The year 2010 seems to be the year of education and Kapil Sibal seems to be a man on mission. His tenure as Education Minister is beckoning to bring about a sea-change in the way students are going to get education.
In the past two-three months, he has announced various measures to improve the current state of our education system. Firstly, it was the scrapping up of the X board exams which was for detraumatising the students who sometimes commit suicide because of the pressure. Then it was “Right to education bill” ensuring free and compulsory education to all kids between 6-14 years of age and also making education a fundamental right. And now it is the “The Foreign Universities Bill, 2010” which has stolen all the limelight and is the topic of discussion nowadays. The Bill will allow foreign educational institutions to set up their campus within India, and be treated as private universities. There will be no quotas for SC/STs and they will be allowed to fix their fees like other private institutions.
The main advantages include that, firstly students now don’t have to look for higher education off-shores, as in they can get the same education in India itself at much affordable rates. This thing will reduce the brain drain and also help India to save on the much needed foreign exchange. Accoding to Assocham , India will be able to save up to USD 7.5 billion of foreign exchange annually that students spend on studying abroad every year. Apart from providing good option to Indian students, these universities will create a healthy competition within our education industry, which in my opinion will be good as Indian universities will try to match up with foreign counterparts in each & every domain regarding the quality of education, the experienced teachers or the necessary infrastructure. Even the higher education institutes like IITs and IIMs have hailed this decision and welcomed this move.
In the past two-three months, he has announced various measures to improve the current state of our education system. Firstly, it was the scrapping up of the X board exams which was for detraumatising the students who sometimes commit suicide because of the pressure. Then it was “Right to education bill” ensuring free and compulsory education to all kids between 6-14 years of age and also making education a fundamental right. And now it is the “The Foreign Universities Bill, 2010” which has stolen all the limelight and is the topic of discussion nowadays. The Bill will allow foreign educational institutions to set up their campus within India, and be treated as private universities. There will be no quotas for SC/STs and they will be allowed to fix their fees like other private institutions.
The main advantages include that, firstly students now don’t have to look for higher education off-shores, as in they can get the same education in India itself at much affordable rates. This thing will reduce the brain drain and also help India to save on the much needed foreign exchange. Accoding to Assocham , India will be able to save up to USD 7.5 billion of foreign exchange annually that students spend on studying abroad every year. Apart from providing good option to Indian students, these universities will create a healthy competition within our education industry, which in my opinion will be good as Indian universities will try to match up with foreign counterparts in each & every domain regarding the quality of education, the experienced teachers or the necessary infrastructure. Even the higher education institutes like IITs and IIMs have hailed this decision and welcomed this move.
The main disadvantages of this step can arise are, firstly most of the professors of higher educational institutes are not paid properly, many of them did went on a strike last year to complain it, so this step can encourage them to leave their current Indian institutes and join the foreign counterparts in search of attractive salaries. Another thing that can’t be ruled out trading up of seats, we know that there are many private institutions which offer students free seats (without any merit) in their college for hefty donations, so this move can increase such things. Also these institutes will be free to fix their own fees of the courses that they’ll provide, and in my opinion most of the students from middle class families will be left out as they will not be able to pay such high fees.
To remove such anomalies and to prevent education industry from becoming another business, the matter should be considered seriously. All the matters should be handled properly and in a transparent manner. A separate body like UGC or AICTE should be established which can take care of such foreign private institutes and it should be held accountable for its decision.
What are your opinion friends, whether the above stated steps would help the Indian education industry or not…...?
Any step in favor of youth /education should be supported
ReplyDeletebut all care has to be taken at the offset regarding any hitch or misuse of the same
Our youth is willing to work hard, face competition, thus they deserve nothing but the best.
Akhil you have taken a great step in taking forward this healthy debate.
cheers!!!!!
Nice post Akhil..Yes, Mr Sibal is trying hard to make the education system more effective and transparent. Hope such changes will make children and youth much more confident and self dependent. I am also hopefull that future generation will take full advantage of such projects and plans and help towards making our country a developed nation. Thanks for sharing your views.. Chakk De!!!
ReplyDeleteHey great post! This is Aishwarya from twitter.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if bringing institutions to India is a good idea. When kids go abroad to study, it's not only the education they're going for. They go for the exposure, to meet new people and get to know about other cultures.
