EVENTS AND ISSUES
New Delhi, 14 August, 2006
Autonomy In Peril
LEAVE HIGHER EDUCATION
BODIES ALONE
By Prof. Kishore
Gandhi
India today is on the threshold of a major transition, the
transition to knowledge power, the foundations of which have been built brick
by brick on the pattern of basic building blocks, by the outstanding statesmen
and scientists, such as, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, C.V. Raman, Meghnad
Saha, Homi Bhabha, D.S. Kothari, Vikram Sarabhai, M.S. Swaminathan, Raja
Ramanna, M.G.K. Menon and a galaxy of others.
It is tribute to the creative genius of Maulana Abdul Kalam,
the first Education Minister of free India, for setting up the
University Education Commission,
under the Chairmanship of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.
The Commission (1948-49)
examined in-depth the fragmentary system of higher education and submitted a
comprehensive Report to the Government.
It was in pursuance to the Report that the Government established the
Agricultural Universities all over the country on the pattern of Land Grant
Scheme of the U.S.,
which brought about a green revolution in the country. Also, the University Grants Commission was established in 1956 by the mandate of the
Parliament Act to disburse grants and coordinate educational standards in the
country.
In 1947, the country had only 19 Universities, approximately
400 colleges with an intake capacity of 25000 students. But after independence, there has been an
exponential increase in all these numbers.
At the end of financial year 2004-05, the total number of Colleges
recognized by the University Grants Commission
under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956 was 5589. There were 343 universities and
university-level institutions including 211 State, 18 Central, 96 Deemed Universities,
13 Institutes of National importance and 5 institutions established under State
Legislation Act.
This is not the place to discuss
in-depth the expansion of higher education which has been viewed by
sociologists as the villain of piece to the entire educational crisis. Looking
in-depth, the sectoral dislocation in budgetary resources, one is appalled by
the fact that immediately after our collapse in the Indo-Chinese War 1962, the
leadership of the country woke up from its long slumber and gave top priority
to the expansion of science and technical education by establishing Indian
Institutes of Technology in Delhi, Kanpur, Bombay and Chennai and Regional
Engineering Colleges across the
country to meet the growing demands of technologists in diversified
developmental areas.
The leadership was so much seized with the crucial issue of an integrated development of education at
the various sectoral levels: (primary, secondary and tertiary) that the need
for improving the quality of education became the buzz word. There was a good deal of consensus in the
academic community, political and social activists that the educational system
must be revamped both structurally and substantively to respond to the
aspirations of youth and economy.
The Education Commission
was appointed by Justice M.C. Chhagla under the Chairmanship of Dr. D.S.
Kothari to study the system in-depth and submit a comprehensive report within
the shortest span of time. The Report of
Kothari Commission titled “Education
Commission and National Development”
(1964-66) is a comprehensive analysis of the educational system carrying
crucial recommendations on the futuristic agenda of education. This document continues to be valid to date
in terms of the aspirations of youth and development of manpower capability and
competencies in diversified disciplines of knowledge to provide a new momentum
to economy that is transiting to a global economy.
It takes vision and sagacity to build institutions. They are
not just brick and mortar, but are reliant on the strength of the women and men
who man and support them. It was
Jawaharlal Nehru, who while replying to Parliamentary debates on the setting up
of the Indian Statistical Institute, said that the survival of the democratic
process is dependent on the
viability of institutions because they look to the future and audit looks at
the past.
Foreign experts who often made sarcastic comments on us for
investing in high level research and knowledge-based institutions, founded by
our outstanding leaders now are attributing as India’s knowledge power in the
global economy to these institutions of higher learning. Kenichi Ohmae while
introducing the Next Global Stage in 2005 prophetically says: “If, as I
believe, the global economy is powered by technology, then knowledge is its
precious metal. India’s
strength, for example, can be substantially attributed to be sheer volume of
its Ph.D in science”. This clearly
follows that we must commit ourselves to the knowledge-based institutions, boldly
and squarely and should not be carried away by the regionalist and casteist
forces to unleash an agenda of the fragmentation of the country on the basis of
caste identity.
If the compulsions of coalition politics are endangering the
autonomy of public institutions, we need to build phalanxes against them. The
institutions should not be left at the mercy of political leaders who suffer
from paranoia, some structural engineering flaw in their psyche and are
blocking India’s
roadmap to super knowledge and economic power. It is tribute to the creative
genius and vision of Prof. Venugopal for fighting vigorously and boldly for
preserving the autonomy of All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
The media and intellectual community should stop Health
Minister Ramadoss from destroy the
premier research institute in medicine and surgery which has been acclaimed as
an outstanding institute in the world in terms of the extension of frontiers of
knowledge and few discoveries. It must
reinvent itself and its governance model must be changed to keep the
politicians and bureaucrats in abeyance for the sheer survival and renewal of
the Institute.
If Ramadoss could
usurp the autonomy of the institute in the Union capital which has the
potential reservoir of the intellectual community, what would be the shape of
institutions committed to excellence in States where the configuration of
regionalist, casteist and religious forces are at the helm of power is an issue that has to be addressed
squarely and boldly. How could they
perform their basic objectives as spelt out by Jawaharlal Nehru in his
Convocation Address in Allahabad University in 1947.
The autonomy of these institutes is in peril and every
citizen has an obligation to defend it with all his might for the sheer
survival of our polity, society and economy.
These institutions have been totally secular in their objectives, scope
and functioning and were committed to casteless
and an egalitarian and progressive
ideology. Only the merit was the
buzzword.
In an open letter to Human Resources Development Minister
Arjun Singh, an OBC student of IIT challenged his reservation policy and his
design of disturbing the secular character of the IITs and sounded a note of
caution that his agenda would trigger a process
of desecularization along with the consolidation of majority community identity
and this is going to have serious implications for the future of secular India.
This is what seems to be the hidden agenda of the United States and China which are upset by our
growing knowledge and economic power and would like to devour us by fair of
four means. Our countrymen should not
become pawn in their manipulative temptation.
Hopefully, our politicians are not beyond redemption.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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