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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Thank you Tarun and Dr Sharma. Thanks for sharing the World Bank report on Indian education with the forum. This issue of SCIENCE (23 January 2009: Vol. 323. p. 437) also have nice article by eminent scientist and Editor-in-Chief of SCIENCE, Bruce Alberts, Redefining Science Education
“There is a major mismatch between opportunity and action in most education systems today. It revolves around what is meant by “science education,” a term that is incorrectly defined in current usage. Rather than learning how to think scientifically, students are generally being told about science and asked to remember facts. This disturbing situation must be corrected if science education is to have any hope of taking its proper place as an essential part of the education of students everywhere.”
Without proper “education”, many of us cannot understand what “research” is. Cranking data for data sake and publishing some data which has no relevance to the society or advancement of our knowledge is not research. We need a major change in the system. India must not blindly follow US system but should introduce its own, need based system, both for “education” and “research”. -
Anonymous
And whom do you expect to “introduce its own, need based system, both for “education” and “research” for india"? I hope you will agree that if a person does not know what education is and what research means, how can they make any meaningful change? It’s a vicious cycle India finds itself now. The people in-charge of education and research will not accept the grave situation we are in (as they themselves created it and/or helped its continuation) and the politicians in-charge of the country are too busy with so many problems to worry about a fancy problem like science and research. And some of them have their own shares of the booty; either in terms of money or power (remember the case of AIIMS, Ramadoss vs Venugopal). We have to be satisfied with some hyped and widely advertised news like “indigenously” developed products (e.g Arjun main battle tank project or missile which fail to perform in real time tests by our own armed forces) or manned moon mission (which serve no scientific purpose and for which US and Russia or other country never pursued such projects), for public consumption.
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Hi, I am regular user of nature I am reading most of debate in night time. I like discussions on on nature network and number of time good suggestions. How to improve indian education is important issue but question is whether these debate on nature network will really change the system. I mean whether suggestions will be converted into action or it is just for discussion. In other words, are we good only for debate or we are also good for action.
I feel we are good for debate not for action. We may discuss all system we may also criticize every system in the world. We may give thousands of suggestions. A person who is enjoying all facilities living comfortable /luxury life of a city, can give big lecture on how to improve condition of poor persons in rural area. A person never play cricket comment on each shot of top players. A person who do not understand science or a scientist failure in science criticize topmost scientists in the world, If you ask these peoples can you do something to change the system; they have simple answer this is not my duty. I mean after criticizing system we feel we have full-fill our duty. This may be fine but question is whether the critics is doing their own duty; most of times answer is no. A large number of employee, instead of doing their duty see cricket in office hours; criticize the players that they are not concentrating on cricket if India lose the match. If you ark from these peoples are you doing your work with sincerity then their is no answer. In summary, we are good in debating issues and critisizing our colleagues. Nobody take their own responsibility; nobody accept that he/she is not doing their duty instead pass blame on system.
This is our own country till we take some responsibility and action nothing is going to change. Their is no doubt system have number of fault; question is how to improve these system. Each of us should think, how we can contribute in improving our system.
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I have seen a lot of “actions” to make improvement to Indian higher education and research, in form of committees, reports, conferences and so on. I am convinced that there is very less chance to change the system by debating within closed doors, mainly among people who have brought the system down to this stage. This debate, I initiated, is not to make an immediate change in Indian system. No, that is not my goal. All this effort is mainly targeted to general science students who have just joined it or who seriously want to do research (and/or interested in true development of our country). This is not for those who have established themselves by following the system and do not have the courage to oppose it, or for those who have won Bhatnagar or “Best Scientist” awards selected by Indian selectors. We all know what they can do, where they can lead us. I also perfectly understand why such people get annoyed when the question of accountability arises. Sometimes, just sometimes, we conveniently forget that some best coaches were never good players; best art critic never directed a cinema or drew a picture.
I do feel that the only way Indian higher education and research can be held accountable by letting general people know what is actually going on.
Yes you are right, “A person who is enjoying all facilities living comfortable /luxury life of a city, can give big lecture on how to improve condition of poor persons in rural area”. Probably that’s why Indian policy makers never listened to Amartya Sen when he preached about “welfare economics” from his luxurious life in UK or USA. If there is some vested interest among those “poor person in rural area” then it becomes more tough for any person, living in either luxury or poverty, in India or abroad to make any positive change in that poor society.
The person who lives in luxury will continue living in luxury even without spoiling his/her time in this forum and writing posts on Indian science education and research. Experiencing Indian system from the grassroot level make many people to keep a distance while many others still try whatever they can, in their own small ways to make any positive changes in the system. Such efforts may not bring quick fixes of all the problems of India; but may, just may, make common people aware about the situation. Once the general citizens start demanding accountability, then, only then, we can make real progress; be in science or other areas of governance. My small effort in this forum is just for that. -
“Such efforts may not bring quick fixes to all the problems of India; but will make common people aware about the actual situation. Once the general citizens start demanding accountability, then, only then, we can make real progress; be in science or other areas of governance. My small effort in this forum is just for that”.
