Dear Readers

The education system in India is at a cross road now, whether it is primary education, secondary education, higher education or professional education, perplexity is visible. The planners at policy making sphere of government or at university level are in a quandary. To be distinctive from the past, they have infiltrated to a state of predicament. There is an aphorism in Odia “Jala bihune srushti nasha, jala bahule srushti nasha” which means anything in dearth (deficiency) or in excess in injurious. In past, the opportunity to education in Odisha was in a deficient stage but the numeric growth in unplanned manner, without a vision has resulted in quality deterioration. Experiencing this situation, to protect the image of the authority, as a face saving measure, the planners are now introducing new schemes and systems with a label which looks alluring. But the scenario at ground zero is precarious.
In recent past academic planners could not visualize the future impact and implications of opening of new institutions without proper infra and logistic support. The faster increase is student enrollment , increasing workload due to diversity in course curriculum , inadequate resources , paucity of funds , varied and heterogeneous demand from the stake holders and ultimately dilution in quality of input(Non Serious Students), processing (the alma mater without proper infra support and faculty ) and output who are non dedicated degree holders. Consciousness of uniform quality assurance was first initiated by the western countries like USA and UK. Later India followed this, imitating few modalities in a truncated manner. The policy planners in the ministry of human resources development (MHRD), through the UGC (university Grants Commission) and AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), NCERT (National Council for Education Research and Training) started experimenting for quality assurance. Under this backdrop, UGC introduced a new upspring viz. NAAC
(National Assessment and Accredited Council) and AICTE introduced it’s upspring viz. NBA (National Board of Accreditation) to examine, evaluate and certify the grade (quality) of an educational institute. In furtherance, to this assessment and continuance of the same quality in post accreditation period, in another step forward NAAC has prescribed to establish an IQAC (Internal Quality Assurance Cell) for uniform continuation of quality (the grade certified). Unfortunately, the UGC has not made this NAAC certification mandatory for which most of the universities and colleges are callus for this evaluation. Till 2013 end the NAAC has accredited only 177 universities (35%) out of 729 universities and 4857 colleges (10%) out of 37000 colleges that too, NAAC accreditation had no direct link with the funding, post creation for faculty or opening up new course/seat. For this non mandatory initiation has resulted in a mockery.
Government believing that SSA ( Sarba Shiksha Abhiyan) in primary school level and RMSA( Rastriya Madhyamika Shiksha Abhiyan) in secondary school level has introduced RUSA( Rastriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan) for Higher Education to install its lost luster. From a publication in the daily news paper ‘The Samaj’ on 07.10.2014 shows that the success rate is only 33% in attracting students to come from class VI to class VIII in Odisha. The Government has not denied the statistics. The colleges are no more the temples of learning. For many non-serious students it is the time pass premises and for some non-dedicated faculties it is only a livelihood generating centre.
This decrease in quality is due to non-visionary administrators. An educational institute will be successful if its four pillars are equally strong. They are (I) The educational planers at government and university levels (II) The dedicated faculty (III) The infra-support and (IV) The knowledge oriented serious students. The educational planners without the knowledge of grass-root recipients are encouraging admission of non-serious students to different courses which they cannot pursue fairly. They are also not recruiting proper dedicated teachers. For them all that glitter is gold. A teacher is a mentor, guide, motivator and facilitator. No syllabi, no methodology, no text or reference book can induce the knowledge like a teacher. A teacher’s teaching is like the mothers milk and other provisions are simply some food supplement. The teacher should be screened before he takes up the responsibility and should be scanned in regular intervals. He should be properly oriented and refreshed with latest academic developments. A NET like evaluation should be held every three years to make the teachers updated. Ethics, morals and values are preferred qualities of a teacher.
The students should be admitted to a course based on their competencies through an entrance test for the same. Distance education Universities should be introduced to avoid non-serious students from the campus who disturb and distort the academic atmosphere. Online examination should be introduced to avoid callousness to examination. At the same time some co-curricular value and knowledge and efficiency based co-curricular activities should be made mandatory and be a part of the certificate. Proper and adequate infra-support should be made compulsion for opening an educational institute and course. The examination system should be recasted for evaluation of the proper merit and talent.

Finally, it is the attitude of all the stake holders which should be fair and with a vision.

 

Prof. Malay Kumar Mohanty

Managing Editor
Orissa Journal of Commerce