AIFUCTO
POLICY
STATEMENT ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Part1.Preamble
1.1. The pursuit of
democratic solutions for
the problems confronting a
particular segment of the working people has to contend with problems
confronting other segments of the working people as well. In other
words, a meaningful policy in an area such as higher education has to
be a part and parcel of the over-all struggle for the democratic
transformation of the country as a whole. The All India Federation of
University and College Teachers Organizations (AIFUCTO) has an
important role to play in the formulation of the national level
policies on higher education in the above scenario. This is especially
so today on account of more than one reason. The role of higher
education as an engine of overall development has now become more
important than ever before. At the same time, the consensus that used
to characterize the educational policies of the nation is fast
disappearing. Presently, the field of higher and technical education
is the battleground of conflicting ideologies. It appears that a major
policy shift in this critical area is on the anvil.
1.2 Any attempt to craft a perspective for the democratic
transformation of higher education at this critical juncture has to
engage with the current phase of international capitalist development,
which is imperialist globalization. Exploitative ruling classes all
over the developing world are increasingly abandoning the quest for a
path of development that is autonomous of metropolitan capital. As a
matter of fact, the ruling classes of India have often outdone others
in their advocacy of neo-liberalism, often projecting it as the only
route to modernity. This imitative modernity advocated by the
apologists of capitalist globalization
needs to be exposed and countered by positing an alternative
democratic model of modernity. It is to facilitate such a meaningful
intervention that AIFUCTO is planning to bring out a series of policy
statements on higher education. The objective is not as much to
innovate as to define and clarify the philosophy of education, that
the organization has been championing ever since its inception and to
relate it to the emerging national and international practices in this
critical area of national development.
PART 11: SHARE
KNOWLEDGE;
SHARE DEVELOPMENT
2.1. Globalization has brought about a convergence of global power
— political, economic and technological.
While the fall of Soviet Union and the growth of a unipolar
world under the tutelage of United States set the stage for the
centralization of global political power, the Washington Consensus
Institutions (IMF, WORLD BANK AND WTO)
provided the economic engines of global monopolies.
Faster and cheaper transportation and communication are the
technological tools which
brought the global village into existence by shrinking space,
shrinking time and shrinking borders. The above developments
have been part of a comprehensive change in the processes of
production and consumption. Though
the expression ‘knowledge revolution’ may not be quite
appropriate, it still underlines the crucial role being played by
knowledge in the new processes.
Knowledge has now become one of the most crucial components of
production and consumption.
This is true of all sectors—primary, secondary and tertiary. It is clear that
development in future is linked up with acquisition, production and
dissemination of knowledge.
2.2.
Though knowledge revolution during past decades has succeeded
in increasing material production and services and expanding the
possibilities for better and humane conditions of life, the
technological possibilities for democratization of human welfare have
not been fruitfully exploited. The few technologically skilled nations
and peoples have been exclusively appropriating the fruits of
knowledge revolution, widening the existing inequalities by creating a
digital divide. The concentration and centralization of knowledge in
fewer hands and in fewer countries have exposed the inherent weakness
of the concept "knowledge engineers growth
and
growth guarantees benefit to all". The more the knowledge revolution gallops, the gap between rich and
poor countries and the rich and the poor people widen and the severity
of deprivation and suffering among majority of the world population
deepen. This has been rightly reflected in UNDP Report of 2005. Knowledge revolution can bring about rapid improvement in
productive forces .But it cannot ensure the equitable distribution of
the benefits of such growth, unless the mass of people are empowered
with knowledge and skills. The
role of education, as the process through which acquisition, production and dissemination of knowledge is
facilitated, has therefore become very crucial for inclusive
development. Equitable distribution of the benefit of knowledge
revolution is premised on universalization of both primary and
secondary education and making provision for qualitative higher
education to all young men who have the aptitude and competence for
higher learning.
Universalization of educational opportunities is the key to
universalization of human welfare.
2.3.
But unfortunately the technological possibilities of universalizing
human welfare by universalizing education has not been acted upon. In
India, globalization of education preceded globalization of the
economy in general, which is generally dated from 1991. The National
Policy on Education (NPE), which came into existence in 1986,
anticipated the exclusionary agenda of the current phase of
globalization by positing quantity and quality of education as
dichotomous entities. At
the school level, this led to the establishment of Navodaya schools.
