Educational Woes - A much needed debate!

A fortnight ago, one of my friends, sent an URL to me about the worldwide ranking of academic institutions. As a typical Indian, I was searching the top pages to see if any of ours is there and found nothing. Then I found some of our premiere institutions in 500+ positions. I was delighted to see their presence in the list and was not really perturbed about their ranking. I am not clear about where we are lacking. I thought of Jawarhlal Nehru’s famous statement about the role universities in India.

“A university stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for the adventure of ideas and for the search for truth. It stands for the onward march of the human race toward higher objectives. Universities are places of ideals and idealism. If the universities discharge their duties adequately, then, it is well with the nation and the people.”

We have an unlimited talent pool and many scientists have made their mark in the global stage. Despite all this, we have no institution in the top 100. Being at the top of the educational pyramid, universities have a key role in producing quality teachers and researchers for the education, science and technology systems. Are universities effective in building a healthy nation and their contributions noteworthy? These are the questions debated often in Indian academic circles today.

Already the standards of research in the IITs has decreased and situation has worsened, when there was a strong plea made by some NRI benefactors to eliminate postgraduate and research studies as IIT B Techs have more demand in the USA. Manufacturing export-only products! We can’t blame them too. The dichotomies between ‘teaching’ and ‘research’ persist in most IITs to this day, in some form or the other. The misconception that teaching is what the faculty is paid to do and research is one’s own business, has led to all these things, I believe. Increased teaching load may be one of the reasons. I also believe that, faculties with their huge tie-ups with foreign universities have invented a new theory – do research when abroad, teach when back home, as the facilities here are not adequate to do research.

A small country such as Israel, has 6 top-rated universities. If a country that is weakened and semi-destroyed by wars and internal political instability can produce 6 universities, why can’t we? A survey says that 6 million Israel people have bought 12 million books in 2008 and 109 out of 10,000 have published excellent scientific research journals.

Indian teachers are no less talented to their peers abroad, but a congenial and supportive research climate is required for them to get fully involved in research. They need to raise lot of funds too, rather than depending upon the Government and other funding agencies. Collaborative research work with many abroad universities is the key to improve sharing of knowledge and thoughts. This scenario is really conducive for better research work. The focus should be more on qualitative research work which is beyond just imparting classroom education.

I believe that Education, Health Care, Industry and Agriculture are the four pillars of our nation. This cricket crazy nation gives significant importance to movies and entertainment so as to conveniently forget all the four priorities mentioned above. If we would have given half of the importance that we give to movies, theatre, cricket and politics to education, we won’t be like this. Instead of expressing our disbeliefs, we need to act together to do something, better late than never!