Thursday 29 January 2015

HIGHER EDUCATION RELATED BILL PROVISION

HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA

(For Paper 2 GS: On Education)


·        CRISIS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

ü  Human Resources – Hourglass Structure

ü  Archaic Examination System

ü  Rigid Curriculum and lack of electives 

ü  Universities exit from undergraduate education

ü  Poor quality teaching, inbreeding, and lack of appraisal

ü  Islands of Excellence, Oceans of Mediocrity

ü  Withdrawal of state and defacto privatization

ü  Implications of Overseas Purchase of Education

ü  Absence of Regulatory Framework 

ü  Lack of Leadership 

·        CHALLENGES

·        OPPORTUNITIES

·        CRITICAL REFORMS

ü  NCHER Bill

ü  Foreign Institutions Bill

ü  The Accreditation Bill

ü  The Malpractices Bill


Higher, post-secondary, tertiary or third level education is the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology. Higher education also includes certain college-level institutions, such as vocational schools, trade schools, and career colleges, that award academic degrees or professional certifications

CRISIS OF HIGHER EDUCATION


1        Human Resources – Hourglass Structure


The structure of our human resources is in the form of an hourglass.  There are a huge number of mid and top level professionals such as doctors, engineers and lawyers of an indifferent quality that the society cannot accommodate or put to productive use. Yet there aren’t enough number of professionally trained semi-skilled people such as electricians, plumbers and mechanics to fulfil the society’s requirements.  At the bottom are the millions of unskilled, illiterate workers
The past two decades witnessed a phenomenal growth in the number of so-called professional institutions producing graduates who don’t have skills that can be gainfully employed for producing the kind of goods and services that India needs. educated unemployment is on the rise, as these graduates are not equipped to become wealth creators.  .  

2        Archaic Examination System


The examination system for higher education is archaic and disgraceful. The stress is often on testing the student’s memory and rote learning This one size fits for all kind of an examination system does not leave any room for either continuous appraisal during the term of the course, or for testing the student’s creativity, application of knowledge and problem solving skills.In the current higher education setup, excepting for elite institutions such as IITs and IIMs, the teacher doesn’t have any role in evaluating the student’s performance. 

3        Rigid Curriculum and lack of electives 


The higher education curriculum is extremely rigid, centrally defined and doesn’t leave any room for individual choice or experimentation. This resulted in creating a rigid academic atmosphere, with artificial divisions of various disciplines, and pre-determined combinations of courses on offer excepting the IITs and similar elite institutions Even within a course, what has to be taught and what textbooks to study are prescribed, leaving no room for the teacher to be creative in designing the course

4        Universities exit from undergraduateeducation


One of the worst anomalies that crept into Indian higher education system is that universities are completely removed from undergraduate education.

5        Poor quality teaching, inbreeding, and lack of appraisal

6        Islands of Excellence, Oceans of Mediocrity


While it is impressive that we succeeded in creating world-class institutions such as the IITs and IIMs, there is a lot of collateral damage attached to this success. The disproportionate allocation of meagre resources to these islands of excellence resulted in the neglect of other public institutions which turned them into oceans of mediocrity.
A vicious cycle has now set in.  Poor quality higher education is producing many graduates who often lack conceptual clarity and the capacity to apply knowledge for finding creative solutions.  As a result, both wealth creation in society and school education suffered.  As such graduates become school teachers, youngsters are graduating from schools without the basic knowledge and understanding of subjects which are necessary to benefit from college education.  The few good teachers are in great demand in coaching institutions preparing students for entrance tests for professional courses including IITs.

7        Withdrawal of state and defacto privatization


Without any serious debate or preparation, the state opened the gates for private provision of higher education. private for-profit higher education institutions were allowed as a matter of routine
       Very little investment went into pure sciences, education or humanities as they are perceived to be of non-professional character and are not in much demand.
       With increasing fees and donations in the pvt colleges keeps the poor and middle class away. In the absence of demand from vocal middle classes and the consequent lack of political pressure, the state’s abdication of education of education sector is accelerated, resulting in a vacuum that is filled by a large private for-profit sector. 

8        Implications of Overseas Purchase of Education


More and more Indians, especially from the middle classes are increasingly resorting to sending their children abroad even for undergraduate education. Even more disastrous than the financial implication of this resource drain is the fact that the withdrawal of the vocal middle classes and the accompanying political pressure is a certain death knell for the public higher education system in India.