The scheme was intended to identify ‘talented’ children and to
provide them special facilities with the objective of building up a
national talent pool .The new thinking had its most telling impact on
higher education. It
was argued that the system of higher education in India was
overdeveloped and that it had a direct bearing on the quality of
education. It was decided that the emphasis from then on would be on
improving quality, even at the expense of quantity. Apart from
encouraging the setting up of ‘autonomous colleges’, schemes were
also evolved for setting up ‘centres of excellence’, ‘potential
centres of excellence’ and ‘deemed universities’. The ulterior
objective was to divert scarce public resources to these ‘islands of
excellence’ which could flourish in the midst of a vast ocean of
mediocre institutions.
2.4.The formal acceptance of the ideology
and practices of globalization by the Indian Government in the
nineties led to the progressive withdrawal of public funds from higher
education on the one hand and privatization and commercialization of
higher education on the other. The share of higher education in
the total expenditure on education of the Union Government declined
from 32 to 24 %between 1989-1990 and 1994-1995 and the corresponding
figures relating to state budgets declined from 12.7 to 10.8%. The
relative priority given to higher education in allocation of resources
in the Five Year Plans has also fallen significantly. While 14% of the
total expenditure on education in the seventh Five Year Plan was
allotted to higher education, it decreased to 11 % in the subsequent
two annual plans and further to 8% in the eighth Five Year Plan. (Tilak,
1996). Government of India decided to reduce the subsidies on higher
education from 90% to 25% with in a period of five years (Government
of India, Discussion Paper, 1997). The report of the CABE Committee on
Financing of Higher and Technical Education has highlighted the fact
that investment in higher education has declined in real terms, both
in terms of total expenditure and in terms of investment per student.
The Union Government’s expenditure on higher education declined from
Rs.646 crores in (93-94 prices) to Rs.559 crores in 96-97.In 93-94
prices, expenditure on higher education per student declined from
Rs.7676 in 90-91 to rs.5500 in 2002-03.
As a proportion of total government expenditure, the share of
higher education has declined from 1.6% in 1990-91 to1.2% in 2003-04.
Only about 0.4% of the GNP is currently being spent on higher
education, according to the report (NIEPA, 2005). The paucity of funds
has had their telling effect on the quantity and quality of education
imparted. While expansion has been erratic and haphazard, there has
been little investment in infrastructure, books, ICT and research.
Contractualization of teaching has almost become the norm.
2.5. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has now listed higher
education as one of the commodities for international trade through
General Agreement for Trade in Services (GATS).Negotiations, which
started in right earnest in last years of the last century, is still
continuing. The voices of dissent (UNESCO, 1995) and exhortations for
greater public support for higher education (UNESCO, 1998) from
international bodies could carry little conviction with the third
world governments, most of which were in the grip of acute fiscal
crises. They looked upon the prescriptions of the World Bank as the
panacea for their financial worries. The Ambani –Birla Report (2000)
reiterated the policy of commercialization and corporatization of
higher technical education. The same sentiment has been echoed by the
Xth Five Year Plan document, which has recommended that the
universities must make greater efforts to supplement resources from
Government. (Government of India, 2002) The Supreme Court of India
upheld the same principles in its epoch-making judgment in TMA Pai
Foundation Case (2002), which has been reiterated by the recent
verdict of the seven-member bench of the apex court (2005).
2.6. The new policy is being justified by pitting primary and
secondary education against higher education. The World Bank (Higher
Education: Lessons of Experience, 1994) argued that higher education
was a non-merit good as its benefits mainly accrue to the individual
concerned, unlike school education which was classified as merit good
as the entire society benefits from expansion of school education. The
third world governments with scarce resources were advised by the Bank
to reduce subsidies on higher education so that they could spend more
on primary and secondary education. Pitting one level of education
against another shows an inadequate understanding of the synergic
relationship between various levels of education. There cannot be any
trade off between the different levels of education: primary,
secondary and higher education, all are equally important and play
distinct but complementary roles. Primary education is a necessary
pre-condition for the most elementary forms of participation of the
people in social life, even if they are not economically active; it is
also increasingly becoming a precondition for economic participation
even in petty production. Secondary education has a dual role: it not
only opens up the possibility of mobility from petty production to the
organized sector for the working people but is also a preliminary step
in the creation of leadership abilities of the working people in
diverse areas of social life. Higher education is first and foremost
precondition for the existence of the other two sub-sectors of
education. The planning of education is itself an academic activity.
