Challenges of Higher Education in India
Here, the reader can understand the challenges in higher education in India.
Policy initiative at the state level, creative rethinking of the modes of education, providing world-class facilities on Indian Soil to prevent brain drain are some of the ideas whose time has come.
In a country of over a billion, India still fails to even have one institution of higher education in the top 200 universities of the world. More than 1,00,000 of our youngsters leave for the United States every year for better education. To grow, a bottom up approach is needed if the challenges of higher education are to be tackled in any meaningful fashion and much of the onus is on the states to ensure that the funds earmarked for children at government run schools are not diverted for anything other infrastructure and ensuring equality of teaching. The school’s curriculum needs to be revamped to meet the changing face of the country and the demands of the market.
India, with second largest higher education system in the world still holds a very low 19 % of Gross Enrolment Ratio due to dropout at various levels of schooling
With private unaided institutions contributing about 60% of enrolment in higher education, states have to frame policies that are not controlling but self-regulatory in nature. States should move from ‘affiliating college model’ to autonomous college system and state private university model. This will make the institutions focus on knowledge creation leading to research and innovation.
One more very important step would be to recognize Distance and Online education across the country and not just in the home state alone. We should evaluate a student with his/her exit examination, not by the mode of study.
