Dr. Raj Singh
Vice Chancellor, Ansal University
The Indian Higher Education system is at the peak of its evolution. To bring back its game at the global level, we need to get over the glorious past of the Indian education system which is also holding it back in some ways and work hard to achieve this goal in future.
There are some institutions which are taking initiative to provide better and high level of education to their students and management of many institutions across the country are trying to do so but there’s a big obstacle that they face. Though they discuss and hire people for various job layers inside the industry aiming to sweep in the changes, they sometimes fail to bring in these necessary changes. Perhaps the reason behind this is that there are still people inside the industry that have been part of the system for so long and are in a habit of the same routine and are stubborn towards accepting the new changes.
They ignore the advantages these changes can bring into the curriculum and help the students as well as the teacher, and thereby causing problems despite the people who genuinely want to bring changes for the better. These unyielding teachers show their support for new initiatives in the open but their attitude and work is such that it hinders the progress in every possible way. They become united with the people sharing the same ideology and hit the strong-negative points of the institution, which every organization always have. Such people should take responsibility of hindering our growth and the current poor state of education because of their denial to accept the required changes that are need of the hour.
I remember when I spoke to a very senior and elderly colleague in 2005 about learning-outcome based approach, he not only laughed at it but said that he had never done it in 40 years of his academic career. However, we pushed it and the university is now a leading one in the country. I have met such people in every institution where I have led the change.
Even after all these years, the level of resistance is the same, in fact growing in some ways from the people belonging to ‘baby boomers’ age, and they use different signs to show this. They test the change agents on every front. They spend more time digging up their past and failures instead of understanding the motive behind an aspiring change or a new initiative that they are working on. Such people are also hungry for their status in the society and deeply love it. And the irony is, that they want better days for themselves but not work to make better for other younger students and teachers and put all their negative energies trying to hinder any progress. This phenomenon is also seen in the meetings of academics at the national level policy-making bodies where the membership from new-age private institutions is on the rise. This is something that every person who wants to change and make the Indian higher education excellent again should contradict against.
One more obstacle is the management itself as these people have been working in these institutions for ages and they have a good association with the management of the institution and are loyal to it. Even though we cannot test the loyalty of the new agents, they are also hardworking and should be appreciated for all the zest they bring with them. The definition of loyalty needs a recheck and a new dress. India, now, has a new crop of “academic entrepreneurs” (not education entrepreneurs) who are driving this change.
Let’s hope that in the future, we don’t face the same scenario and the changes to achieve high-level academics in India occur without any hindrance from anyone but with support from everyone.
What do you think about this? Do you agree with me about the current scenario? Can India overcome this situation?
Let me know through your comments.
Also Read: Universities: National or Local?
