538 / 822
EDUCATION
Eternal India
encyclopedia
planners of higher education. It would be disastrous for the economy
as well as for education if the trend line of the growth of higher
education is not speedily brought in line with the demands of socio-
economic development in the current phase." (Moonis Raza and’Yash
Agarwal)
Special efforts have been made to extend the benefits of modem
education to the weaker sections of society, particularly the Scheduled
Castes, who constitute 15 per cent of the total population. While their
share in all education was 12.6 per cent in 1977-78, their share in the
general segment of higher education was 7.7 and 6.6 in professional
education. The figures for 1979-80 were 7.5 for general education and
6.9 in professional education. Coming to the faculty-wise enrolment
of SC candidates at the undergraduate level in 1979-81 Arts absorbed
9.84 per cent followed by Medicine with 8.78, Veterinary Sciences
7.87, Agriculture 7.74, Education 7.12, Law 6.79, Engg/Tech 6.30,
Commerce 4.92 and Science 4.65. The proportion of SC students in the
professional stream at the post-graduate level is considerably less than
their corresponding share at the undergraduate level. In Education it
is 3.49 per cent, Engg/Tech or fly 1.56, Medicine 4.77, Agriculture 4.06,
Veterinary Sciences 1.69 and Law 5.33. In the case of the post-
graduate levels in Arts, Science and Commerce, the figures are 11.78,
3.61 and 6.11 respectively. "The most disturbing phenomenon is the
microscopic share of SC students at the post-graduate level in
professional faculties. Their total number in 1978-79 did not cross
even one digit in Veterinary Sciences, even two digits in Engineering/
Technology and was as low as 287 in Medicine. The extent of
deprivation may be gauged from the fact that in that year as many as 105
million citizens of the Indian Republic were members of the Scheduled
Castes". (Moonis Raza and Yash Agarwal).
EXPENDITURE
If Rs. 55 crores were spent on Education in 1947-48, Rs. 8000
crores were spent on Education in 1984-85. Within the Education
sector, whereas only Rs. 8 crores were spent on Higher Education in
1947, it rose to Rs. 900 crores in 1984-85. As a ratio of GNP expen-
diture on Higher Education rose from 0.2 per cent in 1947 to about 0.5
per cent in 1984-85.
Allocation of Plan resources for Higher Education (University
and College sectors) has also shown arising trend. As a percentage of
allocation for total education, 9 per cent was for Higher Education in
the First Plan. It went up to 25% in the Fourth Plan and it stabilised
around 20% by 1980-85, i.e the Sixth Plan. It may be noted with
concern that the share of Education in total Plan expenditure has gone
down from 7.60 per cent in the First Plan to a bare 2.66 per cent in the
Sixth Plan which indicates the decreasing interest of the Government
in Education.
The Radhakrishnan Education Commission had identified the ex-
amination system as the aspect of education that needed to be reformed
most. Even after more than three decades the system continues almost
unchanged with the student being exposed to uniform external and end
of term essay-type questions. Mass copying and other malpractices
have further eroded the credibility of the system with the result that
prospective employers are relying more and more on job specific
recruitment examinations. The universities themselves do not rely on
their own evaluations but have entrance tests to regulate entry to post-
graduate and research courses and courses like medicine, engineering
and management.
The Indian higher education system suffers from a high degree of
rigidity and over-centralisation which is not conducive to academic
excellence. Recognising that a high degree of autonomy in decision
making is necessary to promote a better academic environment, about
100 colleges have already been given autonomous status with financial
incentives to improve college education.
A beginning has been made to establish centres of excellence
during 1963-64 in 13 departments of the Science Faculty and 7 depart-
ments in the Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences. This
programme was extended during the Seventies and early Eighties.
Designated as the Special Assistance Programmes (SAP) it has three
levels of assistance i.e., Departmental Research support which is the
first level of support, Department of Special Assistance which is the
second level and Centre for Advanced Study which is the third level of
support. At present nealry 350 departments are covered under one or
the other SAP schemes. On the recommendation of the Science
Advisory Committee to the Cabinet another scheme known as CO-
SIST was launched in 1985 to selectively strengthen the infrastructure
of such Science and Technology Departments which are engaged in
outstanding research teaching or have shown promise in these areas.
This covers 101 departments.
College Science Improvement Programme (COSIP), College Hu-
manities and Social Science Improvement Programme (COHSSIP)
were introduced during the Seventies under which good colleges were
identified for assistance to introduce innovative methods of teaching-
learning processes like student seminars project work or question
banks. The University Leadership Project (ULP) is another pro-
gramme under which some universities identified to provide leader-
ship in curriculum reforms to the colleges in selected subject areas.
The working group on Higher Education in the Eighth Plan has
recognised the need to identify a maximum of
100
colleges in the first
instance with a view to upgrading them as colleges of excellence
wherein quality of education can be monitored under controlled
conditions.
It is no doubt true that India has the third largest pool of scientific
and technical manpower in the world but the proportion of such
manpower per thousand population comes to 4.5 in India as com-
pared to 111.14 in Japan.
Over 9000 doctorates are produced yearly in India by the institu-
tions of higher learning, almost 70 per cent of these are in the
Humanities and Social Sciences, 2 to 3 per cent in Engineering and
Technology and 10 to 12 per cent in Agricultural Sciences. "No
worthwhile effort appears to have been made in the direction of
analysing the employment spectrum of those holding doctoral de-
grees. No dependable statistics are unfortunately available for this
crucial parameter. It may be surmised that about half of those holding
doqtoral degrees are underemployed and most of the other half is
absorbed mainly by the R&D sector including the system of higher
education itself. What makes the situation particularly unsatisfactory
is the fact that less than 1 per cent of the 'Doctors' are absorbed in the
undertakings of the private and public sectors. The country can neither
ignore research in institutions of higher learning nor keep talented
human resources, developed at great cost, unutilised. The situation
calls for the formulation of a planned strategy, which is socially
acceptable, with a view to ensuring proper human resource utilisation."
(S.K. Khanna)