Govt told to focus on improving quality at average varsities

Avenues are needed for further education of dropouts

The government should focus more on improving the standard of average-rated universities where an overwhelming majority of students are enrolled, R Govinda, Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), has said.

According to Prof Govinda, the government needs to give top priority to average universities and institutes of higher learning where 90 percent of students are enrolled. But in reality, that’s not happening. Investing only in a handful of top universities where just 10 percent of students are enrolled would lead us nowhere, Prof Govinda said at the “Colloquium on Higher Education in the 12th five-year plan” here on Friday.

The colloquium was organised by the Centre for Educational and Social Studies (CESS) in association with the Karnataka State Higher Education Council (KSHEC).

Half of the students drop out after high school. Then, only half of the graduates study further. Hence, there is a need to create avenues of further education for those who drop out of the school, the college, or the university.

Govt’s responsibility

Prof Govinda felt that providing higher education was also the government’s job. Else, it would be commercialised as was the case at present, he said.

The Executive Director of the Karnataka Knowledge Commission, M K Sridhar, was worried about higher education being isolated from societal realities.

A plan for higher education should be based on evidence and grass root realities, he suggested, adding that higher education had moved beyond the three Rs — Reading, writing and arithmetic. Today it is four Cs — Critical theory, Collaboration, Communication and Creativity.

Prof Arkalgud Ramaprasad of the University of Illinois, Chicago, stressed the need for a more systematic approach in planning.

New plan needed

“A new plan should be created and a modification of the existing plan won’t suffice,” he opined.

“Our higher education plan limits itself by attempting to patch existing loopholes instead of looking at the larger picture and developing a strategy for education,” he said.

Resources are not always functional. Overpumping of funds without effective implementation can be detrimental, felt the professor.

The Principal Secretary of Higher Education, Latha Krishna Rao, lamented that higher education lacked a specific goal. It was high time that the viability of the higher education was evaluated, she said.