Beyond Degrees, edited by Ira Pande, is a rich collection of essays on the status of higher education in India. With contributions from leading intellectuals, educationists, scientists, and economists, the anthology not only offers a perceptive analysis of the problems plaguing the country's educational system, but also puts forward valuable strategies and suggestions for revamping it in order to make it beneficial for every stakeholder.
What makes the collection engaging is that many authors have interwoven their thoughts and reflections with their personal memoirs and experiences. The contributions of Shashi Tharoor, Kumkum Bhattacharya, Zoya Hasan, Mrinal Pande and Lalit Joshi look back at their respective alma maters with nostalgia and a sense of pride.
The photo essays "Campus Styles" and "Breaching the Male Bastions" are a refreshing tribute to the earliest educational institutions and scholars of the country and highlight the gender dimension of the problem. Overall, the volume raises the alarm on the ailing conditions of the education system and sends out the message that confronting uncomfortable questions on the quality and future of higher education is already overdue.
Glaring DisparitiesAt the very outset, the huge disparity in the quality of colleges and universities in the country is striking. On the one hand, the Indian education system is globally acclaimed because of a few pockets of excellence such as the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institutes of Management and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. On the other hand, the vast majority of educational institutions are characterised by mediocrity and non-performance. When it comes to the quality of teaching, original and cutting-edge research, publication of peer-reviewed research articles in top journals, and winning of patents, Indian colleges and universities lag behind not just the ones in developed countries but also those in Brazil and China. This unevenness must be addressed swiftly as the future of the country depends on the quality of education and research.
Lack of applied knowledgeFormer President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam points out in his essay "Knowledge into Power" that a major problem before the country today is unemployability. In spite of receiving a formal education, the vast majority of the youth in India suffer from a lack of adequate applied knowledge to carry out jobs effectively. One of the main reasons for this is the widening gap between academic knowledge and its applicability.
The university curricula should be restructured to meet the growing domestic and international demand for human resources with world-class skills. This aim can be reached only when there is a strong interface between what is taught in the classroom and the actual requirements of the economy. Otherwise, our education system will continue to produce unfinished products, leading to an even greater crisis of unemployability.
Purpose of educationFocussing on employment, however, should not lead to a sort of careerism where the whole point of education is reduced to converting students into an efficient workforce. Unfortunately, for many business schools, management institutes and universities today, the sole measure of success is campus placements and the average salary package rather than enkindling in students a spirit of scientific inquiry and a MACROBUTTON ViewFootnotes ( desire to pursue original thought. It is a miracle, Albert Einstein famously noted, that curiosity survives despite the formal education in our schools and universities.
Also, very little thought and effort go into cultivating character and human values so that future citizens can assume greater responsibility for their families and society. What use would our scientific and economic achievements be if we, as a community and as a nation, cannot live together in peace and harmony and show sympathy to and solidarity with our neighbours? Education is not just about getting a job, it is also about becoming a better person. A degree should not be merely a passport to a lucrative career, but to life itself and the art of living a happy and satisfied life.
Raji Ramanan's essay "A Sacred Grove" reminds readers of how ancient Indian universities, particularly Nalanda and Vikramashila, upheld this larger purpose of education. Citing evidence from the writings of Chinese scholars Xuanzang (A.D. 602-644 ) and I-Ching (A.D. 635-713), Ramanan says: "Education, it appears, had little to do in securing profession for the students who came to universities such as Nalanda: they pursued knowledge for its own sake. Dedicated to this noble pursuit, the average university' student in ancient India spent eight to 12 years at a monastery (vihara) or gurukul."
Without too much romanticising about the past, it is possible and necessary to rescue our educational system from the onslaught of careerism and commodification. The spirit of initiation, inquiry, experimentation, problem-solving and truth-seeking should once again be made to flourish on our campuses.
Benefits of pluralismParochialism, bureaucracy and political interference form another set of problems that have been responsible for the deterioration of the educational system. Parochialism, motivated by identity politics, regionalism and narrow ideologies, has undermined quality in the appointment of staff, admission of students and allocation of resources. As Ramachandra Guha's article "Crucibles of Modernity" suggests, encouraging and even deliberately promoting pluralism at all levels would be a good way to counteract regional and parochial behaviour. When the teaching staff and the student community are from diverse backgrounds and when there is freedom and flexibility to explore different disciplines, different approaches and methods within a discipline, and various sources of funding, universities are less likely to be monopolised.
Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that pluralism cannot be the only goal for universities to pursue. Educational institutions cannot be treated in the same way as political or economic institutions. Pluralism needs to be balanced with other equally competing goals. Pluralism, for instance, cannot be pursued at the expense of academic excellence and it cannot be promoted to the level of diluting the character and identity of an educational institution. Alongside, it is also important to realise that these equally compelling goals can conflict with each other, and this often calls for prudent choices and considered judgments.
Equity and qualityRegrettably, the general tendency and practice in higher education policy-making has so far been to embrace some goals at the cost of others. In his essay "Equity vs Quality", B.K. Joshi describes this lopsided approach: "The problems confronting higher education in India are classified into three categories: access, equity and quality. It would be not incorrect to claim that so far the emphasis has overwhelmingly been on access with equity becoming a second important concern during the last two decades. Quality as a characteristic feature of higher education, except in a few selected institutions, is usually relegated to the margins of discourse."
The prospects of overcoming the major hurdles in higher education are much brighter when the goals of improving access and promoting equity are viewed in tandem with quality and efficiency, and not in isolation from each other. Some of the best practices around the world, particularly in European welfare democracies, show that higher education can indeed be democratised without compromising on the performance of the academic and administrative staff, the quality of teaching and research, and the overall effective functioning of the university. This means that it is possible to extend the benefits of higher education to many more young people without settling for mediocrity.
School educationOne proven way of achieving the combined objective of access and quality is to ensure that no talented and deserving student is denied higher education on account of poor economic or social background. Hence, schemes such as generous scholarships, loans, fee concessions and student jobs should be established for the benefit of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Also, tuitions and coaching classes should be offered free or at very subsidised and affordable prices for the poor so that these students can compete on a par with others. But along with these measures, there should be due emphasis on school education. In the absence of a standard primary and secondary school education accessible to every child in the country, one cannot expect good and well-trained students to enter the portals of higher education.
The editor and individual authors of the volume should be commended for engaging with some of these and other crucial issues.But is this enough, one might ask. Lack of awareness has not been the main cause of the decline in the standard of higher education. Government officials, policy-makers, academic and administrative staff and even students are generally aware of what holds back our colleges and universities. What is lacking is the will to translate this awareness and knowledge into action.
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