Education In India: a framework to be concerned about
Hello frendz, welcome back to this fey world created by ajay (aka ajju)(aka guptaji)…enjoy…. !!!!but wait….just cogitate for a moment about what I’ve written….!!!Let’s go….
A recent survey done by Outlook-MDRA made a big news in SGSITS. There was celebration at every corner of the college.
The news for celebration was that, in that survey SGSITS was assigned the rank 35.
In the starting i was just stupefied by listening this so called news for celebration .But actually I forgot to consider the ” T&C(Terms and Condition) apply.” section of this news.
Actually the T&C was that SGSITS is been ranked 35th in the top engineering institutes of India (when many of the topmost elite institutes of the country were not taken into consideration) .
Anyways, As I am a guy with very positive attitude, I was still trying to “feel good” with the conception that SGSITS is considered to be good in India and ” Indian institutes are considered to be very elite among the world”.
But all my “feel good” factor was just annihilated brutally and this time even my positive attitude was helpless just because of the news: ”In the recent QS ranking of the world universities, the highest ranked Indian institute is IIT, Mumbai and is given the rank 187 in the world .”
All my misconceptions that were flourished by me so far that I am studying in a very good college were shattered like rack of cards. It took me one full day to recover out of shock.
But anyways, if we talk about the infrastructure of even the elite institutions in India, they are not that good and competitive as compared to other universities of the world. Even they are not competitive as compared to other Asian institutes because the same report has also revealed that 35 other Asian institutes are ranked higher than the highest ranked institute in India.
The basic reason for the lagging of our elite institutes is the lack of investment of funds in them by the Govt.. We allocate almost minimum funds in this field among all the significant countries of Asia. That is one issue deserving concern by our govt other than hot issues like Kashmir, CWG, Babri Mosque issue.
However, people may claim that in a developing country like India, investment on primary education is more important, and we should not worry about those only few elite institutions in India.
I think only the first half of their claim is correct. Obviously, the primary level education in India is important but the investment on higher education is no lesser important because ignorance of it is creating many problems that currently India is facing. The most severe of them is Brain-Drain. Most of the Scholars from India always head to foreign after completing their higher education in IIM’s and IIT’s just because of the lack of proper infrastructure available here for holding them. There are very few research institutes in India.
Also, one more fact is that the packages that they are likely to get in India are not that attractive.
Moreover, when these scholars permanently get out of the country, we just denigrate them at the name of fidelity. This is not fare, because if you can’t afford those talents, then you should try to reform yourself rather than blaming others.
And this happens with domino's effect, affecting poor people of the country also. When these scholars get out of the country, actually the people who are going to innovate new technologies or inventions have been gone, and henceforth India lacks in technology, thereby it has to buy technology from other countries where the technology is actually invented by the Indian indigenous mind.
So the crux of the story is that due to this brain-drain, we are actually paying (to other countries) for our own things (that could have been produced right here in India had there been sufficient investment in this field).
Besides, if some technology is invented in India, it is obvious that it would create jobs and thereby help in flow of money among poor people and thereby causing a balance in the country which is actually zero in our country(Riches are getting richer and poor are getting poorer).
So actually this issue is not limited to those elite institutes or those few people who are a part of those elite institutes, actually it directly or indirectly affects common and poor people too.
Even the basic level education is not in a very good condition. However some very commendable initiatives were taken by our former PM Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpeyee by his campaign ”School Chalein Hum”. But that campaign was not given enough attention when he went out of power. However some other sanguine efforts were done in this regard by campaigns like “Sab Padhen Sab Badhen”. But that campaign is not that successful as the previous one.
A few months ago, the bill for the RTE (Right to Education) was passed in parliament due to some serious efforts by the Supreme Court. According to this law there will be 25% quota in private schools for the children who parents can’t afford provide them good education and falling in the age group of 6-14 years and or play group to viiith class. This was a very good and practical step considering the pathetic condition of the government schools in India, but what about those children who have benefited from RTE and have completed their education up to class viii and they want to study further and they don’t have enough money to give to those private schools, there is no provision for that in out RTE. I think there is a need for amendment in that law regarding this.
There is a very famous line taken from a very famous poem by Robert Frost
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
Miles to go before I sleep
Miles to go before I sleep.”
So there are many reforms that are needed to be taken by the administration in this regard if it want to foster the overall development of the country.
T.C.