9        Absence of Regulatory Framework 


The state controls where and what kind of private institution will be established. This is mostly done through political patronage and rent seeking behaviour by the quasi-regulatory agencies such as AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) and MCI (Medical Council of India).
       This resulted in an utterly chaotic scenario, and the higher education system is suspended between over-regulation by the state on one hand and discretionary privatization on the other hand. 
       There is no independent mechanism for either evaluating the quality of education or the quality of output from both public and private educational institutions.

10   Lack of Leadership 


Most public universities and institutes of higher learning are reduced to personal fiefdoms of leading politicians. Once these individuals are appointed, they have to satisfy their patrons by obliging their requests in appointments, promotions etc.This led to a natural decline of these institutions of higher learning.

CHALLENGES

       Equitable and accessible higher education system of high quality
       Foster competition in providing education services and offer choice to the students
       Promote the importance of a true liberal education
       Enhance public financial provision for higher education
       Establish an independent regulatory framework to ensure standards and quality


OPPORTUNITIES

       Young demographic profile, (% of 18-24 age group)
       Hard working, ambitious, motivated youngsters
       Huge demand for quality education
       Culture and society that values education and treasures scholarship
       Parents willing to spend significant resources
       Graduates no longer seek a cushy government job and are willing to compete in the market
       Impressive infrastructure that can be redeployed
       Non-monetary   inputs that can make a difference


CRITICAL REFORMS


Given the nature of crisis afflicting higher education in India, a mix of nonmonetary and monetary inputs along with critical structural reforms is the need of the hour. There are many best practices that are in vogue in most western universities as well as the elite institutes in India, that are worthy of replicating. Some of the key reform proposals that are modeled after these widely accepted best practices are discussed in this section

1.      Non-monetary Inputs

Ø  Flexible Curriculum and Electives-Freedom of choice, opportunity to win academic distinction and discipline are all fostered at one stroke. This also means that teachers whose courses were not valued became irrelevant, and in effect students evaluate teachers
Ø  Encourage Liberal Education and Humanities-Any society needs a mix of specialists and generalists to fulfill its unique requirements. While the need for science and technology, and vocational and other specialized forms of skill-based education is well-recognized and appreciated, especially in a developing economy, the importance of broad, liberal education is much less appreciated.
By definition, a liberal education is not directly tied to the study of a particular discipline or vocation, but is designed to equip an individual with the cognitive capacity to acquire knowledge in any field of her choice. 
A true liberal education will go a long way in producing the kind of leaders and enlightened citizens who will take up a career in business, organizational management, government, politics and academia that are badly needed by the developing world.  It is a testimony to the maturity of a highly industrialized and developed nation such as the US, that the bulk of its university graduates major in liberal arts and humanities
Ø  Creative Examination System, Continuous Evaluation
       Test the depth of student’s knowledge, not breadth
       Test analytical skills, application of knowledge and problem solving capacity
       Test should challenge the student’s ability to be creative and innovative
       Stress on Evaluation should be done by the faculty who teaches the course
There are many models of creative evaluation and testing that are widely applied across the world that are worth emulating
Ø  Faculty Recruitment and Appraisal
       Continuous appraisal and rating by students
       undergraduate teaching by all faculty
       Effort to recruit innovative thinkers and promote of new ideas
       Encourage rigorous intellectual discourse
       Constant new blood
Ø  Quality of education
       The Eleventh Plan approved by the National Development Council (NDC) provides a three point agenda in regard to accreditation, namely; introduction of a mandatory accreditation system for all higher educational institutions; creation of multiple rating agencies with a body to rate these rating agencies; department-wise ratings in addition to institutional rating. 
        Presently, accreditation is not mandatory and there is no law to govern the process of accreditation. There are two Central bodies involved in accreditation of institutions; the National Accreditation Assessment Council (NAAC) and the National Board of Accreditation Board (NBA), which is not possible if made mandatory.
       Consequently, an institutional structure to ensure mandatory accreditation needs a legal basis for it to have the force of law. It is expected that with the passage of the legislation to provide for accreditation of higher educational institutions and to create a regulatory authority for the purpose many of these issues will be resolved at least for some time to come. 
Ø  Problem – Solving Research 
Most Indian universities are particularly deficient in meaningful research of any kind.  As a result of this absence of academic rigor, poor communications, and lack of relevance, academia have become increasingly marginalized in shaping public discourse and solving real problems in the societal, scientific and technological domains.  Innovative funding mechanisms, and other incentives to promote high quality, problem-solving research in both technology related fields and humanities need to be evolved.  Emphasis on reasoning and analysis and good writing skills at school level are obviously vital to make productive research possible at university level

