JOIN USCraft an innovative education policy
Mahatma Gandhi’s concern about the way education is defined and pursued – that it is only to enable the student to earn more and hardly giving any thought to the improvement of the character – remains a central focus of all global reformist agendas.
Pressures of bludgeoning population, technological revolution, globalisation and an increasing demand for access to quality education have forced the Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) to redefine their conventional goals. Reputed journal Nature (special issue, The University Experiment, December 2015) identifies the emerging demand for a transformation from education for knowledge mode to education for employment mode as the game changer.
Given this global trend, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2016 has to craft an innovative policy with employability and personality development components strategically positioned around a core matrix of knowledge-related activities.
The success of NEP depends on two fundamental issues: First, empowerment of both HEIs and teachers at the cutting edge of all knowledge-related activities should go hand in hand. Second, connecting prim-ary, secondary and university education should consider the unfortunate reality that inadequate programme implementation at the lower levels so far has had retarding effects (performance drag) at the next higher level.
For instance, language proficiency, particularly in English, is still a major problem even at the UG and PG levels. Many of the states have opted for local language as the medium of instruction even at the PG level. Absence of quality text books in the local medium of instruction, particularly in a rapidly developing global knowledge environment, has further compounded the problem.
States may establish a Centre for International Languages (CIL), modelled as a proactive inter-university accelerator with focus on English, French, German, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Russian etc. Activities may include: i) Networking HEIs using state-of-the-art communication technologies and delivery systems to create a “language hub”; ii) Development of modules for teaching at UG/PG levels and “Teach the Teachers” Programmes, covering primary and secondary school educators; iii) Serve as a novel platform for the HEIs to access global expertise; and, iv) Offer online courses for the benefit of distance education learners and entrepreneurs. State language could play a key role in knowledge transfer activities to elevate CIL to an ‘international culture hub’.
For conventional courses (BA, BSc) where the problem manifests the most, two appro-aches seem relevant: a) using of the Choice-Based Credit System (CBCS) to insert employability and entrepreneurship components as one of the choices under discipline and skill-based electives, and b) develop novel Fusion Courses – BA and BSc (Industrial Production) – by customising the UGC subject templates and participation of all the three disciplines of science, humanities and management. Joint certification by the HEI co-ncerned and the industry partner/proposed Sector Skill Council could authenticate the training imparted by these courses.
Internecine tussle
Creation of a separate cadre of education administrators (IES) should be shelved. The NEP should note the internecine tussle for positions and supremacy between academics and babus. An additional layer of turmoil is avoidable.
Key areas include cost-effective knowledge delivery systems and modern instrumentation. Although UGC has established inter university accelerators (incubators), they are only in a few chosen thrust areas.
There is enormous scope for establishing many such institutions to leverage higher education services in a big way. For this purpose, the proposed number of 100 incubators may be increased to help states to set up a unique category of institutions - State Inter University Accelerators. In Karnataka, for example, one such “knowledge hub” could leverage capacity building of 30 universities and over 4,000 colleges, some located in remote, rural areas.
The current metrics to measure research output is in terms of publications in journals with impact factor; higher the impact factors of the journals, higher the credit given to the research-er. Given that there are very few Indian journals with high imp-act factor, a culture of publishing in foreign journals has taken str-ong roots in assessment and accreditation. Such publications also involve transfer of copyright to the journal of publication, that is transfer of potential intellectual property rights. Publishing high quality Indian journals/ books is the only solution.
The NEP outcomes will be tested to the hilt, particularly for the innovative measures to ensure quality of the university pr-oduct. The state and Central go-vernments have to play their key roles, more as enablers rather than overwhelming, administrative regimes. All stakeholders need to demonstrate a commitment to promote HEIs as centres of alternative values rather than mirroring the rampant commercial activities in the society. True, it is a huge ask, but it has to be accomplished for succeeding in a highly competitive 21st century knowledge society.
(The writer is retired Professor of Botany and former Registrar, Bangalore University)