Secondly, it is a necessary part of ensuring India's rightful place in
world development and culture and our very ability to chart out a path
of development autonomous of metropolitan capital. The fact that
India's exploitative ruling classes are abandoning this quest does not
imply that the democratic movements have to follow their lead. On the
contrary the responsibility of democratic movements in this respect is
therefore heightened. Thirdly, given the quest for democratic
transformation is bound to be a protracted one, the ability of our
country to negotiate the problems thrown up by the persistence of
capitalist system will depend in part on our higher education
system-its spread, depth and vitality. The neo-liberal discourse about
the supposedly peripheral role of higher education in developing
countries is not only totally off the mark but is in the first place
an apology for private enrichment in the sphere of higher education.
2.7. The lessons from global scenario and hard Indian realities
dictate that a sustainable agenda for higher education should
indisputably be inclusive of equity and excellence. The Geneva
conference of UNESCO (2004) vindicates this position and calls upon
the world community to provide quality education for all young people.
This cannot be done by merely opening up the higher education sector
to market players. In a country where 26%of the population lives below
the poverty line, markets will not be able to attract sufficient
numbers of young men to higher education. Moreover, market orientation
will lead to skewed development, by patronizing only courses and
programmes, which have immediate market value and neglecting
theoretical studies, and fundamental research, which are important for
long term sustained development. This calls for greater financial
involvement on the part of the Central and State governments to ensure
equitable and sustainable development in higher education.
2.8. The neo-liberal
mythology of a shortage of resources actually amounts to the
following: firstly, an unwillingness of the state to ensure that the
rich foot their rightful share in taxes; secondly and more importantly
and immediately, it is the willingness of the state to come within the
ambit of neo-liberal practice. This unwillingness and willingness of
the state, in turn are totally unconnected to technical attributes of
the Indian economy-they reflect the political choices made by the
exploitative ruling classes of India when confronted by imperialist
globalization. Such choices often take absurd forms such as the Fiscal
Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act and capital account
convertibility. A State that is committed to a democratic development
policy framework will never be short of resources-least of all for
higher education. Since the present economic set up adversely favors
the central government vis-à-vis state governments the democratic
government should demand an increase in central government spending on
all aspects of education including higher education as well as greater
transfer on funds to
state governments. Educational investment on the part of the central
and state governments should be raised to levels prevailing in most of
the developed nations. This implies that at lest 6% of the GDP should
be spent on education of which 1.5 to 2% should be set apart for
higher education. The
Central Government should set apart at least 10% of its budgetary
expenditure and the state government 30% of their budget share on
education, of which 25 to 33% should be earmarked for higher
education. The present rate of 2% cess on education can be doubled and
the additional revenue thus collected transferred to the respective
states. A new graduation tax could be levied from prospective
employers, exclusively for financing higher education. Institutions
should be encouraged to generate funds without compromising equity and
excellence. Funds could
come in the form of contributions from
the public, the
parents, the alumni, or
through collaboration with industry. Consultancy, assignments and
sponsored projects may be undertaken by higher education institutions
on the basis of well-defined parameters.
2.9. Education, especially higher education, has never been the sole
responsibility of the state in India. The people and the Governments
have always welcomed private initiative. But there is a world of
difference between private involvement in the earlier decades and the
new wave of private investment. While the earlier intervention was
philanthropic in nature, the new mode is market oriented. This has
lead to the mushrooming of higher education institutions, especially
in the professional sector in which the courses have immediate market
value. For example, both in terms of institutions and intake in
engineering at the undergraduate level, the percentage of institutions
and enrolment of the private sector in the total has gone up from 76%
in 1999-2000 to 85% in 2003-04.Now we have 977 engineering and
technology institutions in the country in the government sector and
764 in the private sector. Corresponding figures in the Medicine is
1349 and 1028, Management Courses at the Masters level 505 and 324 and
Teacher Education 1541 and 1038 (NIEPA, 2005). The system of higher
education in India is more privatized than in most developed
countries. While about 80% of the students in the United States attend
public institutions of higher learning and only 20% depend on private
institutions, the reverse figures are applicable to Asian countries.