2.      Monetary Inputs

Ø  Enhanced Public Expenditure
Ø  Financing Higher Education -The bulk of public expenditure on higher education (in some instances 95 %) in India is in the form of revenue expenditure and is barely enough to meet the faculty wage bill. There is little scope left for any capital expenditure
       We need to evolve sensible and viable financing mechanisms to meet the demand for quality education, through higher investments – public or private, and to guarantee uniformly high quality education which fosters innovation, creativity and wealth-creation.  Therefore, while access should be based on talent and motivation, costs should be recovered to make quality education sustainable
       The notion of free, mediocre quality education has hurt all sections of society. Those who can afford are now fleeing the system, those who go to state institutions are under-performing for no fault of theirs; and the poor in society are subsidizing the not-so-poor for higher education.  This model is clearly unsustainable and wrecked our higher education system. 
Ø  Regulatory Framework  The need of the hour is to create a regulatory framework that will encourage investment from a diverse range of sources in higher education infrastructure and at the same time ensure that every student will have equal access to these institutes of higher education
       The greatest hurdle that we have to overcome to create a robust regulatory framework, is to change the minds of our decision makers
       With the rapid growth of privately funded institutions the nature of their governance system has become an area of major concern. The issue of internal governance of the institution in terms of the processes connected with admissions, registration, examinations, evaluations, scheduling and a host of other functions are also matters that need closer attention in ensuring quality.

3.      Structural Reforms


Ø  Differentiation of Higher Education Institutions
       The structure of current system of higher education presumes that everyone in the higher education system need a 3 or 4 yr college degree. There is no room for the majority of youngsters, who might be on the lookout for acquiring a skill that is readily marketable and which will get them gainful employment. This structure doesn’t leave much room for flexibility, choice or experimentation of any kind
       The Indian vocational education system is based on polytechnic colleges providing diploma education in engineering, and industrial training institutes providing skilled workers to industry. Both suffer from a fatal flaw, as they are delinked from the mainstream education, and a student cannot change her mind mid-course, nor can the credits be automatically transferred to pursue undergraduate education in a university
       The need of the hour is bring about a qualitative differentiation in the structure of higher education, with the following objectives
       Offer flexibility and choice for students
       Offer strong vocational and skill based courses (diploma) of shorter duration
       Facilitate vertical mobility, i.e. people who with a 2-yr diploma can use that credit to earn a 3 or 4 yr college degree at a time of their choice.
       Couple the vocational courses with internships in partnership with industry
There are two models that are worth studying and emulating. One is the much-acclaimed German model of vocational education. The other is the equally impressive American model of Community colleges. 

4.      Politics, Governance and Education

State can, and should, also be a positive institution to create basic infrastructure, develop natural resources, and most of all to provide quality school education and effective primary health care. Much of the debate on education is centered round rewriting history or detoxification of textbooks. The ‘great’ debates are about the location of a temple or a mosque, or past insults and private injuries, or perpetuation of barbaric practices andshunning of modern, humanistic vision. Obscurantism is zealously guarded, and “the clear stream of reason has lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.Perverse status-quoism and the game of blame-throwing on our campuses have cost the nation dearly
 In case of centrally funded government institutions such as IITs, IIMs, Central Universities, IISERs, NITs etc., it is reasonably certain that the interference and control of the government is minimal.  Usuallythe governing boards and the heads of these institutions have the freedom to evolve their academic policies and strategies except in areas where it concerns the fundamental national policies (for example reservations; pay commission norms etc.). The governing boards of these institutions include just one or two officials of the Central Government. At the same time there are also several central institutions with high proportion of government official in their governing bodies where the interference effect is high and troublesome. This is particularly worrisome in the case of state-funded institutions.

Ever since the nation recognized the value of higher education for promoting economic growth and social development, the pressure for reforms has been escalating.  These are formally embodied in two eminent reports brought out in recent years, one by the National Knowledge Commission headed by Sam Pitroda and the other by the Committee on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education headed by Yashpal.

