Following is the
text of the speech of the Prime Minister shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee
at the inauguration of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the
Universities grants Commission, here today:
"I wish all of you a very Happy
New Year.
At the outset, my
heartiest felicitations to the University Grants Commission on
entering the 50th year of its distinguished service
to the nation. I join all of you in expressing our grateful appreciation
of all those stalwarts of the past and the present whose vision
and dedication has resulted in the phenomenal expansion of college
and university education in our country.
This is my last official
engagement of the year. But I must admit that it is one of the
most important engagements of the year. This is because, I am
convinced that education – especially higher education – is that
endeavour which will catapult India into a higher orbit of development.
It is that undertaking which will, in innumerable tangible and
intangible ways, benefit all our other undertakings in diverse
fields of development.
The linkage between
education and development is direct and simple. Higher education
enhances human capital, which in turn makes higher growth possible;
and universal education universalises the fruits of development.
The importance of
education and higher education transcends the material benefits
it beings to individual and society. All too often, we tend to
focus mostly on the economic benefits of education. That, of course
is an important dimension, which must receive our paramount attention.
However, the non-material benefit of learning to the learner himself,
and to society as a whole, must not be lost sight of.
Education, in the
truest sense of the term, is a process of self-discovery. It is
the art of self-sculpture. It trains the individual not so much
in specific skills or in specific branch of knowledge, but in
the flowering of his or her latent intellectual, artistic and
humanist capacities. The test of education is whether it imparts
an urge for learning and learnability, not this or that particular
set of information.
Life makes difficult
demands of us all the time – in our professional as well as in
our personal lives. Does our education system equip our people
to face new situations and fulfill difficult responsibilities?
Does it enable the student to develop a well-rounded personality?
Does it make them strong in character, service-oriented, caring,
compassionate and tolerant, free of prejudice and sectarianism
of all kinds? Does it make our students aware and proud of India’s
priceless intellectual, cultural, and spiritual heritage and,
at the same time, appreciative of the best in the world’s heritage?
I need hardly emphasise
that young people have a keen searching and questing mind, hungry
for answers to the myriad questions of life. By nature, they are
energetic, idealistic, adventurous and open to positive influences.
It should be the endeavour of our education system to develop
and actualize this natural potential.
Vinoba Bhave once
pithily said, "Education is the sum total of Yoga, Udyog
and Sahayog." To attain this ideal is the true task before
our teachers, parents, policy-makers and administrators in education,
and, if I may add, before our mass media too. For, unlike in the
past, the mass media have emerged as one of the most potent carriers
of ideas and influences in our time. The more we succeed in this
task of channeling the energy of the youth towards positive ends,
the surer will be our success in so many other tasks.
Friends, the
start of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of UGC provides an ideal
occasion to focus our attention on the many challenges before
higher education in our country. I would like to share my views
on a few main challenges.
I Access
to Higher Education: Yes, as I said, there has been a phenomenal
expansion of college and university education in our country.
I remember how difficult it was in my student days to gain access
to college education; and how rarer still was the entry into universities.
We have come a long way since Independence in democratizing college
and university education, which has moved closer to rural populations
and also to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other marginalized
sections of our society.
Nevertheless, it
should be our endeavour to further expand access to higher education,
especially to professional education, to levels comparable to
those in developed countries. The Tenth Plan document has placed
a strong emphasis on this as an essential requirement for raising
our annual GDP growth rate to 8%. Enriching the knowledge base
and enlarging the skill-sets of a far larger percentage of our
working population is critical for achieving our objective of
higher growth through higher productivity.
II Access
to Quality Education: Access cannot be measured merely in
numerical terms. Access to quality education is as important as
access to education. I share the concern of many educational and
developmental experts that the quality of college and university
education in India has not kept pace with its quantitative growth.
This is all too evident at the beginning of each academic year,
when students and their parents have an agonizing time trying
to get admission in good colleges, whose number is too small to
cater to the growing demand.
I am glad to know
that the UGC has drawn up several plans to address this issue.
The setting up of the UGC Info Net, to provide quality courseware
to all the networked universities and colleges, is highly commendable.
Performance-based funding of universities, linked to monitorable
attainment of specific academic indicators, is also a good idea.
Similarly, I welcome
UGC’s decision to create a fast-track mode of developing colleges
and university departments with a proven track record as Centres
of Excellence. To use a current business terminology, we should
improve the brand image of our universities. If our IITs and IIMs
today have a global brand value, why shouldn’t we groom many universities
and colleges across the country to acquire similar national and
international acclaim? However, to do this, we need to carefully
understand the reasons for the success of the IITs and IIMs and
ensure that the lessons are followed.
The Ministry of Human
Resource Development has taken the right decision to upgrade Regional
Engineering Colleges into fully Centrally funded National Institutes
of Technology. Another step in this direction could be to create
a partnership between our universities, national laboratories
and industry – a Golden Triangle for enhancing India’s R&D
capabilities. In this context, I am happy to announce the establishment
of three Advanced Centres for Science Education and Research with
direct tie-up with research laboratories and industry.
