OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Education is an engine for the growth and progress of any society. It not only imparts knowledge and skills, and inculcates values, but is also responsible for building human capital which breeds, drives and sets technological innovation and economic growth

In today’s era, information and knowledge stand out as very important and critical input for growth and survival. Rather than looking at education simply as a means of achieving social upliftment, India must view education also as an engine of advancement in an information era propelled by its wheels of knowledge and research & development.

Education in India has to adopt a two-pronged strategy – firstly to narrow down and remove the gap that exists between the educated and uneducated in our society, and secondly to upgrade educational content and delivery on a continuous basis. The focus of efforts made by the government towards education should be directed towards making primary and secondary education compulsory with primary education being free as well; towards encouraging regular and periodic teacher training and quality upgradation programmes; towards setting up new schools or upgrading existing ones which would be able to integrate computer technology in their curriculum; towards encouraging private participation in universities especially in the fields of science and technology; towards setting up a common system for admission to professional courses based on national common and standardised tests; and towards promoting market-oriented higher education which would require continuous adaptation of changes taking place globally and inculcating capabilities for survival.

Efforts have been made by the Indian government in the past in the field of education, but they fall way short of our requirements. At present, literacy rates are not only low (adult literacy rate was only 61.3% in 2002 as per UNDP Human Development Report, 2004) but are also highly skewed on gender, statewise spread and urban-rural spread. Poverty and illiteracy. go hand in hand.

The government has also recently put in place schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level, and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Scheme, but the fact remains that India still has a long way to go as far as the education sector is concerned, both in terms of direction and in terms of funds allocated. As far as management institutes are concerned, their autonomy should be consistently respected and promoted at all costs because their systems are strong enough for them to understand and evaluate what is good for them.

The government needs to earmark more funds towards primary and secondary education than is being done at present even if it involves diverting funds away from higher education. Let higher education become self sufficient and generate its own funds. Such a step will ensure that at least minimum eligibility criteria of many more untapped potential students of our country is being met for management and other professional education.

The writer is an Associate Professor at IIM Lucknow

Source: The Economic TimesMore