Business of Education

It is that time of the year when children are deciding and fretting over which college to join, which course to take up, which profession should they opt for and such career deciding choices. We have probably the worlds’ largest educated population which is the envy of the world as the population is young and considered to be productive, thus supposedly giving an edge to the country. One needs to go slightly deeper into the system to find out the quality of education which is being dumped on the masses. It is a fact that the country has undergone a change from agrarian economy to a State supported manufacturing economy to the current services economy – and we have reached that stage in a very short span of 62 years post independence.

Our leaders have tinkered around with education without understanding the concept of good, productive education – rules are made and overturned time and again ad infinitum ad nauseum without having any regard to the effect of those decisions on the vast majority of students. Today there are private universities which are given deemed (or is doomed a better word) university status, completely by-passing the norms laid down by the Government for giving recognition to such Universities! With blanket approvals given for recognizing deemed universities, it appears that the Government is giving the quality of education a complete go by! The last Congress Government has given recognition to 55% of the total deemed Universities in the country! A huge number to have been accorded recognition in the past five years – was the Congress raking in money for the elections which have just taken place putting them in power? Is this the price we have paid for this government?

World over higher education has been the forte of the state not of private universities. Globally too, the private sector has seen opportunities in higher education, but there have been fewer takers in comparison to India. In the US private Universities constitute 59.4% of higher education, but only 23.2% students choose to study in these Universities. In a study by Ved Prakash, vice chancellor of the National University of Education Planning and Administration he has noted that between 2002 and 2006, deemed universities grew by a whopping 96%, in the same time span, central and state universities grew by a modest 11% and 22% respectively.

As in everything else education is also seeing a major mushrooming of corruption taking place – seats can be bought for a price – is it the cost we are having to pay for giving more disposable income in the hands of the people. India’s economic condition may be improving but its adherence to norms of acceptable social behavior seems to be going down. We have people with money sending their wards to Australia for an education, because they can afford it and their wards cannot compete in India – they get bashed up for it – and we raise a hue and a cry. Private engineering colleges which used to constitute 15% of seats in 1960, now account for over 85% according to the data furnished by All India Council for Technical Education. From a miniscule base in 1970, medical colleges in the private sector have grown by an eye-popping 900%, the private sector today accounts for more than 45% of medical colleges in the country.

A majority of these colleges are owned by politicians – with one well known politician running more than a 100 educational institutions, as per a study by Sanat Kaul in 2006. It is an open secret that the politicians allot public land to Trusts owned by them at a fraction of the land cost, build colleges and run them as commercial business enterprises – wherein the caliber of the student does not matter but the weight of his parents wallet does! The rapid growth of this sector has seen unabated increase in capitation fees – this is not because of a rise in middle class pressure or demand, but rather to the entrepreneurial activities of politicians. Unfortunately, even the Supreme Court has commented on the extent of corruption which is rampant in private universities dishing out professional courses.

I have written earlier about how policemen/municipal workers have to bribe their way into getting a job – they borrow heavily at usurious interest rates and have no choice but to be corrupt to pay off their loans thereby perpetuating a vicious circle. The same scenario exists in higher education but with a slightly dangerous twist. Let me explain – imagine a person who obtains 40% marks in his graduation but pays his way to a medical seat in a private University – the private University is taking a minimum of Rs. 25 lacs as capitation fees and between Rs. 2.5 to Rs. 10 lacs towards the complete course fees. After taking so much money they end up giving the student a medical degree, what happens when this “doctor” gets a job, he probably ends up operating on a kidney instead of a liver! There are enough such cases which today are seeing an increasing trend. Similarly engineering degrees can be bought for a price – so we could have bridge collapses and building collapses which could be the end result. The point I am trying to make is the poor cop or municipal worker pays his way into a job and becomes corrupt to repay his loan, but in higher education we have the corrupt getting a higher education and then coming out as a threat to society – such doctors and engineers will affect the health and lives of others! If we do not bring in control now, it will be too late. Are we becoming a nation of qualified quality professionals offering topnotch services or are we destined to be a nation of mediocre professionals offering death services instead of health services and collapsible structures instead of long lasting ones! You tell me!