III Export
of Higher Education: What I said just now is closely linked
to the other challenge – and opportunity – before us. It is the
export potential of Higher Education in India. I recently read
in newspapers that India has overtaken China as the country that
sends the largest number of students – 68,000 last year – to study
in universities in the United States. This means that there is
an enormous outgo of foreign exchange from our country on account
of so many students going abroad for higher studies.
I am not suggesting
that they should not go. Indian students who study abroad contribute
to our nation-building in many ways. But the issue that I would
like to pose is: Why shouldn’t we make India an attractive destination
for similarly large number of foreign students – from both developing
and developed countries – seeking quality school, higher and professional
education? This will bring numerous benefits to our country. Above
all, a systematic endeavour in this direction will lift the standards
of higher education across the board and benefit Indian students.
The Government is prepared to introduce necessary changes in its
rules and regulations to achieve this purpose.
IV Relevant,
Employment-oriented Higher Education: Friends, I
have heard many people tell me that our college and university
education has not shown sufficient flexibility and adaptability
to respond to the needs and opportunities in the external environment.
Take, for example, the fact that the share of services in India’s
GDP is consistently growing and today accounts for about 50%.
In the coming two decades, almost 60-70 % of the jobs would be
in the services sector. I do not think that our system of higher
education is adequately geared to meet this need.
Similarly, it should
also gear itself up to seize the rapidly expanding opportunities
in the global employment market. Experts have pointed out that
in twenty years from now, when many of the advanced nations would
have a fairly large percentage of senior citizens in their populations,
nearly 45% of Indians would be in plus twenties. This demographic
change can be turned to our advantage if we improve and re-orient
higher education in our country to harness the opportunities provided
by the globalisation of the employment market.
I, therefore, urge
the UGC to be futuristic and global in its outlook and planning.
The Chairman has already initiated a welcome debate on the need
to encourage and enable our universities to make their three-year
basic degree structure more flexible so as to allow students to
both get a sound grounding in the basics and pursue employment-oriented
certificate or diploma programmes in various skillsets.
V Reforms
in Education: The last point I wish to drive home is the urgent
imperative of educational reforms. It encompasses many tasks,
and some of my earlier observations also pertain to this point.
I would, however, like to point out three additional tasks.
One is the fee structure
in higher education, which is very low in non-professional streams.
It baffles me that the Central and State Governments subsidise
higher education even for those students whose spending on private
tuition and pocket money is several times more than their college
fees. Yes, higher and professional education must remain accessible
and affordable to the poor and the needy primarily through "merit-cum-means"
scholarships. The scope of educational loans also needs to be
vastly expanded. But if we cannot make the rich pay fair value
for education, how can we make it widely available to the poor?
Improvement in the
governance of educational institutions is the second area where
reform is urgently needed. Generally, our Vice Chancellors, Senate
members, College Principals, and other senior functionaries have
to spend a lot of their precious time and energy on routine and
inessential matters – and not on tasks that deliver better academic
performance. This is partly due to importation of the bureaucratic
rules and anti-excellence culture of Government departments. This
must change. We must learn from Best Practices Abroad in management
of higher education.
I wish to draw your
attention to yet another governance issue. Quality education is
not merely a product of greater resources and better facilities.
It depends equally on the attitude of teachers and students. In
this context, I cannot but express my anguish over the atmosphere
of indiscipline and non-seriousness that pervades many college
and university campuses. If teachers do not show a sense of purpose
and commitment, if they do not set – and demand -- high standards
for the pursuit of academic excellence, how can they expect students
to behave differently? All of you will agree that this calls for
serious introspection on the part of all the stakeholders in education.
The third reform
imperative is to expand the scope of Public-Private Partnership.
Although the Government has considerably increased spending on
higher education, it is obvious that the need far outstrips the
provision. Hence, we need to adopt innovative and flexible methods
of leveraging the financial, managerial and teaching resources
in the private sector. For example, is it not possible to lease
the physical infrastructure of government-run or government-funded
colleges to private educational institutions to run a second shift
for imparting training in specialized skills and services? Similarly,
to offset the big gap in competent and qualified teachers, can
we not enable managers and professionals outside the formal academic
system to work as part-time teachers?
Friends, if
the UGC forges ahead with a reform-driven, futuristic vision,
I have no doubt that its contribution to nation-building over
the next fifty years will be even more glorious than in the past
fifty years. I assure you that the Government will fully back
you in this endeavour.
One last suggestion.
If the UGC’s future path is going to be radically different from
the one that have traversed so far, why not give yourself a new
name that better conveys your mandate and your mission – University
Education Development Commission, rather than University
Grants Commission? This could be considered when you take
a re-look at the UGC Act, changes in which are long overdue.
Thank you.''
