Opinion The end of the universal university
The government cannot shift its higher education responsibilities to the private sector
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Post-secondary education in India was never considered free and universal. It has always been the prerogative of the few. It was not considered worthwhile for all till Mahatma Jyothirao Phule,in a memorandum to the Hunter Commission in 1882,criticised the British,saying that they were providing higher education to upper castes by taxing illiterate farmers. Muslims in the Madras Presidency also appealed to the Hunter Commission for places in schools and colleges. Thereafter,the government introduced what is now known as reservations in educational institutions,which became an all-India programme after Independence.
But higher education was never made universal,as it was offered by private colleges from the beginning. The British Indian government introduced the grant-in-aid system to support private enterprise and philanthropy before Independence. That continued for a long time till the unaided (self-financing) college scheme came in to operation a few decades ago.
Now higher education is controlled by the government through the universities and regulatory bodies such as UGC,AICTE,ICMR and so on. Enough of their officers are now in jail to show how much corruption in the higher education system has been enabled by the new economic policy towards higher education.
The World Bank and its partisans recommendations for India differ from the free or accessible higher education prevailing in the West. It is a shame that an independent country is relying on foreign recommendations and sends crores as fee money abroad for the higher education of the rich. There is no difference between the present government and the previous NDA government as far as higher education is concerned. Vajpayees NDA appointed a committee under Aditya Birla to recommend reforms in higher education in 2009; it repeated the World Bank line and further recommended that privatisation of higher education is the only way through which we can reach our goals. The UPA government has appointed Sam Pitroda,a US-based technocrat,to recommend measures to improve knowledge systems in India. He recommended that we should have 1,500 universities,to compete with China; and as the government doesnt have the capacity to invest in higher education,it was better to invite foreign universities. Kapil Sibal has jumped at the recommendations,and prepared four or five bills to implement them,which are pending before Parliament.
The government has not even looked at what the advanced capitalist countries like the US and UK,their model states,are doing about higher education. For example,the Obama government has taken crucial decisions to improve the attendance of African-Americans in universities,with additional funding. We,meanwhile,suffer several dichotomies in our higher education today. We all know that due to the unbridled competition among private colleges in Tamil Nadu and Andhra,hundreds of engineering colleges were opened a few years ago,most offering IT-related courses. Recession in the West has reduced the demand for BPO services,and for the body-shopping in which companies like Infosys and TCS send educated bonded labourers abroad or do the same donkey-jobs in India. This has impacted the demand for IT courses,and I am told that hundreds of colleges in the south could be closed. Imagine the wastage because of the lack of guidance and support by the government.
The problems in our education system,including higher education,are because of the governments unwillingness to take steps in the development of education,leaving everything to the market. This is not correct. A state has a responsibility to provide minimum services in education,health and welfare. But the governments attitude,particularly of the policymaking body,the Planning Commission,is disgusting as if they are there to serve a few private individuals and corporates,and make policies only for them. Their idea of PPP public-private partnership is basically a privatisation strategy. They wanted the higher education system to be developed through PPP mode. Well,we all know now what has happened to engineering colleges. So how can we support PPP now in higher education? Rather,it is the duty of the state,particularly in a country like India,to take responsibility for higher education. It is its duty to ensure quality,and skills that are in demand in the labour market.
Universities in the states suffer several problems. They do not have teachers,and cannot pay salaries and pensions. Meanwhile,some teachers in private colleges are paid less than Rs 5,000 a month. Social science departments are short of students,and those in high-tech courses like IT,and biotechnology lack skills necessary for the job market. It is under these conditions that we are thinking of free higher education for all.
The Planning Commission has targeted,as it appears to be a part of the UN millennium development goals,15 per cent enrolment in higher education at the end of 2011 and 30 per cent by the end of 2020. Is it possible for the system to achieve these goals,as we have now only around 13 per cent,after including distance-mode education?
The state has a responsibility and duty to provide free higher education to all those eligible,till we attain at least 25 per cent enrolment. It cannot simply depend on the private sector.
The writer is national secretary of the CPI and a Rajya Sabha MP
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