Disability and Access to Higher Education

Khushal Suryawnshi

2^nd Year Student, Hidyatullah National Law University, Raipur (C.G).

INTRODUCTION:

The higher education system in India has grown in a remarkable way, particularly in the Post-independence period, to become one of the largest systems of its kind in the world. However, the system has many issues of concern at present, like financing and management including access, equity and relevance, reorientation of programs by laying emphasis on health consciousness, values and ethics and quality of higher education together with the assessment of institutions and their accreditation.² These issues are important for the country, as it is now engaged in the use of higher education as a powerful tool to build a knowledge-based information society of the 21st Century.³

As we all the Indian higher education system is one of the largest such systems in the World. It is estimated that during the X Five Year Plan period (2002-07), there will be a tremendous pressure of numbers on this system and a large number of additional students will be knocking at the doors of higher education institutions in the country.

I. ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION:

Today the world economy is experiencing an unprecedented change. New developments in science and technology, media revaluation and internationalization of education and the ever expanding competitive environment are revolutionizing the education scene.⁴

POLICY FOR PROMOTION OF QUALITY AND EXCELLENCE:

The 11th plan recognized the issue of quality. It has brought a sharp focus on the promotion of quality and excellence. The Plan recognizes that quality in higher education is critically incumbent on

a) Physical infrastructure, b) Number and quality of teachers, and c) academic governance in Universities and colleges.⁵

The 11th Five Year Plan includes a number of initiatives. These include firstly, improvement in Physical infrastructural facilities; availability of adequate and quality faculty, and Academic Reforms with respect to Admission, teaching and Examination and other academic aspects.⁶

QUALITY AND ACADEMIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS OF UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE SYSTEM:

Another important constituent for improvement of quality in higher education is the initiative for academic and administrative reforms in universities and colleges education system. The 11th plan recognized the need to introduce the academic reform in the university and college system.⁷

11^th PLAN AND REVERSAL OF THE TRENDS:

The 11th plan has recognized the deceleration in the public expenditure on per student basis in real term and emphasized the need to reverse the past trend in allocation of resources to higher education. The Government’s commitment to raise public expenditure on higher education by at least 01 per cent of GDP from the existing 0.33 per cent has formed the backbone of the 11th Five Year Plan.

The proposed expansion in higher education as delineated in the 11th Five Year plan is amply testified by the sheer size of the Plan in itself, which is of the order of Rs. 84,943 crores at the current prices as against Rs. 9,500 crores of allocation and actual expenditure of around Rs. 8,000 crores during the 10th Five Year Plan.

II. DISABILITY TO HIGHER EDUCATION:

TO say that not all is well with higher education in India will be something of an understatement. Problems relating to higher education - privatization and commercialization, political interference and corruption, mismanagement and agitations, falling standards and irrelevance - are topics of public discussion almost on a day-to-day basis. Is it possible to locate some key factors that can explain the mess that higher education in the country finds itself in? The prolific and unplanned expansion of higher education since Independence is undoubtedly a major factor responsible for the present malaise.⁹

At the level of the States, while the governments set up and supervise the universities, there are no norms for setting up colleges, which are the primary units for instruction. Colleges are almost completely responsible for undergraduate education and undergraduates constitute over 85 per cent of the total student enrolment. Colleges dominate postgraduate education also, and have come to have an increasing share of it over the years.

Although Higher Education has expanded several times since independence, the major issues of access, equity, and quality continue to be areas of concern. These are discussed briefly in paragraphs below.

1. Access: The enrolment rate (GER) for Higher Education which has risen from 0.7%in 1950-51, 1.4 %in 1960-61, and 8% in early 2000 is still very low (about 10%) compared to the world average of 23.2%, and an average of 54.6% for developed countries, 36.3% for countries in transition, and 11.3 % for developing countries. Even the existing EER of some 60% indicates that 40% of students who complete their higher secondary programs do not enter the realm of tertiary education. Even if we increase enrolment rate by 5% every plan period, it would take so more than a quarter century to come close to the level of developed countries.

2. Equity: while the GER continues to be low for the overall population, there are large variations among the various categories of population based on gender, urban or rural habitation and reach and poor.

3. Quality: The higher educational institutions suffer from large quality variation in so much so that a recent Nasscom-Mackinsey Report (2005) has said that not more than 15% of graduates of general education and 25-30% of Technical Education are fit for employment. Since only a small number of Universities and colleges are eligible for funding by UGC and hence monitoring for quality by NAAC for ensuring quality standards set by it, a vast majority of institutions are under no quality monitoring and control except what is provided under university regulations and occasional university team visits.

PROBLEMS INVOVED IN STUDENTS LOAN IN FINANCING HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA:

The National Loan Scholarship Programme in India has encountered several major (a) First, psychologically, loans in general are not welcome in the Indian society. Even if the need for loan finance for investment is recognized, people may not mind borrowing for investment in physical capital, or other productive sectors that generate benefits in a short period, and for necessary consumption activities like marriages, but not for 'invisible' human capital formation, whose benefits are not easily identified, nor quantifiable, nor certain, and which in any case only flow after a long period. (b) When education does not guarantee employment and as repayment of loans becomes compulsory, people from relatively poorer families will be worst affected. This problem is further aggravated in the case of women graduates, among whom the rate of participation in formal (non-household) labour market activities is quite low in India. (c) Thirdly, the credit market in India is not well developed to provide educational loans. The organized credit market in India is in the public sector, and that is not prepared to get involved in educational loans. Given the fact that even in some developed countries, such as the United Kingdom, the banking sector is unwilling to participate in student loan programs, it is not surprising that the under developed credit market in India is reluctant to shoulder this responsibility.

