President Pranab Mukherjee has expressed disappointment over the poor quality education system. For instance, higher education sector must be equipped to complement the economic forces.
According to him, despite a credible infrastructure in India over 650 degree awarding institutions and over 33,000 colleges, there is a paucity of good quality institutions to meet the growing aspirations of the youth. It is a matter of concern that an international ranking of top 200 universities does not contain a single Indian Institution.
This is an eye-opener for us, especially as our ancient universities like Takshashila, Nalanda, Vikramshila, Valabhi, Somapura and Odantapuri had dominated the world higher education system for about 1,800 years beginning sixth century BC. “The ancient Indian universities attracted students from all over the world. But today, many bright young minds from India go abroad for better quality higher studies. We have the capacity to turnaround our higher education system. We can develop our academic institutions to provide education conforming to international standards.”
“To promote a healthy environment for research, we must increase the number of fellowships, support inter disciplinary and inter-university collaborations and establish industry incubation parks. As per an international survey, three Indian companies are among the world’s 100 most innovative companies.
“We need to improve on this record. We must revitalise research and development. Research is unfortunately not a preferred option, accounting for less than 0.4 per cent of our higher education student
population.”
“Our education must infuse in students life skills like self awareness, empathy, effective communication, creative thinking, problem solving inter personal relationship and stress and emotion management.” He said these skills are
necessary for healthy development of an individual and should find due place in the course curriculum.
“Our academic institutions also have a duty to address the moral challenges of times. They must act as guides and inculcate the essential civilization values of love for motherland, performance of duty, compassion for all, tolerance for pluralism, respect for women, honesty in life, self restraint in conduct, responsibly in action and
discipline in the minds of
our youth.”