Yesterday, the Union cabinet approved, among other measures, a move to set up 12 new central universities. Also, the UGC- appointed pay commission submitted its report recommending a big pay hike for college and university teachers. The teaching profession has been losing its allure as most other alternatives seem more attractive to those who have the requisite talen. Hopefully, this decision will be one step towards reversing this trend. Recently, I went to a prestigious college in Delhi University as a member of a selection committee to interview candidates for lecturerships. There were two vacancies, and 19 applicants but it turned out that only seven had shown up. I was secretly relieved, as I suspect were my colleagues on the panel. Both the positions were “general category” slots, or as is often said, “open” positions. But as the interviews proceeded, a feeling of despair started to engulf us. We asked them which area of economics they would like to be questioned on and then asked the easiest questions in the areas of their choice. As they struggled, we asked them if they had looked at the DU syllabus or had prepared at all for the interviews. The answer was a unanimous “no”. One of the candidates was a teacher in a coaching centre that prepared undergraduates for DU economics subjects and even she was equally clueless. All the candidates had degrees from universities in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana. The first striking fact was that not even one person from the three universities in Delhi had chosen to apply for this job. So, the best post-graduates had moved elsewhere to better options. Second, none of the candidates thought it important to prepare for the interview or research the job requirements. Thirdly, all of them had qualified NET (the national eligibility test for teaching); one was NET qualified in economics and education. And yet, the unanimous view in the selection committee was that they had a long way to go before they became eligible as teachers. Perhaps, it is time to reconsider the utility of a test like the NET. Should it not be redesigned to reveal the information that it is supposed to, viz., that the candidate has a good enough understanding of the subject? However well designed, can a national, standardised test such as the NET reveal this information at all? NET or not, the question essentially boils down to quality: of instruction and that of the candidates, the latter reflecting the elusive ‘merit’. When it comes to the question of declining merit, the standard flogging horse is reservations. A couple of years ago, I had gone to the same college to interview for a “reserved” post. We ended up selecting excellent candidates — they had worked hard to make sure that the selection committee would have no cause to reinforce the standard prejudices against reserved candidates. Of course there were candidates who performed poorly, but not any worse than the bad ones in the open category panels. Yet, each time a reserved candidate performed badly, it confirmed the near-universal belief: reservations are bound to produce inferior candidates. But surely that can not explain the pathetic performance in the “open” category interviews? Both these candidates were very keen to become teachers. Coming from communities to whom education had been denied for centuries, they were determined to prove their worth — the job really mattered to them and they were ready to give it their best. And it was clear that without reservations, they would not be there. Perhaps it is time to rethink the standard prejudices: the sad truth is that even if we disregard the 22.5 per cent quota candidates, our university system is plagued with poor quality, islands of excellence notwithstanding. Finally, one shudders as one hears announcements of sixteen new “world-class universities”: where will the teachers come from? The existing universities are struggling to find teachers with even the minimum skills. Those who are good enough have a variety of other options. Any restructuring in higher education has to be such that it will make it worth their while to be teachers. The writer is professor of economics at the Delhi School of Economics.
