In deviation from the objectives highlighted in earlier three
policy documents, NEP 2020 recommends: rootedness in Indian ethos, eternal
Indian knowledge and thought as guiding light of the policy on one side and
knowledge society, knowledge economy, dream of becoming of super power,
coupled with an assertion that ancient Indian knowledge is the 21st century
education. And all the stack holders of higher education are to be yoked to
fulfill the implicitly oxymoronic objectives: one component carries forward
from medieval dreams of endeavoring harmonious co-existence with perennial
inequality and inequity and on the other component of ultra-modern knowledge
society with inclusiveness.
First, let us try to get ourselves familiarized with
ground realities of Higher Education in India in last 2 decades. Before the
neoliberal era under liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG)
were started, the Social Character of Higher Education in India was basically
of simplicity and intellectual vibrancy, at least in principle. After
Neo-liberal assaults were started, perspectives of faculty members have been
forced to change. The Teaching job becomes comparatively lucrative and in the
meantime, the space for Administrative Autonomy and Academic Freedom have been
narrowed down.
In the newly emerging scenario, Democratic space for free and
fair debate and peaceful protest as vibrant campus democracy have been
scuttled repeatedly. And whatever little space available is focused on issues
concerning mostly the faculty's entitlement or students' immediate interest
such as scholarship, admission, reservation, salary, etc. The University
faculties now live within their self-imposed Laskman-Rekha.
Let us also not forget that what is happening in education
particularly in higher education does not happen suddenly. It started with the
LPG which was initiated during UPA Government and it has been consistently
continued by NDA Government. Agenda that Education is to serve the interest of
Global Capital, not necessarily for the need of the people of India is
increasingly pushing forward.
The thematic changes in the purpose and the content of the
Higher Education have huge implications that the ramification may not be easy
to revert. In fact, we are observing campus militarization, campus
communalization and assault to campus democracy in the last two decades. What
can we expect from NEP 2020? With NEP 2020, are we expecting the better or
worse! This is what we are trying to ascertain now.
The NEP 2020 highlights that the problems in Higher
Education today are : (i) Fragmented ecosystem, (ii) less on cognitive skills,
(iii) rigid separation, early specialization, narrow areas of study, (iv)
limited access by SEDG(socially economically disadvantage group), (v) limited
autonomy of teachers and institutions, (vi) inadequate mechanism of merit
based career management and progression and (vii) lessor peer reviewed
competitive research, (viii) ineffective regulatory system, (ix) large
affiliation and low standard of UG.
Though there is no study or research to substantiate the
above listed so called Major Problems in NEP-2020, let us assume in good faith
that the Government has done adequate research and supporting data are
available on demand. Then what is the solution for the above problems.
The solutions listed in section 9.3 can be summed up as:
(a) Multidisciplinary Universities, (b) Merit based Leadership, (c)
Online/ODL, (d) NRF to fund research and (e) centralized 4 vertical structures
under a new higher authority. There are others recommendations such as more
autonomy, light and tight rules, revamp curriculum, more access, equity,
inclusion, etc. which may remain as rhetoric as long as centralization
persists. But what do we mean by Multidisciplinary University? What is going
to happen in a Multi-disciplinary University? Will there be campus democracy
in the newly proposed Multidisciplinary Universities? Will there be adequate
public funding?
NEP 2020 grades the Multidisciplinary University into three
categories viz. (i) Research intensive universities; (ii) Teaching intensive
universities; (iii) Autonomous degree granting colleges (AC). There is one
condition that the Multidisciplinary University must have minimum number of
students 3000 students for the smallest university called Autonomous Degree
Granting College (AC) and there are no minimum numbers of faculty strength.
It is also said that the single stream colleges and universities
will be phased out. It means that those colleges with students less than 3000
at a given academic year and with only one stream will be abolished. We can
now imagine that how many colleges will be closed. Closing colleges means
erasing the struggle of people in establishing the colleges. No colleges have
ever started out of blue. It has humane history of struggle by the
community(ies). Closing colleges also mean terminating the job of
non-permanent government lecturers and all lecturers in private colleges.
Shall we not ponder and act?
What do we mean by Multidisciplinary? There is no specific
mention of definition of Multidisciplinary in the NEP 2020. The most viable
and safest notion drawn from the NEP 2020 about what Multidisciplinary means
is this that the University runs at least three courses: one general course,
one vocational course and one professional course. While we say general
courses, we understand that these are traditional subjects like political
science, economics, physics, literature etc and the courses are directly under
the Education Ministry (as it has been renamed in place of MHRD).
What about the Vocational Courses? The general understanding of
Vocational courses is this that it trains a person (not necessarily educates)
to work for a quality product- physical or service. And we know that
Professional course are specialised courses of higher level. A
Multidisciplinary University by design will be under multiple Ministries such
as Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Education etc.
This will simply complicate the relationship.
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