A
Small Step for a Giant Leap
Four years and four months ago a
new government was elected, promising
manna in the form of jobs for the
unemployed youth, of crediting to the account of every citizen a sum of 15
lakhs of rupees by confiscating black money and achche
din( good days) for the entire nation under an honest corruption free
government with a slogan “minimum government, maximum governance”, offering absolute safety and security from internal
and external foes ( especially from our Western neighbours). There was also
considerable mockery and criticism of
the way the previous government handled farmers’ problems, unclean environment,
fuel price rise and rupee depreciation against dollar with the tag line that we
will reverse all these and many more of
their wrong doings as well as their non- doings, aptly described as “policy
paralysis”. The party’s promises also included better educational standards and
quality healthcare. Only fools with walls in their minds would have blocked the
rise of the BJP to high offices with such wholesome promises of greener
pastures. India proved she had fewer fools by voting BJP to power almost en
bloc with added support from its alliance partners.
With just a few months to go
before the party in power seeks once again a fresh mandate, it has already
planned for the final sprint with a renewal of promises on educational and
health projects as a carryover from the partially fulfilled agenda of 2014. I
am not interested in fault finding for promises not fulfilled or waxing eloquent over achievements that are
more in the form of doing the same things as done in the past, maybe in a different and possibly better way (such
as the extension of Aaadhar towards social welfare projects and implementation
of GST, to name a few ). That is how
political parties when they come to power work since they have the power to do
what they want to do and the power not to do what they cannot do in a short
span of five years.
Having been only in the academic profession all through my
working years, my concern centres round the
PM’s promise of greater funding for higher education which is perceptibly on the
decline affecting a large number of young men and women whose future is
dependent on what they receive in schools, colleges and universities. This is
of cardinal importance to the future of any nation, for what tomorrow’s leaders
receive today, is what they will give in the years to come. The Prime Minister
has promised during his centenary address at Patna university a bonanza of Rs.10,000
crores for five years( it is not clear if it is 10,000 crores each year or cumulatively
for five years) and autonomy to 10
private and public universities if they show the potential to become world class institutions. Implied in this
promise is the hidden truth that our universities have till now been denied adequate
funding and autonomy which are essential to reach excellence. The PM’s
announcement is a small and a significant step towards reforming higher
education.
But the questions that remains to be answered are:
(a) Whether pumping more money alone can spur the institutions
to become world class and break into the top ten of world ranking? Allied to this central question are many
more.
(b) What is the
definition of a world class institution?
Is it possible to have one single uniform criteria for world class
institutions? Will that not be a case of one size fits all?
(c) What other bottle necks impede the efforts of realizing
this ambitious prospect?
(d) Why our universities
have not been world class all these years?
(e) Is it only lack of funds and lack of autonomy that have
been the cause of a steady decline in our standards ?or
(f) Has there been a
deeper malaise that educationists, policy makers and educational administrators
have failed to address?
The answer to the first question whether pumping money alone will
remove the flaws in our educational system is an emphatic ‘No’. We have to first find answers to all the questions
raised above and recognize the core problems before doling out monetary solutions
which seem attractive, but likely to get smothered if those problems are not
removed. It is like the doctor prescribing mild analgesics and antipyretic
drugs on the phone without examining the patient to find out the root cause of
the disease. Lack of funding and want of
autonomy are the overt manifestations of the disease, but not the root cause of
the ailment. Unless the root cause for
the malaise is identified, money alone cannot solve the problem.
The second question is what is a world class institution? It is a handy catch phrase though it is
highly subjective as the requirements of different countries vary in terms of
educational input and the desired outcome. In simple, direct terms, it means institutions
that are the best-in-class,
institutions that serve as models and set benchmarks of excellence. This is generally
assessed in terms of (1) students; (2) research undertaken and
(3) the institutional engagement with the civic society towards contribution to
the social, cultural, aesthetic and
ethical life of society.
The last few questions (b to f) relate to the root cause of the steady decline in quality and standards of
education in our Universities and other Higher
education Institutions. The ailment is mainly one of nutritional
deficiency. The quality of input and
of the output have been weak and anaemic. The growth and development of an
institution depends on two generic factors- on how much it is capable of
growing and what nutritional supplements are needed to ensure that growth. A
Tamil proverb succinctly says that the swelling on a finger is proportion to
its size. It is not necessary that all
world class institutions are those that offer multi dimensional courses; what
is to be taken note of is how each institution rises in excellence within the
limits it sets for itself.
