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The discourse on reforming post-secondary education has suddenly acquired a global urgency. Two decades ago, the gurus of development and poverty eradication decried investment in post-secondary education, arguing for full and complete attention to primary and secondary education in developing countries first. As globalisation has run its full course in these two decades, it is now becoming obvious that post-secondary education in the lifelong learning perspective may actually be the key to sustaining economic growth and sharing of fruits of the same more equitably in societies.
Yet, the discourse in South Asia, in particular India, remains bogged down in several ways. A serious conflict surrounds the very definition of post-secondary education as a private or public good; who benefits most? Society or individual? This binary formulation is irrelevant when we recognize that both public and private goods are served through greater numbers of population pursuing post-secondary education. Hence, the chorus of recommendations on public-private partnerships focus entirely upon private investments in post-secondary education. While private investment is indeed welcome and critical in certain arenas of post-secondary education, there has to be a floor of basic public investment as well. Mere market-based supply of post-secondary education will not serve the overall purposes of societal development.
This reality was brought out in a stark manner in the recent FICCI Seminar on Higher Education in Delhi. Various studies presented in the seminar clearly showed the gap in supply of quality education; it was argued that less than 10% of those who complete secondary education even enroll in post-secondary levels; among those who do complete such post-secondary education programmes, barely 10% are even considered employable by the industry. This is indeed a sorry state of affairs. Attention at increasing the quantity of enrollment has to be simultaneously complemented with serious efforts at improving the quality of education. While most private providers of engineering, medical, IT and management education do regularly interact with industry, there is a systematic disconnect between public universities and colleges and the employers in the market.
How can this be reformed?
It was ironic that the most important debates on reforming the post-secondary education system in the country in this Seminar were taking place without much participation of public educational institutions in the country. Should they not be engaging with the reform issues? Should this not be mandated by the national government? A simple reform proposed by the current government in Delhiâintroduction of the semester systemâis being resisted by the Delhi University Teachers Union, and they are on strike since this term began. Who is going to confront them? And, this is the premier/elite university of the country with substantial additional investments offered by the government; what about others in the provinces?
Another interesting thing about this Seminar was the exclusive focus on engineering, IT, accounting, medicine, management disciplines of post-secondary education; there was no reference to human and social development needs of the country. How will India address the enormous challenge of huge lag in basic social development, despite rampant economic growth? What education is needed to prepare professional capacity to deal with such challenges? What reforms of teaching of social and human sciences are needed to make this possible? What about the requirement of hybrid curriculum? How about social relevance of management education? What about basic social skills among IT and engineering graduates? Or doctors and nurses?
This set of issues on professionalising education for social development were taken up in the Round Table held at PRIA last week. Educators, policy-makers, practitioners and experts from India and abroad deliberated upon the challenge of improving the supply of high quality professional education for a variety of occupations related to the vast fields of social development. In this context, the importance of community-engaged research was also elaborated. Policy frameworks for incentivising community-engaged research and lifelong learning are needed to enable the institutionalization of important experiments going on in the country.
The agenda for reforms is enormous; the motivations to undertake them limited. The discourse on reform has been limited amongst experts in post-secondary education. There is a need to bring other stakeholders in the dialogue. How can the current and future students be mobilised to generate demand for reforms? How about industry and civil society engagements in reforming post-secondary education? Some industry circles rather undertake their own âremedialâ education of new recruits (like the IT industry running courses of study for thousands of students every year) than to âbotherâ with the politics of reforms. Most civil society continues to ignore this agenda as it âstillâ considers such education as elitist? How to engage parents, current and future, who would like to support post-secondary education for their children? And, the tax-payers, who not only pay regular taxes, but also special cess for education? Since most children of tax-paying families in India go to private schools and colleges anyways, this may be an attractive agenda for âtax-revoltsâ?
Since the problematique of reforming post-secondary education is a global crisis, perhaps a new global coalition can come together to generate ideas and pressures for reforms nationally and regionally. Any takers?
Rajesh Tandon
November 20, 2010
PRIA’s MobiliseHER team traveled to Bangalore during the week of June, 10 – 14, 2024. The aim of the visit was to gain relevant insights into the civil society ecosystem in Bangalore and meet different organisations to understand the city through a lens of gender and inclusive mobility.
Working at PRIA, often leads us to various cities across the country. Each trip is an opportunity to witness firsthand the challenges and triumphs of different communities.
Mr. Yedukrishnan V has recently joined PRIA after gaining valuable experience in the development sector. Drawing from his journey in the social sector and personal encounters in Kerala, he emphasises the importance of participatory governance and research in empowering marginalised communities.'
