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| 'Most self-financed colleges exploit the demand-supply gap' | | P Chidambaram's valedictory address at St Xavier?s College (Autonomous), Kolkata |
| P Chidambaram / Feb 07, 2010, 00:45 IST |
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 Higher education — or what goes for higher education in India — itself is, save a few shining examples, either a money-spinning business or a moth-eaten system.
On one side, we have many colleges and universities that are run by governments. They are no different from any other government office. As a matter of tiresome duty, they produce graduates and post-graduates every year.
Next to them, there is a group of premier institutions, run with the support of the government. The right word would be "elitist". Until last year, they opened their doors only to those who were regarded as "meritorious", without regard to the fact that, while science tells us that merit is evenly distributed, not all sections of society have the same ability to convert that merit into marks in an entrance examination.
For a long time, and perhaps even now, these premier institutions turned out first rate graduates, many of whom had - and have - graduation as the first goal and emigration as the next. The values are no doubt changing, but painfully slowly.
There is a third set of institutions of higher education. For them, education is commerce. Since demand for seats in colleges far exceeded the supply through legitimate sources, there was a huge business opportunity that was grabbed with both hands by shrewd business persons. The bulk of these self-financing colleges and self-styled universities are no more than money-spinning businesses that exploit the demand-supply gap. Giving them comfort are the regulatory bodies that laid down regulations that promoted not quality education but profitable business.
It is in this dreary world of higher education in India that we have shining examples, such as St Xavier's College. It was founded by the Society of Jesus. Long before Shri Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr S Radhakrishnan, Dr Zakir Hussain, Dr Humayun Kabir and my good friend Shri Kapil Sibal, there was an intrepid soul named Fr H Depelchin. Along with six Belgian Jesuits, he arrived in Kolkata and founded the St Xavier's College.
The college has been in the service of the nation for 150 years. Not only in Kolkata, but in many other parts of India, the Society of Jesus has rendered yeoman service to the cause of education. Its 153 high schools, 38 university colleges, 14 technical institutes and five business administration institutes teach, at any given time, over 230,000 students belonging to every section of the society. St Xavier's alone has over 4,000 students.
Like every Jesuit educational institution, St Xavier's College has an admission policy that is biased in favour of the poor, especially the socially and financially marginalised, and I commend the college on its sense of social responsibility. We are beholden to the Jesuits for the unwavering dedication, the sense of duty, and the strict discipline they bring to their work and to the institutions founded by them.
I passed through a Jesuit institution and I fondly remember the great teachers: Fr Murphy, Fr Sequira, Fr Coyle, Fr Lawrence Sundaram, Fr Amascua and Fr Yedanapally. It surprises me even today how so many of them could leave such an indelible impression in a period of barely one year.
We are still debating the norms and values that must prevail in an institution of higher learning, and especially the place of the non-government sector in providing higher education. I recognise and support the role of the private sector in higher education, but I am absolutely clear in my mind that the private sector in higher education ought not to mean private business in higher education. As far as I am aware, no great university in the world was established for the purpose of profit. I believe that some activities in a society must stand outside the world of profit and higher education, in my view, ranks first amongst such activities.
For over 150 years, the Society of Jesus has done just that in Kolkata, in Chennai and in many other towns and cities. For that and for many other blessings that they brought to India, we thank them and we salute them.
(Excerpts from Home Minister P Chidambaram's valedictory address at St Xavier’s College (Autonomous) in Kolkata on January 17, 2010)
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