A report based on a six-State study by the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) has revealed “discrimination” in institutions of higher education correlated to the growing number of underprivileged students over the years.
“As students are coming to the campus with varying socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, competency levels, pre-college credentials and aspiration levels, campuses are now becoming the site of political contestation, assertion, and assimilation of different types of identities,” the report says. “The widening diversity of the student body is also reflected through varying ideological orientations, values, and differing styles of social interactions in the campuses. The recent incidents of unrest on various campuses are indicative of these trends,” it underlines.
Language competency
The NIEPA report says despite larger representation of marginal groups like SCs, STs and OBCs at these institutions, problems of inclusion persist.
“Academic differences remain largely unattended in the classroom. The need for taking into account unequal learning inputs for students from lower social strata and having weak pre-college credentials is mostly ignored,” the report says. “Since the medium of instruction in most of the institutions… is English, lack of competency in the language poses many challenges for disadvantaged groups.”
It also cites the hegemony of students fluent in English and the local language. “Students fluent in English and the local language where the institution is located are able to establish hegemony. This knowledge of the elite language among these students also greatly influences their peer and student-teacher relationships.”
Among the six States covered — Bihar, Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh — Maharashtra colleges were found to offer a better experience for SC and OBC students, the report says.
Maharashtra vs U.P.
“In the case of Maharashtra , it was seen that the social composition of students in the institutions was dominated by SC and OBC students while the ST students, particularly those from the de-notified tribes, have a lower representation. The over-representation of SCs, STs, and OBCs in case study institutions presents a different case in Maharashtra,” the study says. Students get better support from teachers. This was also due to the fact that members from disadvantaged backgrounds are well represented in faculty positions and in key administrative and academic positions.”
U.P. represents the other extreme. “The case study from Uttar Pradesh highlighted the mismatch between faculty and student social group composition,” the report points out. “While pupils from the marginalised communities dominate the student bodies, the teachers predominantly belong to the upper castes in educational institutions in the state... There are also several incidences of discrimination experienced by the marginalised students, with the discrimination starting right from their initial days at the campus.”
While there is an improvement in the representation of SCs in the composition of faculty members in Delhi, the report says, discrimination against SC students still persists. “Once the identity of students is known, lower-caste students are likely get lower internal marks from the teachers. The level of participation of SC/ST students in campus activities is also low as they fear discrimination,” it adds.
