As per the 8th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2012, in India 96.5% of all rural children between the ages of 6-14 were enrolled in school. ASER appreciated that this is the fourth annual survey to report enrolment above 96%. 83% of all rural 15-16 year olds were enrolled in school. The number of out-of-school children has declined from 2.5 crore in 2003 to 81 lakhs in middle of 2009. The most significant improvements have been in Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur and Chhattisgarh. The percentage of out-of-school children in highly populated states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar remains a cause of concern.
Indian higher education system is the third largest system in the world. In higher education system, there are 3524 technical diploma institutions with an annual intake of 12 lakhs students as per the latest (2013) report issued by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).
The AICTE also reported 3495 engineering colleges in India with an annual student intake of over 17.6 lakhs. There are 3.85 lakhs students intake of Management Education and post graduate degree slots in Computer Science reached 1 lakh. Pharmacy slots crossed 1.21 lakhs. Total annual intake capacity for technical diplomas and degrees exceeded 34 lakhs in 2012.
University Grants Commission (UGC) also quoted the same statistics as total enrolment in Science, Medicine, Agriculture and Engineering crossed 65 lakhs in 2010. Literacy rate of southern states (Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andrapradesh and Karnataka) almost reaching 100% and other states achieving the average literacy rate of 65%. These statistic shows that it’s a huge success of Indian education system in recent days. Most of the developments came in our education system very recently and especially last 10-15 years. But still we need to concentrate some of the issues Indian universities facing which will be explained in next paragraphs.
There are different styles of teaching, different governing bodies, different administration styles, different teaching aids noticed in India. However, India will need to focus the quality of education. Nowadays question arises all over world about the quality of education in Indian Universities. Recently our President of India and HRD minister also questioned the same on Indian universities. The reason of such type of questions is, none of the Indian universities are placed in the top 500 world universities except India’s No. 1 institute IISC Bangalore. It could catch in the world rank range of 350 to 400. The remaining all Indian IITs, IIITs, IIMs, national and other private institutes are away from top 500 ranks.
There are 149 universities from USA, 38 from Germany, 37 UK universities, 28 Chinese institutes, 23 from Canada, 22 Italian universities, 21 from France, 20 Japanese institutes, 16 Australian universities, 12 from Netherland, 11 each from Sweden and South Korea, 9 each from Spain and Taiwan, 7 each from Israel and Austria, 5 each from Denmark, Hong Kong and New Zealand, 4 Portugal universities etc. are in top 500 universities. India’s top most institutes, different governing bodies, public sectors and Indian government should think about this poor ranking and further developments of Indian education system.
This is the time to analyse, where we are inadequacy, what is the objective of institutes, what is the role of governing bodies like AICTE, UGC, NBA etc, and finally what are the functions of Indian Government to tackle this issue.
First of all we need to know what the factors behind such type of ranking are. They are, publications in journal papers, patents published, number of books published, number of projects completed, students placement, number of Ph.D scholars produced annually, impact of education on people’s normal life, institute-industrial collaboration, international collaboration etc. Now we can analyse the ways to rectify the deficiencies.
Steps should be followed by Indian/national/private/deemed institutes
i) Make all necessary basic arrangements to do research like office facility, laboratory, library, instruments, computer, internet, printer etc.
ii) Make subscriptions from all international online journals and create an E-library. Give free access to all research scholars and faculties.
iii) Promote necessary changes, innovations like reduce the workloads to teaching faculties, allot incentives to faculties for producing journal publications, books published, patents etc. So they can concentrate more on research and projects.
iv) Conduct conference/workshop/seminar to enrich the current research field.
v) Review the curriculum based on the recent trends in research and job opportunities of students.
Steps should be followed by Governing bodies like UGC, AICTE, NBA etc.
i) Strengthen the measurement of quality education.
ii) Stimulate the academic environment, quality of teaching and research in institutions
iii) Create internal ranking system to Indian universities based on its performance.
iv) Encourage the universities which are achieving in research field by allot prize money and extra funding.
Steps should be followed by Indian government/MHRD
i) Make a panel consists of all IIT/IIIT/NIT directors and meet twice or thrice a year about the requirements of our institutes. Sanction whatever the committee’s report.
ii) Spend a considerable amount in annual budget for Research & Development.
iii) Increase the salary/incentives to Research scholars. A fresh UG candidate from a reputed Indian university is earning average rs.50,000/month. We should think how a PG candidate come to do research for the salary of rs.20,000.
iv) Increase the salary/incentives to Teaching faculties. A faculty from Indian university having doctorate from reputed Indian/foreign universities getting rs. 54000 only. He/she is getting the same package even he/she has a PDF (Post Doctoral Fellowship) from reputed foreign institutes which is not comparable with the salary of fresh UG candidate (Rs.50,000).
v) Create credit point system based on the performance of every institute. Give points to number of publications, patents, books published etc. and based on we can create a ranking system within Indian universities. It will create competition with institutes which is the driving force to catch good position in the world ranking.
We all professionals, institutes, governing bodies and MHRD will join hands to promote our education. Few of the public interest organisations/medias like YUVA ENGINEERS also ready to join with us for quality education and research. The main objectives of YUVA ENGINEERS is inspiring me that transforming young Engineers for better tomorrow and Promote the Research and Development in engineering. If we work together, it is not far away that most of the Indian universities capturing the world arena and therefore achieving top ranking. The Indian system of education will be signing soon.
By
Dr. V.P. Chandramohan, BE, MBA, ME, Ph.D(IITD)
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engg. Dept.,
National Institute of Technology Warangal,
Warangal – 506 004.
References
- http://www.unicef.org/india/education.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_India
- Manual for Accreditation of under graduate engineering programs, National Board of Acreditation, Newdelhi, 2012.
- Academic Ranking of World Universities – 2013, Top 500 universities, http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2013.html.