Social Justice in education sector

Secondary Education

Issues

Coverage: Although enrolment ratio has steadily climbed to over 90%, we are yet to achieve universal enrolment as per the RMSA
Gender Disparity: Secondary education witnesses large number of girl child drop outs due to decreased accessibility, poor quality and utility of education and lack of sanitation facilities
Low Quality of Teachers

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)

The programme focuses on achieving Universal Enrolment in secondary education by 2017 and retention by 2020.

Functions

Improve access to secondary educational institutions
Incentivize education for girl child by
1. Raising awareness
2. Hostel facilities for girls
3. Providing adequate sanitation facilities
4. Increase number of female teachers
Inclusive focus to emancipate weaker sections of society

Higher Education Sector

Introduction

In the World University Rankings report, not one of India’s higher educational institutions figures in the top 250. This shows the urgency for reforms in higher educational institutions in India.

Current Scenario

Accessibility: There is a great regional disparity in higher educational institutions with most institutions situated in urban areas of the country. The North-East for example lacks prestigious institutions
Affordability: Post liberalization, higher educational institutions have undergone rapid privatization with the commercialization of education being the unintended consequence. This has reduced affordability in higher education
Gender Disparity: Women are disproportionately higher drop outs as they progress higher up the education ladder. Social stigma, lack of accessibility and commercialization are multiple reasons discouraging higher education for women among families
Research and Development: India’s higher education system offers little avenue for R&D mainly owing to financial constraints and lack of support from the state
Quality of Faculty: Teachers in higher educational institutions have waned in quality and quantity which has severely impacted learning outcomes among students
Obsolete Curriculum: The curriculum of students in higher education are not suited to present-day demands and needs revisiting and revision in order to make it more relevant to the current scenario
Lack of industry linkages: Lack of employability of education has caused unemployment levels to rise and industries to suffer from the problem of lack of expertise. The mismatch between industry demand and academic supply of skills has nullified India’s demographic dividend
Faulty Regulatory system: The UGC suffers from multiple problems of maladministration, corruption, lack of transparency, favouritism and overlapping jurisdiction with AICTE
High demand-supply mismatch: Supply outweighing demand in several professional courses including engineering and management. Hence there is an increased requirement to diversify courses specifically creating inter-disciplinary courses for solution centric skill sets

Way Forward

Industrial demand-driven education: Adapt higher education to industrial and modern day changes accommodative to demand of aspirational youth and re-orient the courses to enhance employability and establish sufficient industrial linkages through internships
- UAY of the MHRD seeks to establish industry-academia linkages to promote innovation in higher educational institutions
Increased Accessibility: Open up universities in low educational footprint regions and open up distance education courses to facilitate access to quality higher education. SWAYAM Prabha is a good initiative in this direction
Incentivizing Research: Enhance public spending on research. A good quantum of these funds can be used to provide financial support to Research and Development projects in higher educational institutions.
- The INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) programme of Department of Science and Technology provides research opportunities for young scientists with financial support in terms of salary and funds for research
Foreign Universities and Faculties: To enhance the level of academia in the country, foreign universities can be permitted to open colleges, offer degrees and faculties can be invited to teach.
- GIAN- Global initiative for Academic Network seeks to bring quality faculty from foreign universities with the Motto ‘Come, Teach in India’
Incentivizing women education: State can incentivize education of the girl child through social security schemes or financial support which enables the family to provide for her.
- Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana
- UDAAN to enrich science and maths aptitude of girls to increase their enrolment in higher educational institutions
Cleansing the Regulatory System: The HECI can replace the UGC resolving its conflicting powers and maladministration.
Enhancing Student Diversity: Greater number of foreign students can help diversify the skill set and enable greater collaboration in research and development besides strengthening relationship between countries
- Study in India Programme: All public and private institutions to accept more foreign students to enhance intake from SAARC, ASEAN and West Asian countries

UGC – Issues in Regulation

Functions of UGC

Accreditation and Licensing of colleges
Standardization of courses
Giving Fellowship to students
Giving grants to Universities

Issues of UGC

Overlapping Jurisdiction with AICTE: The Higher Education sector in India has 13 regulators that enlarge scope for contradictions and overlapping. The Yashpal committee has recommended that these overlapping regulators maybe fused into a single regulatory authority
Funding and Regulatory role: Provisions of funding made by the UGC has been questioned on the grounds of favouritism. The funding role conflicts with its regulatory role and excessively burden the UGC.
Obsolete methods of administration: No digitization
Corruption and Favouritism with respect to appointments
Lack of transparency with respect to decisions regarding fellowships. Often decisions are taken unilaterally without stakeholder consent

Committee Recommendations

Scrap the UGC and establish a National Commission for Higher Education Fellowship Programme
Establish Higher Education Commission of India (UGC+ AICTE) that looks into laying down, maintaining and improving academic standards in India’s higher education system. HECI is mandated to improve learning outcomes, monitor academic and teaching standards. Currently a draft bill is tabled for the establishment of HECI
Streamline administration procedures using technology
The grant giving functions of the UGC shall be taken over by the MHRD

Autonomy to Universities and Colleges

The Central government through its regulator UGC has provided almost complete autonomy to universities and colleges in a bid to usher in market-oriented skill development that would drive economic growth in the country.

What does Autonomy mean for these Universities?

No inspection: Top rated universities are freed of UGC inspections
Freedom of Courses: Universities and colleges can start new courses without prior approval
Promoting Research: They can set up and open research parks and incubation centres
Regulation free Foreign Collaboration: Universities and colleges can engage freely with foreign universities and open their doors to foreign faculty. This attains increased importance on the back of VAJRA and GIAN programmes of the government
Distant Learning: Universities can offer programmes at off-campus centres and open constituent units

Higher Education Commission Bill, 2018

India’s higher education has for long under the watch of UGC suffered from problems of over regulation, favouritism and conflicting roles. The government through the conceptualisation of HECI aims to correct these wrongs and raise academic standards in a country of bustling demographic dividend.