2.10. The unprecedented growth of the self-financing sector as
against the government and aided sector is socially divisive and
academically cancerous. A system of access based on financial merit as
against academic merit can accelerate the prevailing social tensions
by inviting the wrath of those sections of the population who cannot
raise the resources required for higher education, which is the
stairway to success in a largely
knowledge driven economy. A system of admission based on
financial considerations could also exclude a vast majority of
meritorious candidates and include mediocre aspirants on the strength
of their purse, with its attendant adverse impact on the quality of
higher education imparted. Both societal and academic considerations
necessitate a reorientation of the present strategies for development
in higher education.
2.11. Financially constrained state governments, local bodies etc.
when they seek private participation in education are keenly aware
that private players are interested only in private benefit. The
challenge is to harness the benefits of a larger educational system
while restraining the profiteering of private players. Regulation in
the field of private participation in higher education should include
the following aspects:
(1)
Ensuring minimum standards in the infrastructure of education
in the institution concerned.
(2)
A ceiling on the level of fees that can be charged from any
student; the ceiling should be fixed at such a level so as to ensure
that the surplus earned by the private player in education is
sufficient to carry out an appropriate level of capital expenditure
(3 )
Cross subsidization of the fees of economically deprived
students by fees collected by economically advanced students; where
necessary this can be advanced to include a transfer of funds from
private institutions to economically deprived students in public
educational institutions
(4)
Admissions to all institutions should be on the basis of a
centralized government conducted entrance test and marks secured in
the recognized degree, with appropriate provision for students
belonging to the reserved category] and other socially and
economically disadvantaged groups
(5)
The service conditions of teachers and non-teaching employees
in private educational institutions should be brought, step-by-step,
in par with their counterparts in public educational institutions-in
particular, the institution of permanent positions/tenure, right to a
guaranteed pension etc. and the right to form and function trade
unions should be ensured.
(6)
Decision making and operation in private educational
institutions should be made transparent and accountable to a governing
council with adequate representation for teachers, non-teaching
employees and students.
(7)
Given that private players in education will inevitably offer
those courses which will yield employment opportunities, they should
be obliged to set aside a meaningful proportion of their allocations
for teaching and research in fundamental and basic disciplines in the
natural and social sciences as well as areas which are deemed to be
indispensable for the over-all development of the country/area in
question.
(8)
All courses offered by private educational institutions should
be whetted by committees appointed by competent university /apex
regulatory bodies which should ensure that the course structure
reflects current, well established research in the discipline
concerned and does not give room for unscientific prejudice of any
kind.
(9)
Government, aided and unaided streams and institutions should
maintain their separate identity. The present tendency to mix public
and private streams will lead to private appropriation of public
assets and therefore should be strictly forbidden.
(10)
The power to regulate private institutions should rest with
public authorities. The concept of private universities has no place
in a system that relies on public regulatory intervention to ensure
equity and excellence.
2.12. While academic collaboration between reputed foreign
universities and Indian universities has to be encouraged, such
collaboration has to be worked out within the parameters of the
national regulatory mechanisms. We should refuse to join the GATS
regime, which is intended to facilitate commercialization of education
at the international level. Internationalization of higher education,
as opposed to globalization of higher education, should aim at
creative collaboration for academic innovation rather than commercial
exploitation through academic colonization
1.13. The recent move of the Indian Government to ensure that
students belonging to the socially deprived sections are able to
participate on an equal basis in social life through the provision of
reservation is welcome. As far as the students from the Other Backward
Castes (OBCs) are concerned the provision for 27 per cent reservation
in seats in educational institutions must be supplemented by a package
of scholarships, remedial classes, counseling etc. Since the existing
system of 22.5 per cent reservation for students belonging to the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) has been observed more
in the breach, there is an immediate need to ensure that all existing
maneuvers being carried out by social reaction, to thwart the process
of filling up reserved category seats are negated. A schedule should
be drawn to ensure that step-by-step 22.5 per cent of the teaching and
non-teaching posts are filled up by candidates from the SC/ST
sections. The move of the government of India to increase the number
of seats along with the introduction of reservation of seats for the
OBC sections is welcome. Apart from the welcome increase in the total
number of seats in education, this move also weakens the efforts of
social reaction to divide the different constituents of the democratic
movement.
