Education reforms hit a roadblock

Updated on: Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Roads are strips of land that have been cleared and further improved for movement of people and goods. They should fulfil two fundamental attributes — access and mobility. Design of roads includes structural and geometric elements. Structural design begins with volume of traffic, the subsurface soil conditions, and materials for pavement. Geometric design deals with the slope of the road cross-section, the number and width of the lanes, and other characteristics.

The origin of roads is predates recorded history. Road transport started with horses, oxen, and human beings carrying goods. The conditions were primitive. The Roman Empire had a road network of more than 80,000 km. The pre-Columbian Incas of South America had, before the year 1492, made roads 5,200-km long, along the Andes. Mesopotamia, China, and India also had made roads many centuries ago. But modern highways with strength and surface quality came with the introduction of automobiles around 1890.

The most significant contribution in the evolution of roads came from two Scottish engineers, Thomas Telford (1757-1834) and John McAdam (1756-1836). Telford designed the system of raising the foundation of the road in the centre to ensure drainage of water. John McAdam designed roads using broken stones. He embanked roads a few feet higher than the surrounding terrain so as to drain away water from the road surface. McAdam roads use interlocking of coarse aggregates bonded by stone chips and dust. They continued to be the main form of roads until automobiles came to the scene in a big way. Various kinds of materials from asphalt to concrete are being used today for the construction of roads.

But new kinds of materials and styles of construction have to be evolved to meet modern requirements. Research on roads and highways plays a big role not only in making travel and transport comfortable, but in enhancing economic development of the country. The premier institution working in this area in India is the Central Road Research Institute, Delhi - Mathura Road, New Delhi-110025; Web site: www.crridom.gov.in.

CRRI

CRRI is a premier national research institute in the area of roads and road transport. This constituent of CSIR is situated at the eleventh kilometre on the Delhi-Mathura Road in New Delhi. Its well-equipped modern laboratories are manned by professionals of different disciplines — engineering, physical, and social sciences. CRRI constantly endeavours to carry out research and development projects on design, construction and maintenance of roads and runways. Further, it operates in areas such as

Basic and applied research, in line with the national priorities for investigation, construction and maintenance of different types of roads and airfield runways,

Developing appropriate tools, machinery, equipment and instruments for adopting technologies related to highway engineering to achieve indigenous self-sufficiency.

Developing expertise to achieve judicious solutions for special problems

Developing specifications, labour-intensive methods and manual aids for construction of low cost, all weather village roads for under-developed regions of the country.

Ground improvements

The Kerala State Higher Education Council which was born on March 16, 2007, is today a ‘lame duck' entity. Unable to take any new initiatives or take substantive continuing action on any of its old initiatives, the council awaits a reconstitution.

It is understood that the council officials have repeatedly notified the government that the body's term has come to an end. At a recent press conference in Thiruvananthapuram the Education Minister P. K. Abdu Rabb said in reply to a question that the council would be “reconstituted soon.”

In keeping the council in a limbo what the present United Democratic Front government is also doing is to keep in limbo the much needed reforms in the higher education sector in Kerala.

The government is also yet to make clear whether the council would be an instrument, a hub, for such reforms as it was under M. A. Baby's education department. If indications emanating from the UDF are correct, the government may go in for a comprehensive overhaul of the very laws that govern the operations of the council.

For long, the UDF has charged Mr. Baby with politicising higher education and has also insinuated on many occasions that the committees set up by the council to study and report on various aspects of higher education had political agendas to fulfil. In 2010 when the LDF government decided to seek an all-party consensus for the implementation of the reports of these committees, only the Jacob Tharu committee which recommended reforms in the examination structure and practices of universities met with approval from the then Opposition.

“We asked the LDF government to immediately implement the Jacob Tharu report. Why did Mr. Baby not do so? Now, I don't think the UDF government is in any way bound to implement that report. I feel that new committees may be set up to study these issues and the UDF government may implement the recommendations of those committees. The KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala has made it very clear that the LDF government had politicised the education sector and that we cannot abide by initiatives arising from such politicisation,” said G. V. Hari the member secretary of the UDF expert committee on education.

While in the Opposition the UDF pilloried the report of the Anandakrishnan Committee which was set up to review the acts of Kerala's universities. The then opposition had termed this report as being wishy-washy and inconsequential. The UDF argument was that the acts and statutes of each university should have been looked at independently and then amended wherever necessary. The question is, would the UDF government — with its wafer-thin majority in the Assembly — feel bold enough to undertake such a review?

To be fair, the UDF expert committee has stressed the need for reviewing the laws that govern universities. The committee has also called for freeing colleges from the archaic affiliating system, for giving them more autonomy and for insisting on “self-accountability.” A committee document — reportedly submitted to the government — calls for creating a “climate for systemic changes” in universities. It is understood that the document also speaks of the need for reforming the way vice chancellors and other key officers of universities are selected.

But then, the stand of the UDF when in the opposition was that the Kerala State Higher Education Council had no mandate to even look into possible reforms of the acts and statutes of universities. So then which agency would the UDF now turn to for suggesting such reforms? Would the government set up committees outside the council or would the laws of the Council be reworded? Either way the government has not given any indication, yet.

What is more, would the UDF government try and arrive at an all-party consensus in the case of such reforms? If yes, what imperative would the LDF have to agree to any or some of the reform measures suggested by an UDF committee? What is to prevent the LDF from saying that the UDF has “politicised” the higher education sector and that it, in turn, would seek to undo what the UDF may now do?

Would not the recommendations of a UDF committee meet with same fate as that of those set up by the present council.

In other words, what guarantee is there that Kerala would see the emergence of a bi-partisan education policy; something it badly needs and surely deserves? Mor

Education reforms hit a roadblock

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