Till the 1960s –after
which the euphoria of a new born Independent nation started waning- the urgent
need was to have stand alone
institutions like the Management Institutes(IIMs), Technological
institutes(IITs), Science Centres (that were further divided into research
centres for Physics, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, etc). On the Humanities and Social Sciences
side, Centres for Philosophical
research, Institute of Economic growth, Institute for Mathematical sciences,
Institute for Statistics, Council for
Social Science Research etc were set up.
This resulted in compartmentalization of knowledge inhibiting these
centres from developing into wholesome knowledge creating institutions. This is
in no way casting aspersions on the excellent work done by these existing stand
alone centres, but what needs for an institution to gain world class status is the
provision for transdisciplinarity to encourage a research
strategy that crosses
many disciplinary boundaries and create a holistic research. We need new centres that focus on problems that cross
the boundaries of two or more disciplines,
so that concepts originally developed
by one discipline can be widely referred
to and used by other disciplines. The current inability to assimilate knowledge from
different frontiers and use it for development distances our knowledge centres
from achieving all round excellence. At present the emphasis is on the parts
and not on the whole which is interdependent on its parts.
This atomistic
approach has resulted in a profusion of doctorates with expertise in limited
areas. It is seen In colleges where a doctorate in inorganic chemistry cannot
teach organic and physical chemistry or a doctorate in ancient history is
clueless about medieval or modern history(where again the division is between
European, Asian, American, British and Indian history) . It seems our teachers
are like an orthopedic surgeon who claims that he can operate only the thumb as
his specialization does not include the
little or the middle fingers. This kind of specialization is deleterious to
acquiring wholesome knowledge and imparting them to the students. No wonder our
young students are bored and listless in the classrooms when there is no effort
to string the thread of knowledge across different disciplinesand make it
interesting and absorbing.
The decline in
standards has been further facilitated by the semester system where knowledge
is given in a rationed way. The student never learns to connect the different
courses spread out thinly through six /four semesters(three years of
undergraduate study/ two years of Post graduate study). It is easy for the
students to secure high grades by reading limited courses without ever
stretching the mind to connect them on a broader scale. The present state illustrates the well known
proverb what one knows is equal to the amount of sand that one holds in the
palm; what one does not know is the vast
sand stretched on the shore. As is the
raja, so is the praja( as is the
king, so is the subject) If teachers have compartmentalized knowledge, students
will receive not even one tithe of that knowledge. The earlier system of three
full years with well mapped out courses gave us a more enhanced learning than
what is given today.
Then comes the inbreeding
in universities and colleges where the question papers are set and moderated by
the teachers teaching in the colleges/ in the university departments. The
questions are set within the limited portions of the already abbreviated courses
and the evaluation generously done so that no college / university department
is shown in poor light. The internal evaluation in the college ensures that
every student gets a minimum of 18/ 25 that often goes to absurd lengths of
24/25. Is there any sanctity in such
evaluation? No wonder students enter and exit with zero degree mental
development albeit with a paper degree on hand. Unless there is a return to the
older system where the student evaluation is done with confidentiality, one
cannot expect any progressive change in the standards of learning and
assessment. In the ‘90s when we were
university teachers, the confidentiality of the paper setters and the examiners
was strictly enforced. Answer papers were jumbled and new numbers were pasted
on them so that no one knew whose paper was being corrected. These false
numbers were all systematically done even when there was no computer to match
them with the original numbers. The errors in results were marginal.
If the faculty has to make cross connections
between different disciplines, it has to undergo intensive training for a year or
so after being recruited on the basis of a written examination and a viva voce
as it is done for civil services. There has to be three papers for the examination-
the subject paper, a paper on allied discipline and a third one on General knowledge that tests
the candidate’s potential to use knowledge for the welfare and development of
society. The facical Net examination of today has to be replaced by a broad
based examination that tests both the knowledge acquired in the subject and the
candidate’s potential to harness that knowledge in a connective web. Selected candidates must be given one year training where lecture series are
arranged to provide the missing links in their learning to enable the teachers
to understand the intricate strands that weave the web of knowledge. The
present atrophied smugness of being a specialist of a small area of a
discipline has to be modified to embrace a wider area of knowledge that has no
defined limits. One has to be constantly
reminded of C.P.Snow’s criticism of
arbitrary division of knowledge into sciences and humanities that has made
illiterates of those who know only
Shakespeare and not Newton’s Laws of motion and vice versa.