I think Sibal should try to bring about some change in the way Indian colleges function..making it more practical, giving us a wider range of subjects to pick from etc.
This post has really made me think :P Thank you!
Nice post Akhil :) that was a good point on SC/STs by you. Moreover, as Aishwarya said, ppl go to abroad to study and moreover settle down there itself instead of coming back in India. Even my bro and his friends went to USA to study abroad and never came down to India at all for the past 6 years. I hate those type of ppl.. probably they shouldnt born here ;). Kudos to Mr. Sibal for taking such a steps on the education and wishing him all the best for his future plans too.
ReplyDeleteI want to talk about one thing that is not said about education here. Recently, Govt of Maharashtra passed a bill which added new eligibility conditions for appearing state's professional courses entrance exam. According to new conditions, the applicant must be born in Maharashtra, and his parents must have been residents of maharashtra for atleast 20 years. While it can improve the chances of native people, it will adversely affect the prospects of a lot of students who are born and brought up in Maharashtra. Imagine what happens to such students if all Indian states introduce such rules? When any reform/rule comes in kerala, it is immediately followed by a series of legal battles. Very surprised to see no one is just bothered about it here!
ReplyDelete@Nwaz & @Rohan ~ Thank u very much for sharing your views and the appreciation. Hope such bold moves from Kapil Sibal become fruitful and help the youth of our country in getting quality education.
ReplyDelete@Princess Consuela ~ Thank you very much Aishwarya for sharing your opinion, i completely agree with you on this, that indeed when students go to another country for getting education, they get more exposure, they interact with students from other countries which is very beneficial for them.
ReplyDeleteI was also thinking about this (your view) when i was writing this blog-post, but then there are many advantages of this this move, considering the students going out have to shell out large amount of money as their living and educational expenses, which will be saved now.
Hope Sibal ji now comes with initiatives for improving the current state of educational institutions regarding the infrastructure and quality teachers.
@Charu ~ I do agree on the fact that this move will reduce the brain drain, but indeed these students have to be provided with necessary opportunities once they complete their education in India.
ReplyDeleteFor e.g ~ There should be necessary infrastructure, good faculties available for the students who want to do more research in any field. So, it all boils down to the improvement of current state of institutes which Aishwarya also pointed out.
@rohithr ~ Thank u very much Rohit for sharing your opinion. I had read about this decision 2 days back before i wrote this post. I wanted to write about the education industry as a whole and the steps that Kapil ji is taking now, so didn't included it.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, in my opinion, the step taken by the Maharashtra's Directorate of Technical Education is really bad as in most of the students could be thrown out of the merit-based process just because they and/or their parents were born outside Maharashtra.
But now because of the protests against this move, DTE is considering to withdraw this rule which will be good for the students.
Check ~ http://goo.gl/XuHY
It is so great that someone came up with this topic. It is a Very much needed thing because tenth and 12th are the Base of a student's future ahead !For a common man it is just next to impossible to let his child study till MBA or Abroad with low income at his side.Prof and teachers have started taking this as a business which is utter nonsense. We need more more men like Kapil Sibal at this time when the Mumbai Board and University is Experimenting with Student's life. Very nice post akhil !! Keep writing :)
ReplyDeleteVery informative, good measures, but my only concern is how many can afford these foreign institutions and will they be remitting all the money to their countries of origin or use it within India for improved education. It will be a success only if the really good institutes set up shop here ;)
ReplyDeleteReforms in India's education sector is much needed. The whole system lacks transparency throughout the country. State politics also affect the education segment. The loss is for students and their parents, who spend a lifetime worrying about their kid's education! In India, most private institutions charge hefty donations but in Kerala, for example, State-aided colleges do the same and even ask teachers for donations if they want to secure jobs! The rot is deeper than we can begin to imagine and at every phase, students are the losers. Meritorious students from ordinary,middle class families suffer the most if they have not enough clout to get them recommended to a prestigious institution or if they don't have enough money to pay high fees.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, hats off to you for bringing up this relevant topic. Do write more such articles and create an awareness campaign!
Bringing foreign universities into India will be an unmitigated disaster - for the following reasons.