2.14. The present parameters for funding by UGC and other central
agencies need to be revised. The drawback of the existing UGC and
centrally sponsored funding schemes is that they tend to overlook
institutional autonomy in designing and implementing projects. Funds
are generally available only for implementing centrally designed
schemes. This should go. In a vast country like India, there is great
need for contextualization of centrally sponsored programmes as also
for bottom-up-planning and implementation of schemes. The present
tendency to give greater funds to already well off institutions to
help them scale greater heights in excellence would imply that less
and less resources will be available to new institutions and old
institutions which, for
various reasons, have been left behind in development. Central
assistance should not be treated as a kind of merit award for the best
performers in the field .A more equitable criterion based on
feasibility assessment of local schemes needs to be drawn up, the
major principle of which should be to give a helping hand to the
weaker and needier institutions with a potential for better
performance. Funding priorities should be fixed with the objective of
at least ensuring that every higher education institution has a
minimum level of human and physical infrastructure facilities and to
ensure that no one is denied higher education simply because he/she is
poor.
2.15. Both generation of funds and its expenditure should be guided
by the goals of reconciling equity and excellence in education. While
the concept of financial autonomy has implications on the generation
of funds and its expenditure in individual institutions,
accountability deals with issues of optimum utilization of available
funds in a transparent and socially responsible manner. The general
principle is that money is not the end, but only the means to an end.
Keeping this basic principle in mind, a system of incentives for
generation of money and social auditing of expenditure has to be
worked out in each individual institution. Democratic and
representative bodies like
the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) could be entrusted with the task
of institutional fund raising. The internal resources generated by an
in institution should not be adjusted with other grants. The
institution concerned should be able to design and execute the
developmental plans involving only funds generated from internal
sources. Apart from social auditing through democratically elected
local level bodies such as the PTA, there should also be provision for
public auditing by appropriate Government agencies at the
local/State/Central level. The defaulters should be liable to be
punished. As recommended by the CABE Committee on Financing Higher
Education (NIEPA, 2005) there should be efficiency in the utilization
of available resources. This implies that the recurring expenditure
should be rationally distributed between academic and other
activities, say about 60-65 % on academic activities including
teaching, 10-12 % on administration and 20-25 % on auxiliary services
and maintenance.
PART.111: Quality
Education through Diversification and Specialization
3.1. UNESCO.Report “Learning: The Treasure Within” (1998)
visualizes education as an instrument for the comprehensive
development of the individual for the performance of both personal and
social goals. It has identified the four pillars of learning namely, learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and
learning to be
(1)Learning to know, by combining a
sufficiently broad general knowledge with the opportunity to work
in-depth on a small number of subjects. This also means learning to
learn, so as to benefit from the opportunities education provides
throughout life
(2)Learning to do, in order to acquire not only
occupational skill but also, more broadly, the competence to deal with
many situations and work in teams. It also means learning to do in the
context of young people’s various social and work experiences which
may be informal, as a result of the local or national context, or
formal involving coursers, alternating study and work.
(3)Learning to live together by developing an
understanding of other people and an appreciation of interdependence
– carrying out joint projects and learning to manage conflicts- in a
spirit of respect for the values of pluralism, mutual understanding
and peace
(4)Learning to be so as better to develop
one’s personality and be able to act with ever-greater autonomy,
judgment and personal responsibility. In that connection, education
must not disregard any aspect of a person’s potential: memory,
reasoning, aesthetic sense, physical capabilities and communication
skill
3.2. The role of higher educational institutions has to be defined
within the framework of the four pillars of learning as outlined
above. Generally, Universities and other institutions of higher
learning are called upon to perform three key functions; viz,
(1)Teaching
(2)Research
(3)Extension
3.3. While it may not be necessary to define teaching, we have to
have a fresh understanding of the role of the teacher in higher
education institutions as distinct from his role at lower levels of
education. The role of the teacher should not be that of a provider of
ready-made knowledge and skills, but that of a friend, philosopher and
guide who will help the learner to learn. ‘Research’ within the
context of higher education implies careful, critical, disciplined
enquiry varying in technique and methodology according to the nature
and conditions of the problems identified, and directed towards the
clarification and /or resolution of the problems. ‘Extension work ’means a service by which the resources
of an educational institution are extended beyond its confines to
serve a larger community .In teaching it may include a wide range of
activities such as adult education and lifelong education delivered
through evening classes ,short courses , seminars and such other
activities. In research, it may lead to transfer of expertise to
public non-profit sectors, various type of consultation, participation
in applied research and implementing research results.
3.4.While most universities and higher education institutions have
recognized these three functions ,there is a tendency to
compartmentalize them and to exclusively reserve each one of them to
separate groups of teachers and students .We have good teachers ,good
researchers and good extension workers ,but rarely
teachers and students who combine in themselves all these
diverse roles. While
specialization is inevitable in higher education and every one cannot
be expected to excel in all three fields, the attempt should be to
combine all three roles, perhaps at different periods in the career of
both students and teachers. The career graph of teachers and course
content of students must
be structured accordingly.
3.5. The implications of these on curricular reform are fairly
obvious. Excellent education is that which ensures the maximum
development of the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual
potentials of the individual. It should also enable him to become a
good citizen, to live in harmony with others. In addition to the above
goals, which are common to all levels of education, higher education
has to help him grow into an “organic intellectual”. Organic
intellectuals are those who can critique the world they live and dream
of a better tomorrow. Societies will become fossilized unless they are
continually reworked and renewed through the inflow of fresh ideas
generated by organic intellectuals .Higher education institutions have
a responsibility to create appropriate opportunities for the growth of
such organic intellectuals in a given society..
3.6. The role of higher education for enabling the learner to earn a
decent living, either through wage employment or self-employment
should not be lost sight of. We
need experts in different disciplines who could serve the myriad
requirements of a complex world. The job market also demands personnel
trained to do a variety of jobs. However, this does not mean that
higher education has to produce ready-to-serve knowledge workers who
could be readily absorbed into jobs without any on-the- job training.
While such a programme of specialized job training would suit the
interests of the immediate employers, it will not serve the long-term
interests of the learners. Since the pattern of future demand can
neither be controlled nor foreseen, the only alternative available is
to build up the capacity to innovate which will require a balanced
development of basic and applied skills.
3.7. This implies that we have to design a curriculum that will
inculcate critical and creative competence among our young men and
women. The focus of all curricular reform should be the learner. The
student should get greater opportunities for grappling with the
process of acquisition of existing knowledge and generation of new
knowledge. Seminars/ problem solving sessions/projects/field studies
should become integral to any reform in pedagogy. Through a dialogic
process, the teacher should induce the student to think, innovate and
challenge existing ideas and generate new knowledge. The method of
evaluation should include diverse programmes like continuous internal
evaluation and final external evaluation. The credit/semester mode
should be preferable to the uniform/annual mode, as the former would
give the students an opportunity to select subject combinations of
their choice and to encourage more focused learning by dividing the
content into manageable chunks. Individual students should get the
widest possible choice in the selection of the subjects for study.
3.8. Apart from diversifying the content of the curriculum, we also
need to diversify the delivery methods. The developments in
Information Communication Technology have presently made it possible
to maximize enrolment through a variety of methods.
The possibilities of virtual learning have to be exploited to
the fullest extent, even as we continue to improve the quantity and
quality of education through the face-to-face mode. Similarly the
traditional face-to-face mode can be further improved by integrating
ICT into the curriculum. This
would require a continual programme of intensive and extensive
exposure to the new pedagogy of learning to teachers as well as
students and also additional investment for providing the new
infrastructure. The emphasis should not be on imparting knowledge, but
on building up competencies for acquisition of knowledge and skills
and the ability to use such knowledge and skills in a variety of life
situations. Education should also aim at the development of emotional
competence, which would enable the individual to live in harmony with
the rest of the society. This would require the inclusion of a large
dose of cultural material in all courses of study.
