Urgent need for education sector reforms: Jadhav

Making no bones about the dismal state of education in the country, Planning Commission member and former vice-chancellor of University of Pune Narendra Jadhav on Thursday called for a complete overhaul of the sector to address crucial deficiencies that have marred the implementation of governmental schemes.

“During our review of educational schemes, there are serious concerns about quality that have emerged. Although there has been an increase in access, in primary as well as secondary education, quality remains a very serious problem,” Jadhav said. He was speaking at an interactive session organised by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce.

Jadhav, whose mandate at the Planning Commission includes education, employment and skill development amongst others, maintained that the education sector would have to be put to order if the country was to harness the advantages of its demography.

“The average age of our country is about 24, but almost 78 per cent of our labour force is educated below the college level. We need to improve our vocational education to harness the potential here,” he said.

However, a high frequency of absenteeism amongst teachers, poor infrastructure and outdated curricula were major issues that had to be dealt with if the overall situation was to be improved.

As for the higher education space, Jadhav was particularly critical of the present state of teacher training and curricula.

“In most universities in this country, the curricula are hopelessly out of date. In some cases, the curriculum is up to 30 years old. Also, about 40-50 per cent of the teachers don’t have the foggiest idea of recent developments in their subjects. Together, there can’t be a more lethal combination for students,” he said.

On the upside, though, he said that the Planning Commission was backing proposals to establish an apex body for higher education — National Commission for Higher Education & Research (NCHER) — based on reports by the National Knowledge Commission and the Yash Pal Committee.

“The discussions on the NCHER are at an advances stage and we are looking at the legal as well as other issues involved,” he said.

The Planning Commission is also mulling over a policy for public private partnership (PPP) in the higher and secondary education sectors. “We are working to find out the best practices. Using the PPP route, the government’s financial involvement can be spread over a period of time,” Jadhav said.