Vice-President Hamid Ansari yesterday lamented that the educational sector in India presented a “dismal” picture, and called for an effective and transparent regulatory mechanism to ensure quality education by private higher education institutions.
“... the educational scene in our country today – primary, secondary and university or professional – presents a dismal picture as it suffers from the tyranny of numbers; the folly of seeking quick fixes, and indifference to quality,” Ansari said after releasing a book titled The Education President.
The book, published by the Institute for Higher Education Research and Capacity Building at the O P Jindal Global University, talks about the important steps President Pranab Mukherjee took in the field of higher education.
Ansari said higher education institutions had a role to play in imparting knowledge and training the minds of the new generation.
He said the education sector had witnessed “tremendous” growth, especially with the participation of private players in the last 25 years, though some of the private institutions were merely “degree-granting portals.”
“Almost 59% of students in higher education are enrolled in private institutions. While some of these maintain high standards, a majority are lucrative degree-granting portals where infrastructure is not adequate and admission procedure is not transparent,” the vice-president said.
He also expressed concern over the lack of research orientation and the growing financial burden in the form of educational loans.