3.9. While attempts should be made to ensure maximum possible
diversification in content, delivery modes and evaluation methods,
there should be a certain amount of uniformity in the structure of the
courses to ensure comparability of programmes offered in more than
17000 institutions of higher education across the country. The present
tendency to diversify the structure of higher education through the
introduction of autonomous colleges and deemed universities would not
serve much useful purpose. Apart from encouraging eliticism in higher
education, such innovations would tend to create a false sense of well
being by giving the impression that structural changes would
automatically ensure diversification and excellence in education. More
often than not, structural innovations are resorted to defeat the very
purposes for which they are sought to be justified, namely the
promotion of autonomy and accountability in higher education
institutions. What we now need is not self-defeating structural
changes that would provide greater autonomy for a few institutions,
but institutionalization of autonomy and accountability in all
institutions of higher education by strengthening existing democratic
structures and norms of social accountability.
PART 1V: Autonomy and accountability through
Democratic Governance
4.1. The goal of democratization of human welfare through
democratization of higher knowledge cannot be realized without
democratizing the governance structures of educational establishments.
Kothari Commission (1966) had recommended the constitution of
democratic governance structures for higher education institutions and
accordingly the Acts and Statutes of most of the universities provided
for democratic structures of governance. The “Report on the
Governance of Universities and Colleges” (UGC, 1971) recommended the
enlargement of the democratic functioning of the universities by
including student representatives in the governing bodies of higher
education institutions. But the “New Education Policy” (1986),
which viewed quantitative and qualitative aspirations as dichotomous
and recommended the setting up of islands of excellence in the vast
ocean of mediocre higher education institutions, paved the way for the
promotion of eliticism and exclusiveness. Since then, there has been a
concerted attempt to dismantle the democratic structures in higher
education. Gnanam Committee’s report “Towards Educational
Management” (1990) recommended de-politicization of the campus and
the idea gained the status of a panacea for all the ills affecting
higher education. The apologists of commercialization and
globalization of higher education deliberately promoted the idea as
they found in it a convenient alibi to stamp out all democratic
dissent against their divisive agenda. Ambani-Birla Report (2000)
submitted to the Trade and Industrial Council of the Prime Minister
openly advocated de-democratization of the governance system of higher
education institutions. The Concept paper of UGC for “A Model Act
for Universities of the Twentieth Century in India” (2003) envisaged
the commercialization and corporatisation of Indian Universities and
set out the agenda for replacing democratically elected bodies with
nominated bodies with the objective of eliminating democratic dissent
from the governance structures of universities and colleges. The CABE
Committee Report on the Autonomy of Higher Education Institutions (GOI,
2005) too has unfortunately failed to fully comprehend the linkages
between institutional autonomy and larger public accountability.
Though it has tried to link up autonomy with accountability by
insisting on enlarging and strengthening democratic structures in
institutional governance and suggesting mechanism for transparency at
the level of decision making and implementation, it has ignored the
responsibility of the institutions to ensure larger public
accountability. What we need today is a forum where the secular,
democratic and equitable ethos of the constitution could be
implemented through governance structures that promote the synergic
relation ship between individual higher education institutions and the
larger society in which and for which it operates.
5.1. The democratic
transformation of the system of higher education to counter the
debilitating impact of globalization cannot be ensured unless the rights
and responsibilities of higher education teaching personnel are properly
defined and acted upon .Contractualisation, appointment of under
qualified teachers, exploitation of human capital by minimizing work
force and violation existing established yardsticks for career
advancement have become the rule rather than exception.
It is important to recall and rededicate ourselves to the
internationally recognized norms and standards governing the service
conditions of higher education teaching personnel in this context. AIFUCTO stands
by the resolution of the General Conference of the UNESCO held in Paris
in 1997in this regard. Following are the most important of the rights
and responsibilities.