Surinder Sud: More relevant education

Cutting-edge technologies like genomics and molecular biology form part of the revamped agricultural syllabus.

Agricultural education, which has so far failed to evolve in tandem with the changing requirements of knowledge-intensive and globalised agriculture, is now set for major reforms.

Though the country has, over the decades, managed to put in place an extensive infrastructure of agricultural education institutions, including state agricultural universities, the quality of students coming out of them has, for quite sometime, been far from satisfactory. Even the Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board has been finding it difficult to fill up all vacancies of scientists and teachers with competent candidates.

This lacuna is now sought to be covered through a thorough revamping of higher education to bring it on a par with global standards. The revised curricula, along with a number of new courses, are proposed to be introduced from the ensuing academic session beginning July 2009.

The arduous task of drawing up new syllabi for about 95 subjects at the MSc level and 80 at the PhD level on contemporary lines has been done by a 12-member panel headed by Haryana agricultural university Vice-Chancellor J C Katyal. Its report, running into 2,500 pages, was presented to the government early this month and was subsequently approved (with some suggestions) unanimously by the vice-chancellors of all agricultural universities.

This initiative was taken by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) which virtually acts like the University Grants Commission for agricultural universities.

The first of its kind in the history of formal agricultural education, the main aim of this move is to produce human resources that are not only accepted but also respected the world over, maintains ICAR Director-General Mangala Rai.

With this end in view, several new short-term, yet compulsory, courses have been conceived for postgraduate students in subjects like technical writing, communication, moral values and research ethics. All students will be imparted training in modern library/laboratory techniques and new information and communication tools.

A significant aspect of the updated educational agenda is to facilitate specialisation in new areas and contemporary subjects, such as intellectual property rights and WTO-related issues, as also in cutting-edge technologies like molecular biology, genomics, DNA finger-printing, nanotechnology, bioinformatics, genetic engineering, crop-weather modelling and eco-friendly and climate change-responsive agriculture.

Interestingly, taking the growing threat of bio-terrorism into consideration, new courses have been planned in fields like bio-safety, bio-security and agricultural disaster management. Also on offer will be specialisation in manipulation and exploitation of micro-organisms which are increasingly being looked upon to provide solutions to the emerging challenges before agriculture.

The microbes, which are capable of surviving in high temperature, for instance, can provide the gene for introducing heat tolerance in crop plants to adapt them to global warming.

This exercise, notably, is not confined just to revising and revamping the course curricula but has gone on to introduce several much-needed reforms in higher agricultural education. For one, all universities will now have common course curricula and academic regulations. The universities have, however, been given flexibility to modify 25 per cent of the course contents to suit local farming conditions. The system of grading (marks as measured in term of grade-point-average) will also be the same throughout the country.

This will allow a level playing field for the alumni of different universities in the job market. Besides, students will be able to migrate from one institution to other, which was not the case earlier.

The proportion of students that each university normally admits on the basis of a common admission test conducted by the ICAR (usually called the central quota) has been increased from 25 per cent to 30 per cent. This will facilitate the flow of students from one state to another.

Universities will be encouraged to rope in visiting faculty and invite guest lecturers for specific subjects where qualified teachers are not readily available. Inter-university and inter-institutional exchange of faculty will also be allowed. The ICAR will provide financial support for this because these measures will not only help get over the acute shortage of good teachers but also alleviate inbreeding in farm varsities.

In addition, ‘centres of excellence’ are proposed to be developed in about 90 niche scientific areas. These will be located in different universities. The emphasis will be on skill development rather than on only theoretical education. All this should ultimately make agricultural education relevant to the country’s development needs.

surinder.sud@gmail.com