There is a lot of mediocrity being celebrated, a lot of stupendous talent being deliberately ignored and discouraged in the education sector. The wrong teachers are being recruited and the good ones deliberately ignored
A lot is written on the myriad social, political and economic issues. It is rare that the media touches upon the critical factors of a progressive country. Certainly it is time for retrospection. For instance, the education system needs changes according to the changing needs of the day. The pressure upon academicians is mounting. It’s time educationists devised some long-term policies rather than depend wholly on spontaneous and temporary measures.
Greek political philosopher Plato enunciated the theory of education system to ensure justice. Justice, to him, was the rule by philosopher-kings who possessed wisdom. But change is a changeless law of life.The past two decades have been marked by a period of substantial shifts in the content and relevance of many disciplines. In the circumstance, the examination system ought to bring in changes to test the potential of students by focussing not only on academic excellence but also by judging their ability and knowledge about new information and comprehending their level of social responsibility. The need for restructuring the pattern of examination has become all the more imperative in the contemporary context of increasing international inter-dependence and global change. Recent developments have established new basis for understanding the changing nature of polity and community.
The ongoing debates in contemporary politics have been dominated by the relationship between global, national and identity politics. This has posed many challenges before experts. The examination pattern needs to emphasis upon the following:
Ideas are not generated in a vacuum; they reflect a variety of pluralist factors. The purpose of modification is to analyse our growing concern about lacunae in the examination process, which can provide insights on important issues. The insights about the way in which the ideas and emotions get translated into effective writing and finally shape the new decision-making process, will undoubtedly be path-breaking. Sometimes, conceptual and scholastic argumentations and discussions result in the creation of exquisite thoughts and a new vision for the growth of the education system.
Another area of challenge is to generate argumentation and debate about the myriad ways in which changes could be brought about in the examination process, that would provide a platform for competitive environment and opportunity to identify right kind of talent in different streams. The examination system requires an overhaul to attract and recruit personnel of high calibre, train them well and ensure satisfactory working conditions.
We need to identify new ways to judge the qualitative competence of candidates rather than depend upon so many other considerations, particularly the numerical preponderance and mounting pressure from a system that perpetuates mediocrity. liberalisation in the educational system has led to the mushrooming of a number of private universities all over. Such universities and institutes manage to get affiliation as well. It is often found that these institutions select staff even without pre-requisite qualifications such as NET or PhD. The staff too does not get paid as per the rules fixed for the job. A crowd is always ready to grab such opportunities. The mounting financial pressure and the urge to save money has led to degradation of the quality.
There is a lot of mediocrity being celebrated, a lot of stupendous talent being deliberately ignored and discouraged. The problem in the selection process lies in placing mediocrity on a level with excellence and at times above it, driven by vested considerations. Therefore, there is an urgent need to examine the inner -dynamics and drawbacks of the selection process in academia. Vision without action is day-dreaming, but action without vision is a nightmare. The point is to fill in the existing gap between the two at the earliest.
We need to acknowledge that questions related to higher education can in fact have a direct impact on the nation’s life. The new education policies should have the ability to adapt in response to the challenging environment and efficiency, that can potentially be used for the effective implementation of the various sensible recommendations.
Since the present-day global academic world is more professional than a decade ago, new concepts of merit and scrutiny identification systems should be followed. A vigilant and assertive system of evaluation process has become a prerequisite for ensuring and maintaining quality in higher education.
(The writer is a Chandigarh-based professor of political science)suhi