Reconstruct India’s higher education system, says Naidu
NEW DELHI: The country’s higher education system should be “re-imagined and reconstructed” if we want to tap the potential of our burgeoning young population and make India the skill capital of the world, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said Sunday.
Our universities are faced with challenges ranging from inadequate funds, teacher shortage, to falling enrollment levels, he said. A strong, accomplished and professional management body for universities coupled with adequate funding is the need of the hour, the Vice President said.
We are endowed with a demographic dividend unmatched by any other country with 65 % our population below 35 years, Naidu said. If we are to tap their full potential, “we must fundamentally re-imagine our approach to higher education”, Naidu, who launched the Krea University at his residence, added.
It is a cause for concern that India does not have enough high quality researchers, and that the number of those pursuing Phds and entering research posts is declining, Naidu said. The Vice President noted that India still lagged behind global standards.
Indian universities face problems starting from shortage of funds to inadequate teachers to falling enrollment numbers. The profusion of more rewarding career choices, lack of adequate facilities for post graduate education and the retirement of the current generation of professors and teachers has created a staff crunch, he said.
The gross enrolment rate of college-aged people in tertiary education is also a cause for grave concern. The country’s GER in higher education was 25.2% in 2016-17 compared to China’s 43.39 and USA’S 85.8%, he said.
The “indulgent” system which regulates higher education in India has also led to the mushrooming of hundreds of privately set-up colleges offering poor quality education to turn a profit, he said.
Expressing concerns about employability, Naidu said many graduates struggled to find work. But employability is rising, albeit slowly, he said.
India has every opportunity to be the future ‘skill capital’ of the world, Naidu said. BHUBANESWAR: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday ordered immediate halt to felling of trees in a forest area of Dhenkanal district where a beer factory was to come up, following intense protests by local villagers.
Patnaik directed the district administration to immediately stop the felling of hundreds of luxuriant sal trees in Jhinkargadi forest near Balarampur village a day after hundreds of villagers clashed with the police.
On Saturday, police personnel forcibly removed the protesters, mostly women, who started a Chipko-like movement by hugging the trees. Patnaik also directed the divisional commissioner to investigate the matter.
Incidentally, Patnaik himself laid the foundation stone for the project through video conferencing on November 3. The construction work of the ₹102 crore beer factory by Kolkata-based company with a bottling capacity of 2.5 lakh hectoliters per annum was scheduled to begin on November 8, but had to be stopped because of the protest by the villagers.
On Saturday, the villagers of Balarampur in Odapada block protested the felling of trees in the Jhinkargadi forests. Of the 12 acres of land leased out to the beer company, 5 acres have Sal trees on it. “We have been taking
care of this forest for last the four decades. It's our fruit of labour. But we were thrashed and evacuated while protecting our trees. We will not be cowed down," said Sushanta Dhala, who is leading the protest. The forest has around 958 big trees of various species.
Social activist Prafulla Samantra condemned the government's forcible evacuation of protesting villagers.
BJP MLA Pradip Purohit asked whether the bureaucrats and ministers allowed the treefelling by keeping CM in dark? "What is the justification of a probe when already trees have been felled and cases registered against protesting women."