There’s growing concern in academia about checking quality deterioration in higher education. New initiatives, innovations and research require urgent attention. One of these initiatives was announced by prime minister Narendra Modi while addressing the centenary celebrations of Patna University on October 14. He promised an allocation of Rs.10,000 crore to 20 universities — equally distributed between public and private to make them “world-class”. 

It would really be worth witnessing how these fortunate universities will set about becoming role models for the country’s other 780 universities. The 10+10 initiative also offers an opportunity to scholars, intellectuals and informed citizens to reflect upon what factors led to the loss of quality and credibility of universities which enjoyed great reputations till a couple of decades ago. It could help trigger genuine reform of the education sector as a whole.

Contrast the present reputation and credibility of the great universities of Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Allahabad and Patna among others to what they enjoyed until the 1960s. To comprehend this plunge in all its dimensions, one should recall the words of India’s scholar-president Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. “The ideal of the university is promotion of liberty of mind or freedom of thought. It has little to do with the protection of privilege or call to conformity.” 

The signs of deterioration became manifest within two decades after independence and the illustrious philosopher-statesman analysed it professionally and pragmatically. “If our universities, which showed so much promise on the eve of independence, now, appear to be in a state of disarray, it is because they have been increasingly invaded by masses of people who have no regard for intellectual competence or aptitude for academic work. We have made short work of tests of intellectual competence in order to make peace with every kind of social and political pressure.” 

This analysis is in conformity with his universally accepted assertion that “intellectual work is not for all, it is only for the intellectually competent”. This nostrum could become the guiding light for these 20 universities after they are selected. Each one of their actions and initiatives will be keenly observed by the other 780 universities, and certainly by the nation. Universities deserve only intellectually inclined leaders and faculty; that is the premier prerequisite of excellence in higher education.

It’s undeniable this prime prerequisite of academic excellence has been diluted over the past three-four decades. After independence, India needed large-scale expansion in school and higher education. This required heavy resource mobilisation, and also in-built strategies to guard against quality dilution that accompanies expansion. That needed identification of persons with proven leadership qualities. Think of any great school or university and the pioneering and visionary role played by one or two individuals gets respectful mention! Every vice chancellor is expected to be a pioneer in the quest of knowledge, a person invested with humane qualities, an embodiment of scholarship, living a values-based life, extraordinary for his commitment. He commands respect for academic scholarship, inspires by example and is a continuous innovator. A great academic leader practices institutional management as an art, and not as a craft which is a well-established bureaucratic trait!

Every successful vice chancellor is acknowledged as a leader, co-worker and guide, who is empathetic to the faculty and students he leads. He accepts challenges, and invites others to participate in devising solutions. One just cannot expect such traits among those who devote their time to running from pillar to post, from politicians to bureaucrats, to become vice chancellors these days. Obviously, much planning and effort is needed to evolve a system to ensure appointment of only genuine academics to top positions in universities — not only in the 20 selected universities, but in the remaining ones as well. Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya could create quality and credibility in BHU only because he could invite persons of high professional and scholarly integrity in their fields to serve as faculty. 

For the 10+10 initiative to succeed, the education landscape must be fully mapped. The biggest challenge in Indian education is the dire need to improve its teacher preparation system. To become a real knowledge power, India will have to ensure implementation of the spirit of the Constitution of India. It was indeed an extraordinarily bold decision in 1950 to extend elementary education to ‘all children till they attain 14 years of age’! It remains unfulfilled despite the RTE Act, 2009. Further, most of the surveys paint a dismal picture of learner attainments in primary school education. This situation cannot improve if state government-run teacher education institutions remain neglected, with 92 percent of private teacher training colleges perceived as centres of rampant commercialisation. Quality in every sphere of life and national development is dependent on the quality of teacher training institutions, and the quality of teachers they produce. 

Based upon my experience of five decades in Indian education, only 30-35 percent of children receive school education of acceptable quality. If it could be doubled, India’s cognitive capital would increase manifold. 

(Prof. J.S. Rajput is a former director of NCERT and NCTE)