First take the case of infrastructure. It will take a few years to obtain the space, get the permissions, and finally contract out the building process. Many institutions are located in areas where they will get neither the land nor the ability to build on top of their existing facilities, either due to building bylaws or due to the current dated state of their building infrastructure. Such institutions will then need to expand into other areas. That in turn requires a larger administrative set-up, and increases costs more than proportionately.

Next take the case of administration and management of educational institutions. Our current administrations are extremely weak, do not have the skill base to utilise new management technologies and methods, and not really built for fast responses to any external or internal impulse. Increasing seats rapidly requires major improvements in internal systems, incorporation of information technologies, increased administrative staff, tighter administrative controls, etc. More importantly, they require decentralisation and flexibility in decision-making, which are not present in either public or private institutions.

But the most critical problem is related to teachers and professors. The biggest educational problem facing the country today is not the lack of educational opportunities — but the lack of quality educational opportunities. Study after study have shown how poor teaching is impacting India. A recent ASER study found that the majority of children in elementary schools could not perform basic tasks. The UGC’s own report has shown the bulk of our colleges are quite poor. And most who have gone to top-notch educational institutions will talk about the great dearth of good teachers. Why is the lack of trained and motivated teaching professionals the most critical problem facing our higher educational system? It takes many, many years to build up a rich research and teaching human capital base at the tertiary level. It is not something that anyone can do, that too overnight.

... contd.