Centralisation of education harmful to federal system: K.N. Panikkar

Updated on: Monday, June 27, 2011

Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) vice-chairman K.N. Panikkar said here on Saturday that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's centralising trends in the education sector in the country would be detrimental to India's federal system.

Inaugurating the State conference of the All Kerala Private College Teachers' Association (AKPCTA), Dr. Panikkar said the proposed National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) exemplified the Union government's move to centralise the education sector. The University Grants Commission (UGC) and the other regulatory bodies would be replaced by the NCHER, a body that would be controlled by seven persons. Though there would be a collegium to assist the commission, decisions would be made by the commission, he added.

Observing that the attempts at centralisation were linked with globalisation, the KSHEC vice-chairman said Indian democracy was being protected by the country's federalism. Education being in the concurrent list was now being shifted to the Central list, he said. Stating that the education sector in the country had witnessed rapid changes over the past six years, he said the education policy being pursued by the Union government indicated the growing influence of globalisation in the sector.

Dr. Panikkar also said that the emphasis in the draft 12th Five-Year Plan on improving quality of education in the existing institutions would only result in quality improvement in some institutions while leaving a large number of institutions without quality education. Under this scheme, the quality of education accessible to a minority would be different from that available to the vast majority, he said adding that this idea was acceptable to the middle-class in the country. The draft Plan envisages increase in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education from 12.4 per cent to 21 per cent, he said adding that students belonging to the 21 per cent would be among the privileged sections. The majority of colleges and universities lacked even basic infrastructure, he said.

Referring to the Union government's policy of allowing foreign universities to start their branches in the country, Dr. Panikkar said the experience of the countries where foreign universities had opened their branches had shown that they would offer courses that were not very attractive.

“Our universities will become the backwaters as the best teachers from these institutions move to foreign universities,” he said.

Education was closely linked with a nation's identity and culture, he noted.

Stating that the Union government's emphasis was on establishing institutions, but not on offering financial help to students to go for higher education, Dr. Panikkar said higher education could not be improved without improving the quality of undergraduate (UG) courses.

The draft 12th Five-Year Plan was silent about this, he said adding that the State was focussing on improving UG programmes and offering

scholarships. The draft Plan does not have any plan for reforming the higher education, but ‘nibbles at the edges', he averred. Observing

that higher education in India had class dimensions, the KSHEC vice-chairman said the inequalities in the higher education sector was an important issue to be addressed.

AKPCTA State president M. Safaruddin presided. All India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisation national secretary Madhu

Paranjpe and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader M.V. Jayarajan were among those present at the function.

Centralisation of education harmful to federal system: K.N. Panikkar

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