v NCHER Bill

An important measure awaiting political clearance of the Cabinet for introduction in the Parliament is the Bill for the Creation of the National Commission on Higher Education and Research (NCHER) (conforming to the recommendations of the Yashpal Committee Report on Renovation and Rejuvenationof Higher Education In India).
This Bill addresses certain fundamental concerns in the reports of National Knowledge Commission and Yashpal Committee.  These two reports draw critical attention to the fundamental academic weaknesses such as
       compartmentalization and fragmentation of knowledge systems,
       absence of innovation in learning methods,
       disconnect with the society and
       too much emphasis on multiplicity of harmful entrance and qualifying tests.
       They reflect concerns on the growing trend in loss of university autonomy damaging the prospect of healthy growth of spirits of enquiry, creativity, and innovation
1.      The NCHER is not a regulating or controlling or licensing or inspecting body.  Its primary task is to evolve norms and standards for various aspects of higher education including assessment and accreditation, while abolishing several of the regulating bodies dealing with the academic norms for higher education.
2.       It restores to the universities the autonomy and responsibility to implement these norms and standards.
3.       It mandates the NCHER to consult with all States, Union Territories and other statutory regulating bodies in evolving new policies, procedures, norms and standards. 
4.      Identification of academic administrators of national standing eligible and qualified to be appointed as Vice Chancellors of universities or heads of central educational institutions. Considering the high degree of dissatisfaction in selecting the heads of institutions, this function assumes special importance.
5.       A major task assigned to the Commission is to prepare once in every five years a report onthe state of higher education and research in the various states and submit to the Governor.  Similarly, the Commission would present to the President of India, a report on the vision of the higher education and research in the forthcoming decade.
6.      The status of Member of the NCHER is proposed to be such as to be free of control by any one Ministry and made responsible only to parliament.   
7.      An important feature of the NCHER Bill is a provision to review by a committee on eminent persons the performance of the Commission itself about the extent of fulfillment of its goals and objectives and recommend suitable actions. This is somewhat exceptional in the sense that the institutions or organizations created by acts and statues seldom get reviewed and this is one of the major reasons for their deterioration.  Hopefully, the various consultative processes that are envisaged between now and its enactment will further enhance the distinctive role assigned to the commission for renovation and rejuvenation of higher education in India. 

 

v Foreign Institutions Bill


   The Foreign Institutions Bill appear to have created most controversies.  Unfortunately the criticisms about the Foreign Institutions Bill are based on uninformed misapprehensions.  Most of the critics tend to ignore the present ground reality of more than two hundred foreign programmes offered in India in various modes. Undoubtedly majority of these are of substandard quality and value.  The regrettable fact is no agency in India has an account of the number of foreign programmes, their mode of operation, nature of partnership, quality of instruction, fee structure, protection of students interest and so on.  Many of them indulge in glossy and misleading advertisements enticing gullible students with false promises.  Available information on them is based on tertiary sources of reports compiled by voluntary organizations.
1.      The requirement that these institutions must have at least twenty years of track record in offering recognized and accredited degree programmes in their home country will weed out fly-by-night operators.  
2.       They have to comply with all the relevant laws of the land.
3.       They should deposit a sum of Rs.50 Crores to meet any liability to the students, faculty and others in case they quit or their registration is withdrawn.
 On the whole, the need for the Bill is never more acute and should help to prevent the growing chaos in foreign programmes in India.

v The Accreditation Bill


1.      The  “National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill, 2009”, provides for mandatory accreditation of all higher educational institutions through Accreditation Agencies registered under the legislation. The proposal applies to all higher educational institutions including, universities, institutions deemed to be universities, colleges, institutes, institutions of national importance established by an Act of Parliament, and their constituents, imparting higher education beyond 12 years of schooling leading to the award of a degree or a diploma, and whether through the conventional or distance education systems.
2.      The National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions is empowered to register agencies that would undertake accreditation of institutions in accordance with regulations governing academic quality i.e. the quality of outcomes associated with teaching, learning and research besides quality in admissions, physical infrastructure, human resource infrastructure, research and research infrastructure, course curricula, assessment procedures, placement and governance structures.
3.      Existinghigher educational institutions and programmes therein would be allowed a period of three years to obtain accreditation, if not already obtained.
4.      The Authority would monitor and audit the functioning of the Accreditation Agencies. Besides the Authority would also register and regulate the working of Accreditation Agencies
5.      It also would require higher educational institutions to routinely provide reliable information to the public on their performance, student achievement, faculty availability and qualifications and research publications and so on. 
6.      There are sufficient provisions in this Bill to ensure accreditation is transparent and reliable with no scope for malpractices. The accreditation rating in future will determine the fate of institutions or programmes as to whether they should be allowed to continue at all, after reasonable opportunities for correcting.  Any information about undesirable or deliberate malpractices notonly in academic matters but also in administration and governance process will contribute to adverse rating.

v The Malpractices Bill


It lists all those (mal) practices that will attract the penalty of hefty fines and jail terms.  The Bill requires prior announcement and publication of institutional facilities, faculty, procedures for admissions and examination, fee structure and so on. Any willful deviation will attract the penalty. For instance collection of any kind of fees without giving any official receipt will be treated as a major malpractice.  Manipulated entrance tests, collection of unaccounted fees, false information about faculty strength, qualification, infrastructure etc., are some of other malpractices covered in this bill.

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