Fortunately, education is in the news in India.

The enactment of the Right to

Education is truly historic in our history. For centuries people of certain castes
and women in general were denied access to education. Our leaders during
the freedom struggle rejected this deplorable tradition and we have made a
decisive break with this past. We are keen to secure education for each
Indian.

Education is at the centre of both individual development and overall

progress in society. From ancient gurukul ashrams in India and Egypt’s Book
of Instruction to modern day institutes of technology, medicine, and
management, civilizations have contributed to prosperity and social harmony
by educating their youth.

A good education empowers people to take responsibility for their own lives
and for improving the lives of those around them. Modern technology and the
forces of globalization have reduced distances and increased connectivity.
The content and quality of education have enormous potential to make an
important contribution to our individual well-being and to strengthening of
our nation.

Education is seen as an experience that has a formative effect on the mind,

character or physical ability of an individual. It is the process by which society
transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values to its new generation.
Education should also be seen as a way of producing good citizens for the
society with knowledge, skills and moral values.

India has one of the largest higher education systems in the world and is
emerging as a source of technical manpower for the whole world. India is also
emerging as an economic superpower. On the one hand, we have IIMs and
IITs that rank among the best institutes in the world. On the other hand, there
are very large number of colleges/universities in the country that do not even
have the basic infrastructure including class-rooms and teachers.

It is being increasingly recognized that knowledge would be the key driving

force in the 21st century and that India has the potential to emerge as a
globally competitive player. Towards this, India needs a knowledge revolution
to build capacity and generate quality to empower its human capital
including our 550 million nationals who are below the age of 25.

Our unique demographic dividend offers a tremendous opportunity as well as

a daunting challenge.

We have 130 million children in the age group of 18-24 years. Only 11 million
(less than 10%) of these are going to college at present. We have 460
universities and 20,000 colleges, including around 3000 professional colleges
at present.
The Knowledge Commission has recommended that India needs 1500
universities and consequently 50,000 colleges by 2015. We have about five
lakh college teachers in the country today. This number has to go up to 15
lakh by the year 2015. This is a serious shortfall, but at the same time the
graduating students should see it as an opportunity to join the teaching
profession which is going to provide opportunities for a very high growth
career.

Challenges of higher education include lack of autonomy of universities,

flawed regulatory mechanism, regional imbalance, need for better quality
teachers, lack of good infrastructure, non-uniform curriculum across the
universities, different evaluation systems in different universities and
difficulties faced by students while moving from one university to another.

The Government and educationists in the country are alive to these problems
and are working on solutions to these. The formation of a National
Commission for Higher Education and Research as an Apex Regulatory Body
to advise the Government on higher education and to serve as a think tank is
under consideration. This would provide a vision of higher education and
create norms and processes for accreditation of universities with a view to
decentralize powers and gradually free the Universities of the present over-
regulated system.

There is lot of hope in respect of education reforms in the country. We have

to move with caution and deliberation but also with speed and determination.
Our democratic processes should help us in achieving our goal.

Today, we are also facing a bigger human challenge: How to live?

In an age where even the educated youth are joining suicide squads and
indulging in senseless violence, the moot question is whether the education
system can be made sensitive to this challenge.

The very civilization of which science, the Internet, and related sources of
knowledge are the integral parts is now under threat from fundamentalism
and the ignorance that underlines it. It has fuelled helplessness,
hopelessness, and a distortion of religious beliefs. Many believe that we have
to look beyond science and technology to the learning of religions, history,
literature, and the arts.

Democracy depends on the ability to manage conflict constructively.

Learning how to deal with conflict in a civil manner is one of the great lessons
that schools must teach. In a long span of school and university education of
nearly two decades students who have been exposed to tackling
controversial issues in a civil manner would perform better in leadership roles
than those who have no such experience.
The task of utilizing education as an instrument of harmony is not an easy
affair. The educational curriculum, in particular has become in several
countries an ideological battleground. The interpretation of historical events
often excites religious and ethnic groups who start taking positions that are
not always rational. Yet, education is the most dependable resource for
preparing the youth for initiating dialogue. Patience and time are needed for
education to play its expected meaningful role in bringing peace and
harmony in the world. The biggest positive factor is that despite all odds
youth all over the world are full of hope.

The primary goal should be to produce students who are aware of their
ignorance both in terms of their own culture as well as of others. The need,
therefore, is to move towards enriching the minds of students about various
cultures and practices. The educational system must respect the life of the
mind, its freedom, and its diversity.

Action is needed in several areas. One, devising a curriculum that encourages

respect for diversity and multiculturalism; two, addressing problems of
shortages of good teachers; three, providing infrastructure for schools; and
four, opportunities for lifelong learning.

Diversity of cultures and religions are to be viewed as assets. Our education

system can make an enduring contribution to the building of tolerance and
mutual respect that can help turn diversity from being a problem to
becoming an asset for harmonious living.