Outdated syllabi, poor research tools !

M. R. Dua

Yesterday's educational system will not meet today's, even less so, the needs of tomorrow, said Professor Daulat Singh Kothari, chairman of the 1964 Education Commission, while presenting his report to the Union government over half a century ago. Kothari's prophetic observations sound true even now. India's educational system doesn't compare favourably with global standards.
This is clear from the growing army of unemployed graduates and mounting ranks of jobless post-graduates in subjects that range from Sanskrit, Arabic, Hindi to Urdu, Bengali to Tamil and from history to political sciences to anthropology. Name any social science discipline, employment exchanges across the country have their registers overflowing.
Our schools, colleges and universities are producing young men and young women who are less than prepared-- because of their less relevant, mediocre academic credentials and poor training.They are least equipped to immediately join the ranks of much-needed trained work force to grab the openings that India's fastest growing economy is throwing up.

What's wrong with our educational system, and why are these youngsters with hi-fi degrees found wanting to meet the employers' needs?

Well,they have honed their knowledge skills on outdated syllabi; they are bereft of essential skills required by today's mostly ejob or i-job positions. Also, majority of the pedagogic infrastructure and supporting paraphernalia – labs, libraries, industrial workshops, tools, techniques and devices - are either unworkable or worn out and are

Strict financial audit is equally necessary to check scams since there are reports of fund misuse at universities like AMU, Allahabad, Puducherry, and Garhwal. Similarly, academic vigil should enforce rejections, dismissals, and denials of promotions to undeserving faculty. Such steps would go a long way in encouraging and rewarding genuine and original research and innovation.

rarely comparable to international standards. In the days of yore,classroom syllabi mostly spanned imparting instructions in essential axioms of morality, ethics and philosophy, ancient heritage and culture. No more.
The 21st century is the age of STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics. If teachers and trainers don't prepare youngsters in niche areas of STEM fully,the ranks of unemployable and unemployed will swell. This is what we are witnessing across India.
Of course, the alumni of IITs and IIMs do stand out and make a mark at global levels. Our educational institutions should reinvent their wheel, and become modern learning centres. This is the need of the hour. Only then our youth will be job market ready.
Are our thousands of schools, colleges and universities geared up to meet the challenge? Sadly, they are not. Look at the unadulterated reality of India's educational scene. We have more than 15 lakh schools, over 35,500 colleges, and 700 plus degree-granting institutions. The enrolment is a whopping 20 million.
Nearly 60 per cent of our students who pass out from government and private institutions are hardly aware of the latest researches, developments and innovations. Alumni of Private and Deemed Universities are no better. Standards at engineering colleges in Haryana, Andhra, and Karnataka are horrendously low, according to a survey by The Indian Express. Why? Students

with poor grades in the qualifying examination are admitted for hefty monetary considerations. No surprise, many of these one-time money making machines are forced to pull down their shutters.

Already some 300 engineering colleges have been ordered to shut shop; another 500 others are under HRD ministry's scanner.

N. Sundararajan Eminent educational administrator N. Sundararajan has sounded a warning. "The existing challenges for Indian education – access, equity and quality— will only be greatly exacerbated by 2030 unless we significantly transform our education model", he said.
Pointing out that the global economy is undergoing rapid structural transformation, Sundararajan said tomorrow is as much a challenge as an opportunity for India's youth.

There will be need for a workforce of 3.3 billion by 2020, increasingly in the services and capital-intensive manufacturing sectors… 90 per cent of GDP and 75 per cent of employment will be in these sectors.

What India should do?

Multiple national and international educational testing and assessment agencies have pinpointed what's wrong with our educational model. These reports are simply crying for attention. We must discard the flawed academic streams. Bid good-bye to teaching shops. And reform teaching and training practices and update the curriculum on a continuous basis by borrowing ideas from centres of learning at Berkeley, Stanford, London, Cambridge, Harvard, Ottawa and Singapore.
Yet another urgent measure needed is haltto sanctioning new colleges and universities. It is a disgrace to see, especially deemed universities functioning in two-and-half-room tenements, with slim, plebeian faculty,and openly 'selling' M.Sc.,M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. degrees.

It is highly imperative for the powers that be to chalk out vibrant and a multi-faceted education model to fashion the nation's path to meet the demands of the millennium, as the world throws up newer, innovative tasks.

Eminent educational administrator N. Sundararajan has sounded a warning. "The existing challenges for Indian education – access, equity and quality—will only be greatly exacerbated by 2030 unless we significantly transform our education model", he said .

As technologies play dominant role in all branches of knowledge and education, it should be actively yoked in academic and research pursuits.

The education sector demands adequate investment at all levels to ensure a better deal to our students. Not drastic cuts in allocation as was the case in the Union Budget for the 2017-18 fiscal. Newly started IITs, IIITs, IIMs, and other centres of excellence need to be generously funded in order to ensure high quality research.

There should be at least 6 per cent provision in the Union Budget year after year for some time to come. Unless this is done, gaping holes in higher education and research will stay put.

Strict financial audit is equally necessary to check scams since there are reports of fund misuse at universities like AMU, Allahabad, Puducherry, and Garhwal. Similarly, academic vigil should enforce rejections, dismissals, and denials of promotions to undeserving faculty. Such steps would go a long way in encouraging and rewarding genuine and original research and innovation.
The high priest of higher education in the country, University Grants Commission (UGC), may be soon 'freeing' top-ranking institutions from its control. It may also grant them 'greater autonomy', albeit with some conditions for starting new courses and setting up new departments/ schools. Autonomous colleges should also be encouraged.
Another plan, we hear in the works is grant of autonomous status to reputed and well-established colleges to manage their research and academic courses, admission processes etc. Both decisions are steps in the right direction.
If scientists are left alone, they can be more creative, innovative, and pursue individual and joint researches. It's largely due to the unprecedented freedom that professors in many western countries enjoy that they bag prestigious international awards and honours like the Nobel Prizes almost every year.
Academic promotions under Merit Promotion Scheme (MPS) should be encouraged. Merit must be respected and awarded.

Connected with various education institutes in India and the US, the author is a former professor of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi.