GER in Higher Education

Need to Set the Priorities Right

Part II

In the first part of this article, we discussed the suggestion of increasing the number of HEIs and augmenting the intake capacity of HEIs to improve GER and the challenges in implementing those suggestions. In this part, we shall discuss the second suggestion of online education. Finally, we shall present a different perspective to approach this challenge.

Why should we increase our GER? Why should we set up more HEIs? Why should we aim at capacity building of HEIs? The answer is simple. We must make higher education accessible to more and more eligible students so they do not lose the opportunity to enrol in university programs. Here, the word eligible is significant. Is every student passing the 12th standard eligible for higher education irrespective of their academic performance in school?

The dreaded challenge of unemployment is staring at us. How will be the employment scenario when students not academically above average (let alone brilliant) get university degrees? With 27% GER, our unemployment rate is 7.45%. If we succeed in increasing the GER to 50% by 2035, will we be able to generate enough employment opportunities to provide jobs to all graduates? We often read newspaper reports that engineers and Ph. D.s apply for clerical positions. While solving one problem, we may beget another more severe problem. We will have to make efforts on war footing to create enormous employment opportunities before planning to increase GER.

From the employability perspective, the second suggestion of promoting online or distance programmes to increase GER is imprudent.

Treating online education programmes as a substitute for brick-and-mortar educational institutions will be disastrous. Most HEIs offer online programmes to augment their revenue, not to produce quality graduates. That is why UGC often revises the conditions for institutions to offer online or distance programmes and even stops them from offering such programmes. UGC has recently barred one prominent deemed-to-be university.

The industry always complains about the employability of our graduates. They do so when the graduates are the product of the classroom teaching-learning process. It will be horrifying to imagine the employment situation when a large number of graduates will get degrees through online education. The industry will make more noise about the employability of the students. We cannot justify promoting online education as a substitute for classroom education when we struggle to improve the quality of education in our traditional institutions.

Before COVID-19 struck the world, we were gaga about online education, and some even predicted that the future would be online education and that classroom education would cease to exist. However, when the deadly virus forced us to resort to online education, we realised the hazards of this mode of delivery, and people started talking about the hybrid form. The Covid experience also made people accept that online education cannot replace classroom education.

Therefore, instead of promoting full-fledged online degree programmes, using this mode to complement classroom programmes will make better sense. There should be three purposes of online courses –

1.? Those who already have a degree in the relevant field should use online education for continuous knowledge upgradation because the world is changing very fast.

2.? The students should be encouraged to register for online courses their institutions cannot offer in the classrooms. This arrangement will enable students to go for multidisciplinary degrees, as suggested by NEP 2020.

3.? Because of financial constraints, some students cannot continue their education, although they are capable. Such students should register for online courses while they continue with their jobs.

Unfortunately, in our country, online education is considered a gateway for those who cannot secure admission to HEIs. Universities and institutions offering online education enrol an unrestricted number of students in these programmes. Students and parents do not understand that the online degree will not take them anywhere if they are not academically sound.

It is beyond any doubt that we must make higher education accessible to more and more students, but it should be for deserving students. We should not look at the GER merely as a quantitative target we want to achieve. In the context of the challenges discussed in both parts of the article, we can conclude that we should not use online and distance education as a substitute for classroom education, burden existing HEIs with the unmanageable number of students, and resort to opening more HEIs indiscriminately to make higher education more accessible. New HEIs should be started only in those geographical areas where their number is grossly inadequate.

Then what is the way out?

We should look at higher education more objectively. Every student going for an undergraduate degree must know why s/he wants to get that degree. We must understand that every person does not have to be college-educated to make a career. There are millions of jobs for which the person needs technical skills like computer operation or selling skills. These skills, clubbed with five to six months of on-the-job training to understand the organisation’s operations, can make a person ready to go. A 12th-pass person can easily do that. Then why should s/he go for a university degree if s/he is not passionate about academics?

The reason is that we live with a mindset that makes an undergraduate degree a minimum qualification for any and every job. Employers must change their mindset and adopt a more practical approach. Secondly, we link it to our social status. Society should stop treating non-graduates inferior if they can follow their passion and earn their livelihood.

Higher education should be left for those who are passionate about learning, are academically above average, want a technical or professional qualification, wish to appear for competitive exams, want to make a career in highly specialised fields, and wish to focus on research and academics.

We require a massive change in our thinking process to be more practical toward this challenge. The governments should wake up to understand this reality. Employers should be more focused on what they want. They can change all the rules of the game for a better society and a prosperous country. Parents and students should not get swayed by what others do. They should carefully decide what they can and want to do and choose their path accordingly.

The purpose of the arguments given in this article is not to suggest restricting access to higher education. More and more students should prove themselves eligible for college education and go for it. Undeniably, we need more HEIs, and we should open them. However, we must take an all-compassing view and approach this challenge more objectively.

Instead of chasing the holy grail of high GER mechanically, we should be more rational. Instead of running after a number, we must focus on creating a prosperous country and happy citizens. That can happen when the youth choose their learning trajectory based on passion and honest self-evaluation.

*****