Page 268 - DEDU501_DEVELOPMENT_OF_EDUCATION_SYSTEM_ENGLISH

Development of Education System

Notes 27.5 Summary

• Immediately after Independence there was an unprecedented linear expansion of higher
education in the country. The problem of university education was comprehensively
reviewed by the University Education Commission (1948-49) appointed under the
chairmanship of S. Radhakrishan.
• The task of designing a proper educational system in Post-Independence period was first
assigned to The University Education Commission (1948-49) for the university stage, then
to the Secondary Education Commission (1952-53) for the secondary school stage and finally
to The Education Commission (1964-66) for all stages of education.
• Higher education deals with the tertiary level of education. Under s-eonve'the education in
colleges, universities and centres of advance studies. Talented students after higher secondary
seek admission to these institutions. There are about 4460 colleges, 120 universities, 11
deemed university and 23 centres of advance studies in the country.
• India has quite a large system of higher education in as much as we have today 250
universities, over 10,500 colleges and nearly 55 lakhs of students being taught by over 3
lakhs of teachers. And yet the proportion of the University and College going student
population in the relevant age group of 16-23 is dismal 6%. This is quite low even when
compared with developing countries, the figure being 20% for both Egypt and Thailand,
10% for Turkey, 11% for Brazil and 16% for Mexico.
• Lack of adequate funds in education is the most crucial issues. While overall investment in
education as a proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP) has gone up from 1.2 per
cent in 1950s to 3.7 per cent in the 1990s, it is still below the norm of 6 per cent as stated in
the National Policy on Education.
• The private initiative in education, especially higher education is not altogether new to
India. Some of the leading universities namely, the Banaras Hindu University and the
Aligarh Muslim University came up with the efforts of certain dedicated individuals and
financial support of the community at large. Again, a large number of educational institutions
in the country especially those concerned with general and professional higher education
have been established on private and voluntary initiative with or without financial subsidy
from the Government.
• The NKC’s ‘Report to the Nation 2006’ states that “destiny of India is in the hands of 550
million people below the age of 25 who will benefit the most from the new knowledge
initiatives.
• The universities perform a critical role in an economy and society. They create, assimilate
and disseminate knowledge. Therefore, they must be flexible, innovative and creative.
They have to be accountable to the society. The number of universities and colleges has to
be increased several times to meet the demands.
• The Report points out that there is no system of higher education in the world that is not
based upon significant public outlays. The present support for higher education, at 0.7 per
cent of GDP, is simply not adequate.
• In an ideal world, government support for higher education should be at least 1.5 per cent,
if not 2 per cent of GDP, from a total of 6 per cent of GDP for education. But the government
should endeavour to reach these levels by 2012.
• It is claimed that the competition between institutions within India and outside India
would enhance quality and accountability. Foreign universities are coming to India to earn
profits and loot our students. The report points out, good institutions are not coming to
India as they “care more about their autonomy and wish to set benchmarks for themselves.”
• In order to increase the gross enrolment, the NKC recommends the creation of up to 50
national universities that can provide education of the highest standard. At least ten such

262 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY