Speakers at the inauguration of a two-day conference on outcome-based education on Friday highlighted the lack of professionalism in higher education and the absence of rigorous evaluation systems.
The conference was organised at the National Institute of Technical Education by NITK’s Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management.
Mathew J. Manimala, Chairperson, Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management, Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru, said that research in Indian universities were not up to the mark.
“What do we get? How many patents do we have?” he asked, adding that no significant theory had been developed by Indian researchers. He decried the fact that most Indian scientists aspired for administrative posts rather than lab work. The government was investing wrongly – subsidising students who have qualified to join IIMs instead of investing on enabling people to qualify for it. Banks are queuing up to help those selected for IIMs, he pointed out.
D.K. Subramanian, former Dean, Indian Institute of Science, said that Indian universities were so outdated that he feared that students were showing interest in online courses of reputed universities elsewhere. He was sorry that with one single test, universities were deciding the fate of students without any concern for them. The continuous evaluation had been misunderstood to mean multiple tests. He dubbed them as “capital punishment”.
Principles and practices were contradictory with stakeholders bending or breaking the rules meant to improve the situation. “We are too clever. We try to find shortcuts. We are lazy,” he said.
Raising the question whether a student should come to class at all, he said the teachers’ “living” was at stake. “If education system remains stagnant, will not our students move away from us?” he said.
Conference organised by NITK’s Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management
‘Most Indian scientists aspire for administrative posts rather than lab work’
