Tertiary education is a major driver to not just an individual’s development, but also the overall prosperity of a nation. This article talks about the condition of tertiary education in India, and where it stands in comparison to other countries of the world. It discusses the problems faced by Indian higher education system and the prospects of future development in the field.
Education is considered to be the soul of a society. Many of the ‘developed’ countries continue to prosper because of a well-established education system. But the story of a developing nation like India is different. India has a poor performance in terms of providing education, both at primary and tertiary levels. India stands behind a lot of Asian countries, like Singapore, China, Korea, etc. in providing adequate higher-level education, let alone the other developed nations of the western world.
Higher or tertiary education, which refers to education at university level, in India, is much more degree oriented. Students in colleges are often found to be driven by compulsion of obtaining a degree, than the passion of learning a subject. Since education in Indian schools and colleges is mostly driven by scoring higher marks, students put more efforts in scoring higher marks, than gaining a higher level of knowledge. A student scoring more marks is also considered more knowledgeable than others, which sometimes might not be the case, as is rightly said by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, “Some of the brightest minds in the country can be found on the last benches of the classroom.” Indian students are used to rote learning. They are confined within the boundaries of learning facts, rather than exploring the vast ocean of knowledge. When students are made to just mug up things and write in the answer sheets, right from an early age, they tend to follow the same principle after reaching a higher level as well. The result is lack of innovation and creativity in their respective fields of career. This could be because when students are just confined to their textbooks, they are never able to realize the importance and implementation of what they are studying, in the outside world. Tertiary education in India does not fully prepare its students to face the challenges to be encountered in life and how to overcome them, and open new doors of opportunity. The curriculum is not revised on a timely basis, which acts as a setback in the field of higher education. The quality of education is also quite poor, as the teaching methods continue to remain the same as they were ages back. There is a lack of innovation in teaching. A serious issue that requires urgent attention is the presence of corruption, especially in the tertiary education system of India. People easily engage in malpractices like bribery to get admissions or even degrees. Diversion of college funds and resources possess are a major hindrance to the development of institutions. Corruption is a threat to the higher education system of India in every possible way. Countries which have been able to scrape off corruption from their education systems stand far ahead of India in terms of development. Inadequate funding to higher education system also acts as a cause of its backward state. There has been minimal infrastructural changes in this field post-independence. The poor condition of tertiary education can also be accrued to the conservative approach of people towards education and career. Students are not encouraged to explore the ocean of opportunities but are made to chase the very few numbers of streams that have been set long ago. This also acts as a hindrance for students to discover their true passion and potential. The student faculty ratio in Indian universities is much lower than other countries. This indicates the inability of teachers to pay complete attention on every student. The present condition of higher education in India can be ascribed to the centuries long British rule in India. Although they brought about a modern and more logical based education system India, the colonizers always wanted Indians to work under their command, because of which Indians grew to be ‘workers’ than ‘masters’.
Despite having many drawbacks in its higher education system, India has a number of prestigious educational institutions in almost all streams of higher education, including the NITs and IITs within technology sciences, IIMs in the management field, AIIMS in medical field, etc. It holds great potential of standing at par with the countries providing the best higher education in all streams. The quality of higher education can be improved by transforming the curriculum from time to time, adopting newer methods of teaching and making use of technology as well. There is a need to provide greater finance to higher education institutions, and making optimal use of the available resources. Partnerships with foreign universities should be encouraged. The upcoming New Education Policy has potential to take India to the global stage. It would also attract foreign students into our country, as the existing education policy failed to do so. But the policies work only when the institutions are capable to implement them. Therefore, there is a need for the institutions offering tertiary education to adopt and implement the changes to bring about prosperity in the Indian higher education system.
It can be inferred that higher education in India is quite underdeveloped in comparison to other major countries of the world. There is an urgent need to bring about policy changes in the system. Apart from this, the outlook of people towards higher education needs to be molded. India has a number of prestigious institutions providing the best education to students. Despite having a lot of drawbacks, if the right steps are taken towards the development of higher education in the country, India holds great potential of standing at par with the world’s most developed countries having robust tertiary education systems.