35.Impressions on Quality Concerns

Dr.Ningamma Betsur, Associate Professor, Mysore University was the Resource Person for the thematic session on quality concerns  in Education, at  the National Seminar organized on National Education Day (11 November 2011) by the Department of Education, University of Calicut. During the  lecture,  the speaker attempted to explore several dimensions of quality. The concept of quality she opined  is :

·        inherently multidimensional.

·        linked to results and partly to objectives and components that intervene to reach these results.

·        values with time, need, interests and convictions of various groups and people.

·        not homogenous at any given time and the heterogeneity of quality is associated with objective and subjective considerations.

Other observations made include:

·        In India for instance, we may place moral values at the top  while assessing quality...not perhaps in other countries.

·        Earlier quality education for women in India meant making them come out of their homes and undergo  a regular and useful course of study in an educational institution. Today, it focuses on women empowerment.

·        It is a pity that after  getting eighty percent marks for the Pre-University examination, on failing to get an admission for the MBBS  course, students commit suicide. It is high  time our education empowered  our children to accept  failure.

·        If quality is our prime concern, we ought to develop the  ability in our students  to ask critical questions. But what normally happens is that in our classes in colleges, teachers lecture  where information from the teacher’s notes is transferred to the student’s notes with real information entering either head!

During her lecture, Dr. Ningamma introduced a few  anecdotes to illustrate her arguments. Given below are  a few:

·        Once   while  food was being served  during a marriage  function  a relative of  a  civil engineer  noticed that the sambar  just poured was running down the banana leaf. At once he asked the  engineer: “What kind of Civil Engineer are you who cannot even manage   the flow of sambar!” . Can this failure be attributed to the kind of education we are imparting in our engineering colleges? It is here that issues related to quality should come up for discussion.

·        A student once  inquired  why he is denied the privilege of not using a chit with the main points, during  the university examination, when many Professors who  engage classes for them, use a chit with the main points jotted down!

·        One great advantage of the setting up of NAAC in India is that many college buildings which had not received a coating of paint for decades have now adorned a  charming look.

Dr. Ningamma during her lecture referred to the  communiqué of the World Conference on Higher Education 2009  “Quality criteria must reflect the overall objectives of higher education, notably the aim of cultivating in students critical and independent thought and the capacity of learning throughout life. They should encourage innovation and diversity”. [UNESCO (2009) 2009 World Conference on Higher Education : The New Dynamics of Higher education and research for Societal Change and development: Communiqué. Author, Paris. p.4]

After the presentation, when  the audience  were invited to join the deliberations, I made the following observation: “Well..., the UNESCO communiqué  highlights the cognitive domain... what about the other domains/ dimensions?...We in India normally go into raptures when we make a reference to education of the Vedic age, particularly the Gurukula System of Education...but  did we have a NAAC then?”

A  front page news item in the Malayalam Daily, Kerala Kaumudi  dated 13 November 2011 reads:  Ninety percent of the students in the self financing engineering colleges in Kerala failed to clear their final examination!

Any comments dear reader?

34.Quality Concerns in Education

On National Education Day (11 Nov 2011), the Department of Education, University of Calicut, organized a National Seminar on Quality Concerns in Education.

Prof.(Dr.) Raveendran P.C, Pro Vice Chancellor of University of Calicut in his  inaugural address said:

·        Changes have to happen if  our students  are to become capable of  competing  in the global job market.

·        e-governance of educational institutions have to be undertaken  for better  management of institutions.

·        Campuses should be made wi-fi, where information is easily available. The focus should be on converting information into knowledge and  that knowledge should be used  for research.

·        There is a need for a research monitoring forum too.

From the Key note address by Prof.(Dr.) KKN Kurup, Former Vice Chancellor, University of Calicut:                                                                                 

·        All said and done, we need to admit that  one cause of terrorism is that  resources are  not equally distributed.

·        Education should not be seen as a product, but  a process for benefit of society.

·        Quality of education is related to many aspects of life- social milieu, social environment, Economics etc.

From the felicitation offered by Prof.(Dr.) Laser , Member Syndicate

·        The potential of our students  have often been appreciated...Our primary education system is excellent, but there are shortcomings in our secondary education.

·        We have to  find out why our students are not good when they have to compete globally... We need not re-invent things ...Why not accept the curriculum of foreign countries... adopt what others are doing. In  Science perhaps infrastructure is essential..but in case of Social science it should be feasible.

·        We need to make competition an essential aspect of education.

From the felicitation offered by Prof. (Dr.) M.S.Talawar, of Bangalore University, during the Valedictory session:

·        It is a pity that not a single university in India comes under the top 100 universities...Forty  universities of our neighbouring country, China finds a place in the top 100 universities!

·        Quality we need to admit is a relative term. “ It is my personal conviction that educability, employability and adaptability are the three most essential indicators for quality”.

·        It is worth recalling what was once quoted in the NPE 2006: “ A  teacher should teach and a student  should learn".

I shall quote two Nobel Prize winning authors for the reader to ponder on:

"It is because modern Education is so seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves great results. The wish to preserve the past rather than the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young." - Bertrand Russell     

"You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of Education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others, will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself-educating your own judgement. Those that stay must remember, always and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this society."-  Doris Lessing      

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