Establish HECI Replacing UGC: The bill seeks to establish a higher education commission in India tasked with the overall improvement in learning outcomes and academic standards. The mandate of the HECI
- Regulation of universities
- Accreditation of Standards
- Skill Development Curriculum
Separating the funding and Regulation Role: The bill vests the fund provisioning with the MHRD. This ensures the HECI can focus on regulation alone now that it is liberated of the role of fund provider
Autonomous Degrees: Any higher educational institution according to the bill can provide for degrees and diplomas without the requirement of it being a university deemed to be so. This could pave the way for several autonomous colleges liberated from the hold of universities
Open and Distance Learning will remain together and no separate body will be created for the same as suggested by Madhav Menon Committee

Issues with Higher Education Commission of India Bill

Political Interference: The danger of political interference in running of institutes is visible in the bill that calls for
- Grant giving powers with the MHRD: Lack of Self-reliance in financial matters for Universities
- Removal of the HECI chairman on ground of moral turpitude

The government can look into the creation of an arms length body to disburse funds that is independent in its functioning

Quantification of Quality: Although the bill proposes to establish HECI to maintain and improve academic standards, it does not empirically define the level of quality that HECI should strive to maintain
Continued Overlapping Jurisdiction: The bill remains silent on several regulators including the Medical Council of India. This limits the utility of the bill in providing for a single regulator
No Autonomous Accrediting Agency: The HECI is vested with multiple roles of setting academic standards as well as evaluating This promotes conflicting interests and is antithetical to separation of powers
Compromise on Quality: The prospect of liberating colleges from universities spells out a danger of free for fall situation. Such an unregulated environment may lead to obsolete or poor quality education handed out by colleges
Ambiguity in Degree: The bill leaves open the definition of degree, its standards or duration out of HECI control. This could leave to a chaotic situation where industry and academy have varying expectations.
Unhealthy Competition: The bill extends the present system of affiliation to private and deemed to be universities exacerbating the unhealthy competition for affiliation for commercial reasons alone

Institutes of Eminence

Rationale:

Building World-Class Universities: India is yet to have a university present in the top 250 of the World University Ranking Reports. The tagging of institutes of eminence aims to catapult India’s most eminent universities into the topmost bracket by providing money and autonomy
- Greater Autonomy: IoEs would have greater autonomy in setting syllabus, deciding courses, choosing faculty and collaborating with foreign universities. Thus, they can emerge as the cradle to nurture India’s bustling demographic dividend
- Funding for Public Institutes: 1000 crore would be provided to the IoE to upscale quality in infrastructure, research and develop and attract talented faculty in a competitive environment

Issues with IoE

Selective Autonomy: Granting autonomy exclusively to reputed institutes can be thought of as unfair to other universities. These universities if given a chance with autonomy may upscale their quality. In short, autonomy should not be an outcome of quality but should be a pre-requisite
Increased Disparity within Education: While the IoEs would build a handful of world class universities, it might not facilitate the overall emancipation of the higher education sector further widening the regional disparity
Commercialization of Education: The tagging of world class raises concerns whether the state can make this high quality education available and inclusive to all sections in society particularly in private institutions
Greenfield Criteria: Providing the tag to green field institutions over other reputed centres of learning who have proved their mettle can be seen as unfair and unduly harsh on these centres
- Jio Institute over IIT Madras
Fiscal Burden on State

Way Forward

Better Autonomy: The government can provide autonomy to institutes beyond those of eminence. This academic freedom can help nurture innovation and capacity building in India’s universities
Uniform Spending: The government needs to step up spending in higher education sector to achieve results across various regions and academic disciplines
Widen the Circle of Eminence: The government needs to bring in more and more institutes under the eminence tag so that the regional disparities can be bridged. This would increase accessibility and improve affordability through competition
Reservation of Seats: The government can provide for reserved seats in private institutions where backward sections can gain the opportunity of world class education

Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA)

Rationale: India’s higher educational institutions suffer from a lack of advanced infrastructure facilities particularly with regard to R&D. HEFA as a NBFC aims to plug this by providing interest free loans to HEIs. This can serve as a catalyst to drive India’s alma maters to the top in World University Ranking Reports.

Benefits

Extra Budgetary Allocation: HEFA enables institutes to address needs of critical infrastructure in higher educational institutions
Self-Sufficiency: Providing the institutes with loan empowers them to be self-reliant on the internal accruals they generate
Systemic Strengthening using Private Sector: The HEFA provides opportunities for corporates and High Net worth individuals to invest in equity and debt. CSR Funds can also be mobilized
Interest Free: The government would service the interest of the loans relieving the institutions of interest burden

Challenges

Mobilizing Capital: Several of the organizations financing the HEFA like the LIC, NABARD and the PFC have raised the inability to raise capital. In the backdrop of the Twin Balance Sheet problem that plagues the economy, the raising of capital appears difficult.
Indebtedness: The gradual replacement of grants with credits in the long term may lead to indebtedness
Privatization: HEFA makes higher educational institutions dependent on the financial market for capital. They have to then fund the loan through commercial education services. This entails the loss of public character of institutions.
Commercialization of Education: The reliance on internal accruals would force institutes to raise fee of education. This would deprive India’s youth of affordable quality education

Conclusion

The HEFA is a good step towards catapulting India’s universities into the top rung of world class research and academic centres. The government needs to ensure that even the highest quality of education is provided inclusively to all.