That’s one of the reasons I prefer Indian Govt to give more importance to primary and secondary school education as compared to higher education and so-called research (there is another post on that issue). Such efforts will not only supply us much better scientists in future but will solve many problems we face in Indian society today.
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I completely agree with Dr. Raghava in reply given above. I dont understand why all other peoples in this debate are stressing on accountability of scientists. Every citizen of India has to be accountable and in that regard I think scientists are most accountable. They always work more than 9 to 5 and more than 5 days a week. Is there any other profession where people are doing this without getting extra payed. The example of criticizing cricket players by those people who never played cricket in their life, I liked most and its in fact a reallity.
Now coming to Jayant, as u r saying, we r not here to discuss about general system in India but only about discussing science in India, then I have to say these two things can not be separated.
But still if u think we have to discuss only education, then in my openion most important thing is syllabus should be very flexible. There should not be any compulsory subject, students should choose subjects they like. This is not the case in India at school level. There is too too much unnecessary load on students, under which students cant think with their free mind. And parents should give children some freedom. Most Indian students live their life like in a jail, in school teachers and at home parents. If u never give freedom and responsibility to children, how they are going to develop original thinking. In India, even if a person is 60 years old, he/she will always be like a 6 years old child for parents.
Above all, I want to say, every one has to do their own work with full duty, otherwise this whole discussion is useless. -
Welcome to this discussion.
Scientific accountability does not and must not be measured by how much time we spend on lab or office, but by output (in form of usable patents and quality publications) and its impact on the society. In India (and to some extent in US too, but not in EU), unfortunately that’s the main yardstick people use to judge “dedication” and “productivity”. I know many labs where people work for more than 50 hours per week but have almost no impact; so far scientific output is concerned. While many PIs work much less and put much less pressure on his/her students yet manage to publish much better quality articles/patents.
Here I am not entering into the discussion whether people without a family or who neglect his/her family can be a better, more productive scientist and is that desirable from country/society point of view. Does professionalism means successfully doing the job given to me without thinking about its impact on personal health, family and society and remaining oblivious to outside world! We can have that discussion in other thread. Very provocative topic indeed.Now coming to your other point, “then I have to say these two things can not be separated”. I fully agree with you. In several posts, even in this discussion (on 11th Nov 2008) I mentioned that, “I also like to mention that science and scientists are not coming from a different planet. They are the product of the same society, comes from the same pool of people that supply other professionals like Police, politicians, lawyers, doctors etc. We (in India) get the quality of scientists in perfect balance with the quality of other professionals”.
Now coming to the last point: Syllabus and education reform. It will be a whole new discussion topic on how to improve that. In short, Indian students are not groomed to become an independent thinker, to have a sound body and a rational mind. We mostly emphasize quiz type information and build database type of “education” rather than promoting analytical ability, physical fitness and strength and exploring new avenues. In other words, even good Indian students are tailor made to do routine jobs. That’s why we are so successful in BPO type of industry and a typical PhD-postdoc material who can carry out work/research guided by another person. Hope you have seen the report that, “India is among the least innovative countries in the world”. Anyway, I am not going into detail of that in this discussion in this thread.
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I agree with the point about education system. First of all it does not support innovation and secondly in our system Teacher is considered as more than GOD (Guru govind dou……..). Its good to respect your elder but I think in Indian system it is too suppressive. Students hesitate to ask question. The hierarchy system itself is wrong. I feel so good and friendly when I call my boss by his firstname as I call other lab members here in germany. But its completely surprising for me that even though most of Indian scientists in top indian institutes are actually foreign educated, but when they go back to India they like to follow the Indian system of hierarchy. They always like to be called ‘Sir’ with only one exception in my life I saw at NII, not necessary to mention name of scientist here. Students will never try innovative ideas if they have this kind of fear or so called respect to their boss.
Regarding the first point, that some scientist spend a lot time but still are not productive, I think this is really a problem. Though many factors play role in success like luck and money, but only other think I can suggest is what I already mentioned about the relationship between hierarchy and innovativeness. -
The typical “Sir” culture has a very negative impact on our education and research culture in labs and universities. It not only discourages students to ask honest and frank questions but also prevent local research to withstand scrutiny from within (the department and institute). This amplifies the errors and/or shortcoming of the work and reduces the impact and credibility of such research (while publishing in reputed journals or withstanding open scrutiny of market force). If isolated faculties tries to remove that system in his/her own lab/dept (by encouraging students and junior staff to address him/her by name), s/he faces a very tough opposition from majority of other faculties. “Culture” and “respect to elders” become a massive excuse to overcome there and provides a very effective shield for those who like to maintain the status-quo.
This is not limited to education and research but all pervasive in almost all areas of life in India. As I told before, research-education culture is bound to reflect overall situation in our society. -
Lately I did some work regarding Indian govt sponsored fellowships and scholarships, mainly for US-UK universities and institutes. It seems that none of the selection procedure, in the whole exercise, is transparent. More the competition (mainly at the bachelors and masters level entry programs) more the level of corruption, as alleged by many.
Will it not be a good idea to ask the concerned government agency to publish the names and affiliation of the candidates who got the fellowship/scholarship where any percentage of Indian tax payers’ money is involved? It can be published in a open access web sites.
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