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More universities in offing

Kashmir Times. Dated: 2/17/2018 3:49:28 PM

Focus on high education as well as quantity and not quality is seriously impeding education standards, not improving them

The announcement of a national law university for Jammu and Kashmir may not be as appealing as it sounds, not only for the possible regional politicking it is likely to invoke but more because of the existing state of educational institutions in the state, where a top heavy approach and focus on quantity and not quality is guiding the state's ill-conceived education policy. Where the need is to strengthen the primary and basic school level education, the successive governments in the last nearly two decades have been making tireless pursuits to not only focus on higher education but also phase out existing schools or neglecting them. Less than two decades ago, the idea of opening colleges and university campuses in the remote areas started without a proper provisioning for infrastructure. Not only were the schools not upgraded to meet the demands of higher educational institutions, lack of funds and physical area for the colleges enabled the ad-hoc arrangement of squeezing the space of some of the existing schools to run the colleges and many of them continue to operate with the same stop-gap arrangement. Though on papers, many schools are upgraded almost on an annual basis, they are not supported by Planning and Finance departments, making the upgradation virtually non-existent. Inability to consolidate school education and improve the quality of education imparted in government institutions eventually inspired a mindset invested in the framing policies regarding higher education, encouraging a mushrooming growth of colleges. Now the same mindset is at play in multiplying the number of universities, which probably serve the interests of petty vote bank politics. In recent years, the number of universities in Jammu and Kashmir has multiplied but in terms of promoting good academic culture, they have further gone down the line as no efforts have been made at consolidating the existing infrastructure and expansion on basis of that. Mushrooming growth of colleges, satellite campuses and new universities came up corresponding with the period in which school education both in terms of quality was sagging and primary schools were shutting down.
The dismal scenario of schools may not be the sole reason for the inability of the higher seats of education to grow in terms of quality, though the lack of availability of meritorious school pass-outs for the colleges and universities does have a bearing on the functioning of the latter. The higher seats of learning suffered primarily because they were ill-planned and informed by vote bank politics, not a broader vision for education. With the result, a focus on expansion and higher education policy without a scientific assessment and planning only ended up in neglect of existing institutions including the Kashmir University and Jammu University, both of which were always way behind national standards. Good standards of education cannot be measured in terms of the number of courses that these universities offer but by the caliber of its faculty members, the intellectual engagement through routine seminars and standard publications and the intellect of the students prepared by these universities. These exist only in small measures because the universities instead of ridding themselves of a bureaucratic culture have got trapped in it even more. Besides, the higher institutes of learning in recent years have simply been turned into vehicles of politics. The education field has been virtually left free for political beings to resort to cheap gimmicks in opening hordes of colleges and now universities, primarily with an eye on the vote bank. An impressive number of higher educational institutions, many of which are operating in shabby and congested buildings without the requisite infrastructure and equipment, can never produce good education for many. The poor planning of budgetary provisions for the existing and new universities has huge financial implications and also has a telling impact on the quality of education.
Universities require a certain degree of autonomy to operate, both in terms of financial support and planning of curriculum. Instead the bureaucratic hurdles have allowed a culture of controlling even the academics of the higher educational institutions. A recent order that allows college teachers to act as guides and co-guides for doctoral researchers is a shocking reflection of the unscientific approach of the government and its lack of vision with respect to universities. This is an impractical idea, given the usual lack of qualification of college teachers in terms of research papers to their credit and the transferrable nature of their jobs. The quality of research in such an eventuality would be seriously impeded. The need therefore is of consolidating the existing institutions and more than that strengthening the basic schooling and education. A vision for education cannot be based without these two necessary foundation stones.