There’s a convoluted regulatory infrastructure of multiple institutions like the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE), which decide on every minute aspect of a college’s functioning. One of Sibal’s key goals is to replace these institutions with an apex National Commission for Higher Education and Research.
Yet despite the initial euphoria, and amid hopes that the bill will tempt the world’s biggest, most prestigious universities to set up shop in India, a heavy dose of caution is advisable. Establishing an offshore campus that mirrors an Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard’s multi-disciplinary ethos is no easy task, and these universities will be cautious about risking diluting their brand with shoddy quality. Indeed, many educationists have said the bill will, in fact, enable profit-seeking, second-rung foreign colleges to swoop in and make a killing. It’s a sell out, critics claim.
In a recent article, noted educationist Prof. Anil Sadgopal dismissed suggestions that the bill will improve quality through competition and he decried government policies that he said appear determined to demolish both public sector schools and colleges to allow for an ‘all-pervading commercialisation of education.’
‘As per market thumb rule, competition is a meaningful tool for quality improvement only if there is a level playing field,’ wrote Sadgopal, who was a member of the powerful Central Advisory Board of Education.
In the wake of independence, India built up a range of top-notch higher education and research institutions in the public sector like the globally recognised Indian Institutes Of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Indian Institute of Science to name a few, he added. ‘Did these develop out of a spirit of competition, or from the Constitutional commitment to build a public-funded education system?’
Sadgopal used the United States as an example of how a vast system of high quality state-funded universities can demonstrate the public sector doesn’t require competition, with the motivating force instead being social and national development.
Khemka also has few expectations of the bill, saying he has been surprised by the ‘astounding’ attention it seems to have unjustifiably garnered. In no country in the world do foreign universities enrol more than one percent of the total number of students, he says.
‘And the scale in India is unprecedented. Higher education is so under-penetrated here,’ he says adding that India needs to increase enrolment from the 14 million students in 2008 to 22 million in 2012. ‘Foreign institutions can’t fill our 8 million seat deficit. We need to do this ourselves.’
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Shruti Bali
Being a member of GAIA family for the last two years make me always believe that through Aditi Mam ,God’s blessings are being showered not only on me but also on my 4yr old daughter who is pursuing nursery in the same school .I wish and pray that each child should be blessed with quality education and the eco-friendly environment ,which will take them a long way to be a good citizen of India and thus serving Mother Earth, which is the utmost need of the day .
Nirmala Chauhan
I have visited Gaia Green School a few times and found that for lesser than 100 children that pay the fees, it is educating, on an average, 150 under-privileged children and poor women. The same staff,after midday, in the same premises and the same class-rooms, provides education to those that can’t pay. Ms Aditi provides not only education absolutely free of charge, she also provides refreshments to them, most of whom are destitute rag-pickers and children that have already fallen in bad company and habits. It gave me a sense of God’s miracle to see how with her selfless love she has rehabilitated many of them. To awaken a sense of dignity in merely being human, perhaps, one needs little more than love.God must be watching this great yagya that she is performing without any help from the famous rich galaxy. That’s why this miracle is taking place every day for every one to see and exclaim, “Yes! God hasn’t forsaken ungrateful humanity, even if those in power are busy expelling God from India, maddened by pseudo-secularism and the lust to occupy God’s seat, on being vacated by disgraced God.”
Here is Gaia’s website: http://www.gaiaschool.in
aditijainanil
I would like to answer Meiji for his concern.Gaia is a school which has been started without any funding coming from anywhere.I was allotted this piece of land and had to purchase it at the market rate available then.Yes the Chairman wanted me to take at-least 20 acres to run a school but i did not have the resources to do so.I had to sell my old parental property plus take heavy personal loans at around twenty percent interest rate to achieve my dream.I am sure Meiji would be very happy to know that Gaia,the green school is teaching the under privileged children absolutely free.We also run a free stitching school for the under privileged girl child and the women living in the village nearby.The idea is to extend the same infrastructure to the kids who are from a very very poor background and can not pay.Now i am trying to do my best to also get some computer education available to these kids.I do not know how but i am sure it will happen soon as i know that- GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES. Gaia is also trying very hard to run the school on renewable energy thus educating the kids the importance of saving the environment.At Gaia we teach our kids to love the plants and animals and also protect them.The kids in the school consider themselves the body guards of nature around.They celebrate their birthdays and other important occasions by planting a tree.
I was delighted to see this article last night, accidentally,while surfing the net.I am very grateful to Ms Shreyasi Singh for writing this article and spreading the word about Gaia.And also to you Meiji for raising this issue.
Let me end with something i learnt in my moral science class…..
WHY DO WE COME TO THIS EARTH?
TO MAKE THIS WORLD A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN.
Meiji
This is a good article, but I fail to see what the contribution of a school like Gaia can do for the state of primary education in India. Undoubtedly, this kind of learning is a great for little children, but this kind of infrastructure(aviary,eco buildings,duck pond et al) can only be available to children who are highly privileged and can only be provided at high cost to a chosen few. From what I know, primary PUBLIC education is in a totally different category than private primary education, and schools like Gaia can only provide this education to the few who can afford it, and to the few who can be driven through “the six laned Noida expressways” to get to these educational institutions! While it is easy to say that “India desperately needs to put more children in school and educate them better”; what’s missing in your article is the analysis and the resolution to these larger social issues by correspondents such as yourself, and educators like Ms. Jain- ideas that should help make education like this available in the public arena; into a system where this kind of education is accessible to everyone, not just to children of the rich and the famous, and for whom, going to a preschool with a different philosophy is the flavor of the month. Lets not talk about faddish educational systems, lets really think about what we can do to provide the basic educational infrastructure to kids, strengthen what we have and work with the kids that DONT have access to the kind of resources that private preschools like this one you propound and help make their lives better. How about community outreach programs that dictate that for each 100 rich kids we educate for profit, we educate 100 for free. If this school did that, I would be more hopeful of the social intent of improving the primary educational infrastructure in India. But until then, I fail to see what one more school with a different philosophy– and one that operates on profit, can do to change the educational system of India.
Serendip
This is a nice blog message, I will keep this idea in my mind. If you add more video and pictures because it helps understanding :)
Meenakshi Kohli
An extremely well researched story. While including the varied points of view, it leaves the reader with no doubt that quality education is the right of every child and it is up to the Indian government and its people to ensure it. We look forward to more such write ups that make people aware of the reality leading to positive change.
Bidisha
A well-researched piece on the question of quality in education. A lot of private players are looking at India as a potential education market citing the quality needs the country has, especially in elementary education. The crux of the new Right to Education Act is that it promises quality free of cost to children, because you shouldn’t have to pay for what’s yours by right. Look forward to more pieces by you making the point about the need for free, quality education (otherwise it’s not a right!)