The Narendra Modi Government has started with a positive note in trying to turn “Scam India to Skill India” with the announcement that each State will have an IIM and an IIT.
Such an announcement should be hailed by all right thinking people who believe that education is true liberation. Further, the announcement also underlines the present Government’s initiative to turn India into a human resource hub and for that to happen there is a need to generate right type of skills. This is certainly going to turn around the potential of young India what Modi calls demographic dividend. This is an occasion to reflect on what has happened to Odisha’s higher education during the last ten years of the UPA rule. In this context, the Central University of Odisha in Koraput may be a case in point. The UPA Government had its own vision of enhancing higher education potential of the country that resounded in the slogan “inclusive education”, a reworded expression of “education for all.” It is common knowledge that the hype of Right to Education has floundered from the beginning where the intent failed squarely in its implementation. The same story was repeated in the higher education sector also.
Arjun Singh started 12 new universities in States where there were no Central Universities. Odisha became a beneficiary of this arrangement; got a Central University. 450 acres of land was allotted by the State Government in Koraput, a tribal area with the intent that the university with central funding could bring about a meaningful change in the backward region.
A university or any institution by itself does not bring changes but the people who run it. Unfortunately, the first Vice Chancellor who presided over the Koraput Central University did not show any interest in the development of the institution; instead she looked after herself well. This situation underlines what types of VCs were appointed to the twelve new universities to meet the aspirations of young learners of the country. A left led coterie controlled all appointments and Prof Surabhi Banerjee who became the Vice Chancellor of the Odisha Central University had the backing of the left. The fate of the Odisha Central University is not a standalone case because the coterie selected VCs of other universities who also did not perform. They used the position to lobby in Delhi furthering their careers. The efforts in their part came to a ridiculous situation wherein these people almost controlled the membership of many Government committees and some of them enjoyed a lot of clout in the HR Ministry, thanks to some pliable bureaucrats.
When Prof Banerjee and her counterparts in other universities were trying to continue with their status in a friendly exchange, the elections took place and unfortunately their ambitions did not come to fruition. Prof Banerjee gave the impression during her tenure that she was more than the University and that there was no need to sweat to build the university in Odisha. Instead, she looked after her comforts well. She visited the university campus in Koraput hardly four/five times on occasions when important dignitaries visited the campus. The VC’s office is in Bhubaneswar whereas the classes run in Koraput. This is an unthinkable arrangement but the Government patronised her in awarding her for her contribution in developing the university even though she did not lay a single brick during her five- year tenure. She left behind Rs320 crores unspent having demonstrated the highest degree of apathy towards development of the university. She prepared a university on paper only with utter disregard to students’ frustrations over facilities, question paper leak, examination inadequacies and having no teachers to teach. She left the university, as is learnt by the author, with no Professor in any department, the only senior teacher being an Associate Professor in Odia and no Registrar. The Government had to put Mohammed Mia, the VC of Maulana Azad Urdu University of Hyderabad, as in charge of the university.
There is a saying that “morning shows the day.” But the bright dawn for the Central University of Odisha has remained clouded from day one. The Vice Chancellor’s rhetorically charged vision statement presented in the website remained only a statement for the reason that it no where underlined the logic how infrastructural development was intertwined with academic growth. The university has nine schools and as many centres/departments. The academic programmes are ambitious without having a sense of the ground reality. The Vice Chancellor lost a great opportunity, for five years is a long time in the life of an educational institution as foundational period and she did not leave behind a credible legacy. Any higher academic institution needs macro/micro management of four cardinal aspects: (1) Infrastructural Development, (2) Academic Planning, (3) Research and Training, and (4) Creation and Management of Academic Resources. None of these was followed by Banerjee.
Today, for Odisha the scenario appears to have changed with Modi Sarkar at the Centre and two veterans from Odisha, Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram, as Ministers in his Cabinet. These two Ministers should bring in the desired change in the development of the Central University of Odisha. They should take forward the responsibility of the Modi Government in restoring trust in academic institutions. It is in this context, one may suggest that the Government should consider seriously selecting an Odia academic as the V-C of the institution, who understands the problem of the university’s location, educational aspirations of young people and is committed to the cause of education and society in restoring the trust Central Government run educational institutions.
(Jena, a social activist, is a former member of Utkal University Syndicate and a former member of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology Board of Management)