Loopholes in higher education

Higher education plays an important role in the development of any country. Our country has a well-developed educational set up in terms of range of programs but it lacks in terms of quality standards. There is wide gap between what is actually expected and what the reality is. The reasons for the current situation are manifold. The social composition of class rooms are changed dramatically, we have moved from classes to masses. This massive expansion however not accompanied by increase in quality education. Our best students can indeed be compare best anywhere in the world. But the system does not do enough to address the students at middle and lower level. We have extremely limited number of good institutions in the country and these institutions are oases in the vast desert of higher education. Most of our institutions are characterized by poor teaching, overcrowded class rooms, lack of competent faculty, and an absence of infrastructure. Higher education emphasizes more on commercial aspect than creation of knowledge which leads to deterioration of quality of education. The councils and government bodies responsible for quality assurance do not have internationally matchable quality norms on one hand and an effective system to monitor and control violation of the existing norms by the institutions on the other. The B-schools in India must focus on improving their quality standards to provide quality education to their students and develop them as an asset of the country.

The author of this article is Asst. Professor Pioneer Institute of Professioanl Studies Indore.