INCREASE IN THE FEE STRUCTURE:

In a document called ‘Challenge Education’ produced in 1985 by the Ministry of Education, the government admitted that the ‘whole process of higher education has Become warped’. Indeed higher education in India is faced with deteriorating Conditions ‘resulting from expansion and worsened by affiliation system and shrinking Resources’. Also despite numerous committees having produced reports to this effect nothing significant seems to have come out of it. Meanwhile, there are over 200 Universities and 8000 colleges and 7 million students, 27,000 teachers in Higher Education in India.

III. GLOBALIZATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION:

Developing countries with large populations, including India, are bringing an expanding consumer base and huge workforce to the world trading arena. As a vibrant democracy, India’s relationships within its neighborhood, the larger Asian environment, and across the globe assume significance for peace and prosperity. As a growing economy, its stable democratic environment, consumer propensities and workforce profile impart balance to the global growth process. According to the results of a special survey 'Higher Education: Free degrees to fly'⁹Higher education is Already a global business. The days when higher education was a matter of national policy and government regulation are rapidly fading.¹⁰

IV. MEASURES FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF HIGHER:

1. Strategies for higher education should be set within an educational chain extending from early childhood to post- graduate education to career advancement. Improving the interrelationship of all stages and levels of education should be a long - term policy goal.

2. Rural, urban and gender disparities must be kept in mind by policy makers in planning and implementing the higher education system.

3. While quantity is important, say achieving, double digit percentage for higher education, quality is paramount. Higher education should continue to be subsidized by the Government in an adequate manner. For improving the quality in education the role of public sector should be enhanced.

4. While the Western models of higher education should be suitably adopted, the education planners/implementers and the institutions should devise and develop indigenous ones.

5. A liberal milieu in the Indian Universities must be reconstructed. Diversity of opinion and critique of society and its processes need to be encouraged.

6. The appointment of bureaucrats, police officers/generals as Vice Chancellors and Registrars must be avoided as far as possible

7. Policies of higher education should be designed to strengthen indigenous research agenda.

8. One reform that is urgently needed is the right to information in the institutions of higher learning. Transparency in the functioning at all levels is required so that those committing wrong are deterred.

9. It is recommended that the method of selection of Vice Chancellors must be changed urgently, to make them accountable to the academic community and not to the political or bureaucratic bosses.

10. Policies of our country based on simplicity and sharing of facilities within and across institutions must be established and encouraged.

11. The WTO pushing the trade in services will have far reaching consequences in India, particularly for the remote areas and poorer sections of the Society. Therefore, the World Bank, WTO and GATT policies on higher education need serious consideration, National interests must be safe guarded. And, the Opportunities for the deprived and under privileged people and regions must be ensured.

12. There have been significant changes recently in the policies on financing of Universities in India affecting the pattern of financing and expenditure in the Universities. Given the increasing importance of higher education, it is important that the State continues to take major responsibility of financing the Universities.

All other sources of income, including fees should be viewed only as peripheral. It is to be noted that reliance on students’ fees has its own limitation.

13. Increasing reliance on the generation of internal revenues through consultancy and interaction with industry may produce imbalances in the Universities across Various disciplines of study. So, efforts for the mobilization of resources have to be made extremely cautiously. Keeping in view our concerns of equity, Efficiency and excellence in University education. Hence, the best method of Financing of the Universities may still be by the State.

14. Universities have to attempt seriously to improve the pattern of allocation of resources between various activities and items of expenditure. Core academic activities should obviously receive top priority.

CONCLUSION:

Higher education should be made as competitive as business world. As it is observed in business competition bringing quality and efficiency, the quality of higher education may also take the advantage of competition. Competition in many advanced countries has already proved for having made significant contribution to the quality of education.

The governments need to ensure right allocation and correct appropriateness of its investment and resources on higher education to guarantee that future generations are equipped sufficiently to operate in a knowledge economy. A fair controlling policy should be devised to monitor quality of education and training provided in the private sector. Prompt initiatives should be taken to encourage the private as well as public educational sector to concentrate research activities and research oriented programs.

REFERENCES:

1. Khushal Suryawnshi, 2^nd Year Student, Hidyatullah National Law University, Raipur (C.G).

2. Agarwal, P, Higher education in India: The need for change (2006) New Delhi, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.

3. legalsutra.org/1549/higher-education-in-india-issues-and-concerns.

4. www.accesstosuccess-africa.eu/web/images/.../peril_and_promise.

5. www.educationalpolicy.org/pdf/ERIC%20Review.

6. www.hea.ie/files/.../National_Access_Plan_2008-2013_(English).

7. Ibid.

8. Education in New India. Contributors: Humayun Kabir - author. Publisher: Harper and Brothers. Place of Publication: New York.

9. See Economist, February26th-March 4th, 2005, pp63-65).

10. http://www.questia.com/library/education/education-in-different-countries-and-states/education-in-india.jsp.

BOOKS REFERRED:

1. Agarwal, P, Higher education in India: The need for change (2006) New Delhi, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.

2. Humayun Kabir, Education in New India , Harper and Brothers Publication, New York (1957).

Received on 18.11.2011

Revised on 27.11.11

Accepted on 20.12.2011