ReplyDelete1. There is no ceiling on the fees. Education, already out of reach of the poor, will go out of the reach of the middle class too.
2. They have no mandate to conduct research. Therefore, it is unlikely they will.
3. The courses will be driven by market economics, resulting in 'fashionable' or 'trendy' money-making courses pushing out basic 'dull' ones.
4. There is no reservation. Current levels of reservation in India hide the fact that without them, the level of SC/ST/OBC candidates getting access to higher education will drop dramatically.
5. Going by the experience of other countries, such as Israel, Dubai etc. top notch institutes will not stay for long.
In fact, Israel had to kick out all foreign universities, their quality was that bad.
@Vishal ~ Thank u very much for the appreciation my friend.
ReplyDeleteI understand ur apprehensions regarding the affordability of higher education for a common man, but i am still not sure that setting up of these colleges in India will make them affordable to a common man or not as these colleges will be free to fix their fees.
Anyhow, we will have to wait and see when these big universities come and set campuses in India. Kudos to Kapil Sibal :-)
@songsbuff4 ~ Your concern is right in every sense my friend, as these colleges will be free to fix their fees and how much percentage of it will be used for improvement of education here.
ReplyDelete@Swapna Raghu Sanand ~ Thank u very much for the appreciation my friend.
ReplyDeleteNice points raised by you regarding the state politics and the corruption (donations). Indeed in India, charging up of hefty fees or donations is rampant. Also, as you said about the state politics, we can see that what step Maharashtra DTE took recently which can indeed leave out large no. of meritorious students from getting admissions in their own state's colleges.
So, these issues have to be taken seriously and as Sibal ji is taking steps to opening up of new colleges and varsities, he should also think to improve about the current state of affairs of our education system.
@K.U.Amudhan ~ Thank u my friend for sharing ur opinion.
ReplyDeleteI beg to disagree with you on this, as i do agree that there will be no ceiling for fixation of fees, but obviously they would also not think to charge very high fees as this education will then be labelled for a "niche market" only and our education ministry will also look into this matter, once these universities set campuses in India.
I agree wd ur second point but for the third point, i don't think there is anything bad in it, the courses to be introduced should be contemporary, up-to-date and should be vocational, if these requirements are met, there is no problem in it.
I also don't think if this step/measure has failed in other countries, it will also fail in our country also. We should be somewhat optimistic and give it a try and see what positives come out of it and if something bad happens, we can take the same stand as Israel has taken. :-)
change is constant. with a system that we have now - it is a must! Nicely written.
ReplyDeleteWhat I like about the recent changes are simply to do with the fact that they are progressive and more accommodating.
ReplyDeleteWe all remember Arjun Singh right ? I am sure, these are steps in the right direction. They are bound to have its share it cons as well.
@Himanshu ~ Agreed. Thank u very much for the appreciation buddy :-)
ReplyDeleteNice post...I wud start by saying that one of the biggest problems in India is poverty. there r pple who can't even afford a meal, so how wud they afford education. In this regard, providing free elementary education to 6-14 yr olds is completely justified, but what after that??
ReplyDeleteOfcourse setting up foreign univ. is a gud move as it wud reduce brain drain & save foreign exchange but most importantly it wud increase competition for domestic pvt univ. which wud result in improved efficiency n effectiveness..
Now there r still 2 loopholes in the present education system:
1. What about those pple who can not afford higher education OR everyone can't afford MBA, what's in it for them?
2. Sometimes there are pple who are not aware of all the available education/study options for them?
The ans to the 1st ques. is that ther shd be more vocational courses or the no. of colleges or seats shd be increased for vocational courses n courses which provide technical knwledge..Just to quote, there is just 1 college(college of vocational studies) among 40 colleges of Delhi University which provides vocational courses..
The ans to the 2nd ques. is that everyone cannot be an MBA...so ther shd be govt. counselling centres where the students can become aware of all the available study/career options for them in their particluar interest area. For instance, rather than doing MBA in marketing, one can go for 3-4 short duration(6 months)courses in marketing which wud provide the student knowledge in the area he/she needs...
Most importantly, there needs to be transparency n accountability for whatever is done in our education system.
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