the two different levels of education, e.g., both primary and secondary education are equally important and play distinct but complementary roles. To regulate the entry and functioning of foreign universities, the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill was approved by the Cabinet in March 2007. The AICTE website has already listed 104 unapproved institutions having collaboration with over 125 foreign universities and institutions. It is not known whether any action under the national law has been initiated against any of these illegal institutions, which are making money by trapping students who are financially sound. Since competition entails reduction in costs, laboratories, libraries, etc., find least investment. Also, teachers and non-teachings staff are appointed without prerequisite qualifications. Profit is the sole motive of these institutions and only money-minting courses are on their priority list. The head of such an institution assumes the role of a salesman, always travelling to promote the institution. Some people put forward the arguments that foreign money in higher education is essential due to lack of funds because the investment in public-funded institutions is being reduced and it is not possible to increase the number of state-funded universities and colleges. Another argument is, since a large number of Indian students go abroad for higher education, allowing foreign educational institutions to open their campuses in the country will arrest the outflow of Indian students. One must remember that FDI in any field does not have an objective of fulfilling the social agenda of a state; it is guided by profit and market alone, and if the aim is not fulfilled, the investors look for other destinations. The fact is that foreign investors, according to market principles, will be eyeing profit, which in turn will gradually lead to rampant commercialisation of education. Also, the foreign education providers in our country are not top-grade institutes and their motive is purely commercial. They have not established any campus of their own in the country. These institutions have only tied up with private institutions for commercial motives and that too not with the best institutions in India. The Supreme Court had made education as a fundamental right for all children up to the age of 14 years by its historic Unnikrishna judgement in 1993. Also, India is signatory to the United Nations convection on the right of the child that defines a child is persons 1 up to 18 years of age. Hence, this is essential to review making it a fundamental right available to all children up to 18 years of age. The government should take proper measures to place a fresh Bill in Parliament to modify the amendment in order to accord education the genuine status of a fundamental right, without compromising with either the market forces or the structural adjustment programmer imposed on Indian economy by the IMF and the World Bank. The draft Free and Compulsory Education Bill 2004 stands out as one of the most alarming policy document ever prepared in the history of India. It attempts to legitimise low-quality educational streams for underprivileged sections of our society, provide legitimate space for extra-constitutional authorities to introduce their ideological agenda in school education while keeping them outside the purview of the constitutional framework to neglect the rule of the Panchayati Raj system, to promote privatisation and corporatisation of education, franchise to religious bodies for running elementary bodies, shifting the state constitutional obligation towards elementary education to the parents are dangerous trends. The government should withdraw the Bill and should redraft it on the basis of the common school system, a longstanding policy imperative to which the national education policy has committed. The fresh Bill should be transparent, participative and open to public scrutiny.
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Ignoring schools will not do
PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh has rightly said that mere raising the budgetary allocation of education would not serve any useful purpose unless it results in qualitative improvement in academic standards. Haryana is grappling with a similar problem. Despite the fact that education is on its priority list and 2008 has been declared as the year of education, with a substantial increase in the budgetary allocation, there has not been any tangible reforms in the school education system.
