Inclusiveness in higher education has been increasing progressively in India recently but challenges remain to establish a quality higher education. Discuss (200 Words)
Refer - The Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
Inclusiveness in higher education
· Indian campuses now are more inclusive than before in terms of the presence of women, dalits, tribals and people from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), according to the India Exclusion Report 2017 released by the Centre for Equity Studies.
· Interventions like the 93rd amendment to the Constitution (2006) which ensured OBC reservation to the elite institutions of national importance gave a big push to inclusiveness.All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE)
| 2015-16 2017-18 Gender parity index 0.92 0.94 Pupil teacher ratio 21 22 Gross enrolment ratio 24.3 25.2 |
Challenges in establishing quality higher education
· Indian languages are not yet seen as fit to be academic languages. Without having a sufficient grasp over English, it is difficult to be part of the higher education; initiatives like the National Translation Mission are lying idle.
· Severe cuts in the budgetary allocation in recent years to the higher education sector threatens to undo all the legislative initiatives to ensure an inclusive higher educational space.
· Recently, educational reforms like four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP),the choice-based credit system (CBCS), etc, have wrecked the classroom experience; the ownership of courses and classes has been taken away from the teachers.
· Research journals published in higher education institutes are not matching with the international standards.
According to the economic survey 2017-18
1. India’s spending on R&D (about 0.6 per cent of GDP) is well below that in major nations such as the US (2.8), China (2.1), Israel (4.3) and Korea (4.2).
2. Universities play a relatively small role in the research activities of the country, funding mostly dominated by Government.
For higher quality education
India needs to gradually move to have a greater share of an investigator-driven model for funding science research.
The private sector should be incentivized to both undertake more R&D but to also support STEM research through CSR funds.
Higher education in Indian languages needs to be introduced with the help of a national translation mission.
Pragathi 6 years
Kindly review it
IAS Parliament 6 years
