How to improve India's higher education and research quality?
jayanta chatterjee
Tuesday, 04 November 2008 16:46 UTC
It’s a well established fact that India is going downhill in science education and research, despite of relative huge increase in funding and being the major technical manpower supplier for IT and global research community, successfully undertaking Moon mission and so on. I am wondering how we can regain our lost glory and improve on that so far our science education and research is concerned. I am mentioning some remedies below that came to my mind.
1. Reduce spending of public money on higher education and research for non-performing institutes and universities. Only teaching (without any productive research in form of quality publications or usable patents) does not justify huge spending by some so-called “elite” institutes/universities. All institutes/universities should be graded and judged as per their performance and public monetary support should depend on that. (UGC has started this but not with much cooperation from universities and so-called elite institutes and with very limited success so far).
2. Introduce strict accountability of public money for any research in any institute or university. And any research finding (mainly related to novel service or product) using public money must be mentioned in an open source (e.g unrestricted web site(s) for public access). If hundreds of corers of rupees are spent on “developing Bt- crop for insect resistance”, then public have the right to know what is the outcome from that huge spending of tax payers’ money. And if needed, a farmer or other researcher(s) should be able to access that information and more importantly the materials developed in such projects, as claimed by the researcher/institute.
3. Private institutes and universities must follow a minimum standard to give degrees.
4. Start “tenure track” system in Indian institutes/universities.
5. Increase spending substantially on primary and high school education (Both qualitative and quantitative). Increase the salaries of teachers at least at per with university lecturers and put stringent quality control while recruiting the teachers and introduce accountability among them. We must increase substantially the number of primary schools and quality of those and improve on physical infrastructures like school buildings, a minimum standard of school laboratory and library, a decent play ground, some internet connected computers in libraries etc.
6. Change the education system from the primary level (reduce work load, put more importance on physical activities, encourage original thinking etc). There should not be any form of evaluation (exam or so) till age 10 years (i.e till class 4 level). Subsequently the exam patterns should change and put more emphasis on original thinking and problem solving rather than emphasizing database-quiz type format. Basic education should be in mother tongue but English also should be compulsory from class 1.
7. Provide increased opportunities for students in rural and semi-urban India (in form of transparent information dissemination, transparent selection for fellowship/scholarships and recruitments).
For the long run:
Abolish reservation policy altogether. Provide quality primary and high school education free for all.
We have an obligation to give something back to our country which will have a long term impact on the whole society. These are few of my thoughts. Let’s start a vibrant discussion and let us know your opinion in this matter.
Updated 04 November 2008 16:54 UTC
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Do we have comparable data for India regarding socioeconomic return for investment in academic research?
Here is a nice article worth reading to encourage our policy makers to improve the quality of academic research to get higher return in terms of socioeconomic condition.
“Government funds are increasingly scarce. But investing in research could not only generate jobs but help reverse the economic downturn” NATURE: 456, 275 12 November 2008 . -
This message is in relation to my previous message regarding- “In a recent survey, it has been shown that more than 75% of students in three Ivy League US universities, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford are from rich and powerful families in US and across the world”.
Here is one more relevant article published in NATURE (2005): Vol-438, pp-561-562.
Different class:The ‘big three’ universities in the United States are upholding a long tradition of élitism
“Students from wealthy families still congregate at the most prestigious private institutions. Indeed, there is evidence that this trend is accelerating, reflecting, to some degree, the growing chasm between the rich and poor in the United States”.
The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admissions and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton
by Jerome Karabel; Houghton Mifflin: 2005. 672 pp -
Indian policy makers need to think on a long term basis to reform higher education. They need to understand what will be important and more productive in future than to implement what was/is going on in US or EU now. Here is an Interesting article in EMBO Reports on: “Is the model of research-intensive universities still valid at the beginning of the twenty-first century?”
Arai, K., Cech, T., Chameau, J. L., Horn, P., Mattaj, I., Potocnik, J. and Wiley, J. (2007). The future of research universities. Is the model of research-intensive universities still valid at the beginning of the twenty-first century? EMBO Rep 8, 804-10
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The whole issue clearly comes down to two issues:
1.Education reform
2.Research productivity in India
Accepting the educational reform is much needed to revamp our educational system, let me share my experience in agricultural research.The way we are approaching research in both ICAR and as well as SAUs (State Agricultural Universities) is something world did till late eighties. They progressed from there with huge infrastructural changes along with industry-farmer oriented research. However, we still go for farmer-oriented research which needs addressing little problems cropping up due to location specific needs of the agriculture. However, larger aspects like research in water management, biotech application in agriculture, food security, weather monitoring, pest monitoring, drought, industrial research , to quote some, we are lagging far behind. The reason for lagging behind is not that we lack scientific staff or knowledge. These areas require quite a good infrastructural facilities. However, such structure though existing in ICAR organisations, it does not exist in most SAUs. And those who influence SAUs functioning are also a bit reluctant to accept this truth and revamp their systems. For example, most published articles in recent year in agricultural research in India are mostly based on field trials without any lab data unlike any other country (even china, S. korea). We can see this pattern if compare publications coming from across nations. This clearly shows how these organizations are equipped. Lack of infrastructure is an impediment to research as it directly thwarts new research initiatives and stiffles bright ideas. For example in most SAUs non-plan schemes (the shemes that are initiated by the SAU itself) funding is limited to a few thousand rupees, which is really nothing. The scientific staff salary exchequer crosses more than two digit figure of lakh rupees. His infrastructural net worth (apart from land and buildings, restricting to equipment etc that is needed for research) also comes to a few thouasands, rarely goes in to lakhs. Though this comparison is rather crude, it illustrates the state of affairs more lucidly. To say this is sad because sixty years after independance we stand in certain areas where we stood then. This is further a vulnerability as we always look for food security. Further, this obsolescence in research is itself smothering effect on researchers who keep their research simply a means of sustenance rather a knowledge intensive creative process. Hope my anguish is taken in positive way by the forum members. Thanks for patient hearing.
