A country is known by the quality of its citizens, and the quality of its citizens is known by the quality of its education and the quality of education depends upon the socio-economic system and the government policies towards education.
Education is enlightenment. It is the one that lends dignity to a man. Education seeks to build up the personality of the pupil by assisting his physical, intellectual, moral, and emotional development.
A man without education is equal to an animal. Education means knowledge which leads to liberation from ignorance. The fundamental purpose of education is to transfigure the human personality into a pattern of perfection through a systematic process of the development of the body, the enrichment of the mind, the sublimation of the emotions and the illumination of the spirit.
According to Vivekananda, "Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man." Education is a complex concept and refers both to a process as well as a product. Education as a product is viewed as the sum total of what is received through learning that is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values, the transmission of culture, development of personality, and liberation of self-actualization. One of the important activities of the educational process is 'teaching' which includes training, instruction, and development of cognitive processes and abilities including critical thinking.
The Objective of Higher Education :
The aim of higher education was Cleary expressed by J.L. Nehru. He said, "A university stands for humanism, tolerance, reason, adventure, ideas, and the scorch for truth. Universities in the modern world are expected to seek and cultivate new knowledge, provide the right kind of leadership in all walks of life and strive to promote equality and Social justice. The universities in India, however, have to shoulder some additional responsibilities. They have to be the conscience of the nation, develop programmers for adult education, assist in improving schools, and try to bring back the center of gravity of academic life within the country by creating centers of excellence comparable to those in other parts of the world. These are the major objectives of higher education in India as exemplified by the India Education Commission (1964 - 66).
Today when we cast our glance on the educational scenario of our county, we are at once reminded of several constraints and problems of our educational system. The system of higher education in India is almost one and a half-century old. But its growth in terms of content, size, and investment in resources accelerated only after independence. Today our educational institutions suffer from all sorts of shortages of men and materials, curricular shortcomings, administrative fiascos, moral contradictions, poverty of standards, efficiency and decency, and lack of forwarding thrust. By this old, outdated, and rotten system, we are all displaced. We are all literally uprooted. We have no definite purpose. Nothing is clear before our vision. We are fumbling in the dark, and we want some people to give to us the vision of greatness, give to us the qualities of true leadership.
This crisis in education today is not so much a crisis with regard to the decline of standards, deplorable as it is, but it is a crisis because education is lacking in any purpose. We are broken up into a series of specialists. We look upon a human being as a machine that is put together on an assembly plant. We do not recognize that the human being is a complex, mysterious entity. A great French painter once fell suddenly ill, and he was called upon to consult half a dozen different medical specialists. One of them said, "Your heart is sound." The other said, "your lungs are good." The third doctor said, "Your kidneys are functioning properly." And so on and so forth. Then he turned to them and said, "So then, gentlemen, you seem to tell me that l am dying in perfect health."
An important question that arises in this context is: How far have the hopes of students as well as of society been fulfilled by the present system of higher education? For educational economists, this question is of great interest as it pertains to the theory of human capital formation, which envisages that investment in the education of people leads to the development of human capital which, in turn, contributes to national development. It may be pointed out that constructs of human capital theory do not clearly spell out the assumptions with regard to the education system and the socioeconomic system in which the former operates.
Commoditization and communism of education :
The harbingers of our national awakening and the leaders of the freedom movement had envisioned a system of education that would be secular, scientific, and democratic in character and available to all. Now after sixty years of independence, the dream of our glorious fortune in one the verge of being shatters to pieces.
Different types of attacks on education in the name of restructuring it, from various corners like the restriction of sets, undermining the importance of general education and higher studies, emphasis on vocational education, curtailment of academic freedom, distortion of the secular-scientific content of education, etc. occurred from time to time on various pleas. But the most devasting and all-pervading attack on education came in the form of National policy on education (1986). Leading educationalists and intellectuals described it as a blueprint to completely destroy the kernel of secular, scientific, and democratic education.
It is obvious that like the British houses never really wanted to impart true education, instead, seats of learning are being transformed into business centers, cost of education is fast going out of reach of 95% of the population.
Policy suggestions
Precepts of the theory of human capital imply that the system of education is so developed as to meet the present and the future needs of the development of a nation. A system of education that does not respond to the developmental needs, in terms of courses, contents and may not help in the proper development of human capital. It is, therefore, necessary that underlying assumptions of the theory adhered to, while developing the education system, which has not been, to a great, extend, adhered to, while developing the higher education system in India. As a result, this theory is questioned by both society and the receivers of higher education. Hence the policy of higher education should focus on :
- Making the system more relevant to the needs of students the economy and society
- Improving the internal efficiency of the system
- Making the equality of opportunity for higher education a realistic preposition
- Developing curriculum and text material based on contextual linkages and orientation and development of teachers
- The establishment of an organization for planning, coordination and monitoring the development is the system of higher education
- The use of new technology can tackle some of the basic problems such as equality, quality, etc.
Indian higher education is radical in terms of accessibility, and needs radical reforms in standards, giving value, and pacing. A focus on enforcing both streamlining and holding higher standards of the curriculum with the help of international academic publishers for transparency, making the vocational and doctoral education pipeline value-oriented and innovative, personalization of the sector for students to gain immediate and valid transferable credentials in their own pace (e.g., Massive open online support, digital learning, etc.), empowering students to enter the work-force through exit and re-entry options with necessary building blocks of knowledge that leads to a skill/set of skills from a single or multiple academic fields (with required chains of knowledge), instituting stronger institutional responsibility in services for reprioritizing service delivery and working around the complexities, working with international standardization agencies to ensure students are getting value out of the programs, etc are the basic changes needed for gaining international and national competency. The rise of international centers and conglomerates of educational leadership has given these forefront institutions and publishers a constitutive role for ascribing what is considered as legitimate knowledge from a Foucauldian 'regime of truth' perspective, and hence to maintain international competency, ties with international sources of legitimacy is required. The rise of interest in the IT sector and engineering education in India has boxed students with crammed knowledge that gives them lesser chance to explore and develop their passions with modern elements of education such as co-operative education, work-based training, etc. Concerted pathways and collaborative efforts with liberal arts education are also needed for broadening student choices and personal growth.
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