Thus, just a little leeway in letting students go beyond the strict rules can produce competence of very high calibre. Our students at the university level deserve more, rather than less, such flexibility. And this flexibility needs to be institutionalised.

But a prime requisite of greater flexibility is the teachers’ constant engagement in updating as well as widening their own knowledge. Failure to do so, even for just three-to-five years, can leave one a long distance behind, given the rapidity with which knowledge in each discipline is changing. With the very impressive improvement in teachers’ salaries recently, it is the libraries and the laboratories that call for immediate and focused attention. This, and some system of rewards for excellence — which necessarily also implies absence of rewards for the laggards. Nothing damages a system more than its inability to distinguish between energy and lethargy. It is a shame that we do not have a mechanism in place even for ensuring regular taking of one’s classes, much less of updating one’s knowledge. It is hard to imagine greater inhumanity than for a teacher to pass on outdated knowledge to one’s unsuspecting students.

With Sibal in charge, expectations are high, hoping for radical change. It will be a great tribute to Nehru’s vision to raise the system once again to the stature which he had accorded it. Raising of teachers’ salaries is one major welcome step in that direction; the stage is ready for the many others.

... contd.