The poor performance of government schools in board examinations held in and after 2005 presents a dismal picture. This year’s results of the middle, matric and plus two examinations are no better than those of the previous years, despite the higher pass percentage shown by the board. Since it was raised with a lot of grace marks, 33 in case of the Class VIII examination, it cannot be accepted. Those fared badly in matric and plus two examinations were also awarded grace marks liberally with a view to show higher pass percentage. What a mockery! With 33 grace marks, the appallingly low percentage of 45 was raised to 80, without realising that the board will lose its credibility. What has been the compulsion behind this unprecedented action of the board is not understandable. This liberal attitude and generosity of the board must have earned the gratitude of a large number of school heads and teachers who have had unexpectedly better results, ruling out the possibility of any departmental action. However, no one seems to have bothered about its repercussions and far-reaching consequences. It goes without saying that the board has lowered the academic standard by awarding grace marks. It is a wake-up call for all those involved in the educational process. They should realise that there is an imperative need to enforce discipline and work culture in the system. Non-performing teachers and school heads with indifferent attitude should be identified and stern action should be taken against them. Only timely action can help arrest the deterioration of the education system. If the Haryana government really has the will to revamp school education, drastic reform will have to be brought about in the existing system to provide quality education to all. One of the main reasons for this sorry state of affairs is the fact that there has been a complete neglect of what is going on in the classroom. There is a need to ensure that teachers take their classes regularly and come prepared. With a view to ascertaining what actually ails the school system, the Haryana government should set up a committee to go into this problem, asking it to submit its report within a month. The recommendations of the committee should be discussed and deliberated upon at a state-level seminar to formulate an ‘action plan’ with implementation strategies. There is no point in announcing 2008 as the year of education if the Education Department does not achieve a major breakthrough in improving and raising academic standards. There should be a state advisory board on education for taking policy decisions and monitoring their implementation. Policy makers should understand that the functioning of the Education Department is different from the other departments of the government. One cannot achieve quick results in education. The frequent transfer of education directors has been hampering the work. They are shifted before they get to understand the functioning of the department. During the last 11 years, the Primary Education Directorate, now upgraded to the Elementary Education Directorate, has seen as many as 14 directors, whereas this number in respect of the secondary education has gone up to 22. The last three years under the present government is no exception. The Directorates of Higher and Secondary Education have had three directors each during this period. Before revamping the education system, the government should consider the following questions: Do the schools have adequate infrastructure, including teaching learning equipment? Are the teachers fully equipped with the knowledge of teaching subject(s)? What is being done to deal with those not performing well to expected level? To what extent the school head is effective to make the teachers teach and not to let them miss their classes? Is there any effective arrangement for supervision of schools? Only answer to these and many more such questions can help solve the problem of raising academic standards, which is the need of the hour. The writer is former Director
Primary Education, Haryana
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Campus Notes
Dr Harbhajan Singh Bhatia, Professor, School of Punjabi Studies, and Director, Academic Staff College, Guru Nanak Dev University, has been nominated as a member of the advisory board (Punjabi) of the Sahitya Akademi for a period of five years.
This is a rare distinction and honour for Prof Bhatia, whose areas of research are meta study, literary criticism, literary history, literary theory and literary research. He has presented more than 100 research papers at regional, national and international conferences. His 20 original and edited books have been published by different universities and academies such as the Sahitya Academy, New Delhi; Punjabi University, Patiala, and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Professor Bhatia, a pioneer in the field of meta literary study, has also written a book, The History of Punjabi Literary Criticism, which is one of the 14 volumes published by the Punjabi Academy, New Delhi, under a mega project.
Award for excellence
The university has conferred the C.N.R. Rao Educational Foundation Award upon Prof Narpinder Singh, Department of Food Science and Technology, for excellence in research for the year 2007 during the annual convocation. This award has been instituted by the university to appreciate the academic contributions made by the faculty members of the university. Prof Singh, who is the first recipient of this award, recently joined his duties after working on the Royal Society Fellowship at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. Under this fellowship, he worked on the possibilities of the utilisation of maize and rice proteins in the pharmaceutical and food industry. He has written over 135 research papers.
New courses
In order to open up new vistas of employment and provide more job avenues to the youth, the university has decided to introduce three new courses in the field of nano science and technology, planning (infrastructure) and social sciences from the current academic session 2008-09. M.Sc (nano technology) would be introduced in the Department of Applied Physics. The candidates would be admitted to this course on the basis of marks secured in an all-India entrance test to be conducted by the university. The students of B.Sc (non-medical) having 50 per cent marks in aggregate could appear for the test. The Master's in Planning (infrastructure) course is of two years' duration and the admissions to this course would be based on an entrance test. There are a total of 20 seats and the candidates having 50 per cent marks in aggregate in B.Tech (urban and regional planning), B.E. (civil), B.Architecture, Bachelor of Computer Application/Information Technology, Master's of Urban/Regional Planning and other equivalent courses, Master's in geography, sociology, economics, public administration, computer applications, M.Com, MBA (marketing/finance) would be eligible for this course. The university has also decided to introduce two-year postgraduate course in social sciences. The University Grants Commission has sanctioned a special grant of Rs 26.50 lakh for this purpose. — Contributed by Sanjay Bumbroo
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