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Thanks Giridhar. It seems that ICAR is the worst among the Indian research organizations. I am also from agricultural background and have good experience of what is going on there. The state of affairs of almost all agricultural universities are medieval, to say in the best possible way. And that is more worrisome considering India’s huge dependence on agriculture (so far percentage of population still depends on it).
One govt data came to my notice lately indicating that about 18% of manpower involved in agricultural activities is removed/withdrawn from farming without giving any alternative profession to pave the way for industrialization. It has huge impact on overall national well being, law and order (mainly in rural areas) and future food security for the country. It seems that Indian govt does not have any coherent plan for agricultural development in the long run, neither it has any policy for secondary agriculture including for bio-fuel even in the short term. Everything there is on ad-hoc basis. It becomes more easy for the policy makers to ignore any meaningful reform in that sector as the affected people are largely illiterate and least probable to demand any form of accountability or lobby for reform (unlike industries). In reality, there is no silver lining behind the dark cloud, so far I can see. -
The problem starts from recruitment itself (mainly in govt universities and institutes). Indian universities and even private industries are yet to understand that attracting and then retaining productive manpower needed a bit more than offering good financial package (at least in knowledge based industries). Very few Indian industries have the desire to become a global leader in research and innovation. They are mostly interested in free-bees by Govt (in form of tax benefit, ease of importing things through their so-called “R&D centers” etc) and some are more than happy to do BPO type jobs (exploiting cheap labor and raw material; but not “knowledge”). Our media and many policy makers conveniently forget that quantity does not guarantee quality in such sectors (but it gives them ample opportunity to loudly advertise the rise in GDP or per capita income type data).
In our universities, we hardly prepare our students for real world situation, be it research or business. As a result there is only handful of entrepreneurs, educated in India (with highest degrees) in respective subjects to start a new knowledge based industry. Majority of industrialists operating in so-called knowledge based sectors are typical Indian Lala type businessman, while majority of such people in developed countries themselves are experts in their fields. So despite of huge financial muscle, physical infrastructure and business experience, majority of Indian MNCs and big industrial houses will not have much impact on global R&D business in any field of science or technology. Indian “research is good so long it has a path to follow, created by others (be it putting a machine in moon or atomic research or Biotechnology or Pharma industry and in IT; yes, even in IT). -
I have recently posted an article on “Science education in India” which suggests the current scenario of education system prevalent and the steps which needs to be taken to improve the standard of education.
kindly visit http://ezinearticles.com/?Science-Education-In-India&id=836401 to know more on the topic.
Regards,
Devendra Dusane
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Doctoral Fellow,
University of Pune-Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)programme
Institute of Bioinformatics & Biotechnology (IBB)
University of Pune
Ganeshkhind, Pune-411 007
India
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URL: http://devendradusane.tripod.com
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email: microbesinaction@yahoo.co.in
devendra@unipune.ernet.in
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Thanks Denevdra.
I have just posted a message in Primary and secondary education reform should be India’s top priorityI just read a nice article by a Harvard University Physics professor on “education”. It’s a very interesting one considering traditional way of teaching in urban India (mainly in affluent schools) and its difference with rural India where availability of text books, computers and other teaching materials are not so accessible.
One might wonder why majority of successful Indian scientists (in basic science and research) are mainly coming from rural background (while people in technology and business are from urban background).
It also can give us an idea how to reform our teaching in university level as well.EDUCATION: Farewell, Lecture?
Eric Mazur
SCIENCE (2009): 323, 50-51 -
The disheartening scene of indian science is evident from the fact that indian scientists are doing so fine when they go off to US but when they pursue their career in India, they perform so dismally.
The reason being the academic climate of our country. I am from Orissa and here there more than 50 engineering colleges in this state. But if you count the number of Phd holders on the payroll of these institutes, you will find very few.
That is the reason we are lacking behind. our professors have no incentive to continue their studies after they complete their basic and higher education.
The only solution is strict adherence to Phd holders while choosing faculty for our technical institutes and ensuring that some seminars, conferences and journals are regularly conducted and published.
I can be contacted at tarunpat1971@rediffmail.com -
The status (strengths and weakness) of Indian and Science & Education has been discussed in detail in the World Bank Report which can be downloaded:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SOUTHASIAEXT/Resources/223546-1181699473021/3876782-1191373775504/indiainnovationfull.pdfThe most critical input would be “quality faculty” and world class norms for faculty hiring. I feel so long as such measures are not taken the status quo might continue.
I saw a report on fresh efforts/measures for institutions of higher education and research. Here too “international norms” are a must. Any change would come around only if there is a strong compulsion to do so. Let us hope for the best and that too, soon.Art is Long, Time is Fleeting!!
Om P Sharma
omsharma@yahoo.com
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