MY VIEWS IN TIMES OF INDIA ON COUNTRY'S EDUCATION SYSTEM

The Times Of India Story on 28.12.12:  Country's education system burdened with demands of quantity, quality: President Pranab Mukherjee

Comments of Milan K Sinha (Patna, India)
28 Dec, 2012 11:46 PM

''It is good that the President has voiced his concern over the state of quantity and quality of education, particularly higher education in the country.Undoubtedly, the way a large number of colleges and universities have mushroomed during last one decade in the country within the revised guidelines of UGC and AICTE in the name of providing opportunities of pursuing higher education to more number of students without ensuring the basic prerequisite of establishment of such private institutions, it is bound to have an adverse impact on the quality of higher education. We are now noticing that many engineering and management colleges are putting their shutters down much to the embarrassment of students who sacrificed lots of money to have better & higher education to qualify for  better jobs in the market. The Govt. at the centre and the states, by and large, failed to protect the interest of students as all the malady we have been talking about, has crept in the education space under their nose. I wish and request our President to direct the Govt. and concerned regulatory institutions to revisit the whole issue of providing higher education to millions of students, whether eligible or ineligible, willing or unwilling, when even the elementary education in the country is in shambles even after 65 years of independence. Here, it would be interesting and thought provoking to go through some of the facts as far as the state of elementary education in the country is concerned despite RTE Act, 2009: 1) Presently, more than 5 lakh post of teachers are vacant; 2)To bring the pupil-teacher ratio to 30:1 as prescribed by the RTE Act, 5.1 lakh additional teachers are required; 3) Among the existing teachers, more than 7.5 lac teachers are reported to be untrained who need to acquire necessary qualification within five years of the RTE Act coming into force; 4) Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are some of the states having untrained teachers ranging from 25% to 55% of their total teacher population; 5) Dropout rate is still a major cause of concern, the main reasons being : Prevalence of child labour as means to supplement parents' income, poor management of Mid-Day Meal Scheme, lack of adequate infrastructural facilities in schools etc.''

                                          Will meet again with Open Mind. All the Best.

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