Beyond Research

Educational institutions must promote community-building, problem-solving and entrepreneurship

THE Indian education system is regimented and autocratic—there are more than 20 regulatory authorities and thousands of institutions close down every year. While access to education continues to be an issue, millions of graduates remain unemployed. There is an unprecedented scramble for government jobs. In 2018, 93,000 candidates, including 3,700 PhD holders, 28,000 post-graduates and 50,000 graduates, applied for 62 peon openings in Uttar Pradesh.

These issues stem from the fact that education is over-regulated and under-supervised. Take the case of a well-recognised university which was prohibited from commissioning a teacher’s training programme, that too in a tribal district. Though it had complied with all the parameters of the National Council for Teacher Education Act, the government did everything in its capacity to delay the launching of the programme by seven years. It was eventually withdrawn. At the same time, the government launched around 20 teacher-training programmes in violation of the act.

A notification in December 2013 laid out an implementation plan for the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and made it mandatory for all educational and training programmes to comply with it. However, more than five years later, there has been no serious effort to implement it. It is disheartening that such an excellent framework, which was accepted by all ministries, has not led to the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) adopting NSQFcompliance as part of its accreditation criteria. We are excellent in drafting and notifying policies and lackadaisical about implementation. I call this ‘policy illusion and implementation delusion’.