Teaching methodology has not changed to keep
pace with the information and electronic age. The insistence of self study has
to be introduced to bring the best out of students. Most lectures delivered
today repeat what is given in the books. This is a big mistake that saps the
interest of the students as knowledge in terms of facts and data , is available
at the press of a key and can be retrieved on the internet. This is an age that
has brought technology closer home. The teaching
should be catalytic to open the students’ minds to new ways of thinking that go
beyond factual details. The lectures have to be highly condensed, capsular and adequate
to inspire the students to study at greater depth. New age teachers have to get
training to prepare and deliver
interesting lectures that lead the students to the frontiers of knowledge and
perk their curiosity to learn more on
their own. The present system of teaching in an overly simplified way that
discourages independent thought has to be replaced by dynamic, initiative education that is
inspirational, interesting and imparts a
strong influence on the young minds.
Man, Machine and
ethics are three important dimensions of today’s living. Many of our physical
and mental activities have been replaced if not totally atrophied by technology
that has taken over them. Young students must be made aware of the new
technological future that is working more and more towards building Artificial
intelligence (AI) which is significantly
smarter and better than human minds. What will be the future of humanity if machines replace minds? Similarly the
advanced research in Genetic engineering has the potential to seek and preserve better than average genes
and discard less than ordinary genes and this can result in the “emergence of
genetic class structure, genetic aristocracy and proletariat”(Peter
Singer). Aldous Huxley in his dystopian
novel, Brave New World Revisited,
published in 1931 had warned of a dark ‘utopian’ future where humans are bred
genetically and pharmaceutically. Teaching in our new age has to see the inter
connection between science, fiction and ethics. This year’s Nobel prize for
Economics awarded to Paul Romer and William Nordhaus signals the critical roles
of technology and pollution in growth. It is colleges and universities that have
the responsibility to determine a country’s economic growth and sustainable
development. Unless teachers factor in a holistic understanding of knowledge in
broad domains, it is impossible to give world class education. Each nation has its
own problems and priorities. To be world class institution does not necessarily
mean copying what other world class institutions have achieved. Assessing the
needs of the nation and working out courses to enhance a holistic approach to
them is what makes an institution world class. Peter Singer says “My hope is that we will use technology to
bring about a better life for all in a more egalitarian way that helps those
who are worst off. That is where we can do the greatest amount of good.”
Quality teachers for
the new age institutions is needed to make them world class.
Last but not the least. The intake of
students is of utmost importance for universities to live up to the idea of a
university. It has to be the powerhouse of knowledge that has to be used for
the betterment and improvement of the society. The
five finger theory of all being not equal and each has its own function and use
has to be borne in mind when we admit students. Those with a genuine love for
knowledge and research have to be in institutions that seek world class status.
The PM’s gift of 10,000 crores will enable the best- in- class institutions to
improve research facilities and infrastructure. These can be well utilized only
by students who have research aptitude.
College is a place that opens a new world to
the students. A big part of growing up as an adult is to learn to be
financially independent. There is little discussion of the
way that our students with their financial dependence on parents feel obligated
to go for professional courses and not study humanities or liberal arts and thereby lose out on a major source of
learning that has a direct bearing on society, fellow beings and cultivation of
aesthetic sensibility. Unfortunately opposition to humanities
degrees is based more on prejudice than on actual job prospects. And it's also
often linked to politics, According to Matt Gabriele, head of the Department of
Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech, “The
right-wing media has spent decades demonizing university professors and
students; some conservatives seem to fear humanity professors in particular
will indoctrinate students or intimidate
budding conservatives”.
If Indian universities have to be world
class, they have to re- write their
strategies , delink jobs from degrees,
improve the quality of the faculty through special training that centres
round transdisciplnarity, admit only students with genuine interest and desire
for knowledge acquirement, knowledge
preservation and knowledge expansion. The others can be accommodated by institutions
that train them to be job worthy and intellectually trained to be independent
to make important choices for themselves and develop citizenship that rests on
cultivating humanity. Certainly money matters, but matters relating to
knowledge exploration cannot be resolved only through money. World Class institutions
have to mesh quality input with quality output as per the demands of society
and nation.
Well begun is half done. The PM’s promise is
a small step that can prove a giant step to make our universities upwardly
mobile.
