India has been a land of sages and saints from time immemorial. Our history depicted that India had a treasurer of knowledge. The Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, Ramayana, and Mahabharata are the great scriptures full of the knowledge of various disciplines – cultural, natural, spiritual, medical, political, economic, and social. These scriptures are being referred largely still today. Many scientific pieces of research, which are conducting in the present sphere of time, are based on the knowledge of our scripture mainly of Vedas. Even, many developed countries follow our past education system. Education had a value system, which was reflected in society. As a result, peace and harmony prevailed everywhere. All these led to make India as ‘Dharma Guru’ (Religious Leader).

The Paradigm Shift

In due course of time, the rich education system and its values have declined. Value-based education has shifted to the commercialization of education/job orientation education. The education system is not as rigorous as it was during the past. In many educational institutions, degrees are given only for the name's sake. The inflation of marks is a serious problem. It seems that marks are given free. Every student has distinction marks. The government policy to promote students even they do not deserve is another driver, which has manifested the problems. Quality teaching, quality valuation, and the seriousness of students are the major aspects of quality education. There are instances where it was found that a Ph.D. holder is working as a peon and many engineering degree holders are in queue to join lower-level jobs. The number of educated unemployed youth is increasing. The reasons for deteriorating the higher education systems are many however some of them are discussed herewith.   

New Education Policy (NEP) of India has now been approved by the Government and will be implemented soon. However, the question is the same. How will it be implemented?

The politicization of education is among the major causes of declining quality education. Vote bank based politics in India has further impacted the education system adversely. In the name of gross enrollment (GE) in higher education, many colleges and universities are established. The local representatives to the Government open the institutions in their constituencies without providing basic facilities. I present two case studies herewith. Bhitarwar town is situated in Gwalior District in Madhya Pradesh. A college was established in 2010 in this town. When this college was established, it did not have its building, no teaching staff and no clerical staffs were appointed. However, the government advertised for admonition in Graduation. Some students of nearby villages visited Bhitarwar for taking admission; they came back empty hand because nobody within the town knows about the college. This collage until today did not have its building. It is running in a private building with few rooms. No lab facility and no proper teaching rooms are available. Only a few teachers are employed. The second case study is from Narayan Bagar, Uttarakhand. The local MLA hurriedly announced for the establishment of a college. There is no space. A principal working in the Ghat College has been given additional charge of Narayan Bagar College. They have rented an office room from Intermediate College and started admission for Graduation First Year with opting few courses. There are several examples like this. These are the situations that prevailed when the Government is talking about smart classes, online classes, and the use of advancement of science and technology. 

The Road Ahead

Education is in the concurrent list means it is neither in the central list nor in the state list. Therefore, there is always a conflict between the centre and the states on education issues. Further, the facilities in higher educational institutions vary from the state-run university and the central-run university and among the states’ institutions. These facilities range from infrastructure to the salary of teachers. The state educational institutions are always behind the central educational institutions in terms of physical and financial facilities. University Grants Commission (UGC) is an autonomous statutory body, which looks into all these matters – academic, research, and finance of all the higher educational institutions. However, most of the powers of the UGC have been seized and now, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India has controlled on the decision making processes of the higher educational institutions. In the meantime, along with changing the Government in the center and the states, policies on education is changed. For the last half decades, financial scarcity in teaching and research has been observed.             

Now, one can understand the condition and direction of higher education in India. This situation has led to severe repercussions. Still, no concrete solution is found and we are treating education as trial and error. New Education Policy (NEP) of India has now been approved by the Government and will be implemented soon. However, the question is the same. How will it be implemented? What about the uniformity in the higher education institutions in terms of teaching, research, finance, and infrastructure. And, how teaching-learning processes can be improved? Education has four pillars/stakeholders – students, teachers, parents, and the government. All these pillars are equally responsible for improving the education system in India and they have to play a greater role. In my opinion, imparting education training to students should be rigorous.