Vishakapatnam, December 07: There are several structural problems with the nature of higher education in the country. While the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) has stressed upon the need for improving the overall enrollment rate, concerns have also been expressed about the quality of education, limited access for disadvantaged sections and the ill-effects of increasing commercialisation of education, said Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan.
Delivering the 76th convocation address of the Andhra Univesity here today, the Chief Justice of India said the fundamental problem was that of inadequate personnel and resources for providing quality education in publicly-founded educational institutions.
‘’While one can point at exceptions such as IITs and IIMs and a few Central universities, the harsh reality is that most of the government-run institutions are chronically underfounded and hence they find it difficult to attract and retain motivated teachers. Such a situation has arisen on account of poor service conditions and relatively low social prestige for university teachers. Most of the talented graduates of leading institutions are attracted by lucrative opportunities abroad or in the private sector and there are no strong incentives for joining the teaching profession,’’ the CJI said.
He said in an increasingly competitive economy, the quality of education, particularly in professional courses, depends on the provision of the infrastructure such as well-maintained classrooms, hostels, library facilities and access to electronic resources. While thousands of government- run colleges all over the country fare very poorly in this regard, similar problems were pointed out in numerous privately- run institutions as well, he said.
The Chief Justice of India opined that there was a need to rationlise fee structures in public institutions where the Government should subsidise education to a large extent eventhough students were capable of paying higher fee. A balance needs to be struck between the motives of ensuring financial viability of the institutions and preserving equitable access to educational opportunties for all sections of the society. The same could be done through targeted financial aid programmes that account for the individual circumstances of needy students, Justice Balakrishnan said.
Earlier, Chancellor of Andhra University and Governor N D Tiwari conferred LLD (Doctorate of Law) on Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan, DLitt (Doctorate of Letters) on Lt Governor of Puducherry Iqbal Singh and GMR Group chairman Grandi Malikharjuna Rao and ‘Kala Prapurna’ on noted playback singer S P Balasubramanyam.
Later, Tiwari awarded PhD degrees to 238 scholars and M.Phil degrees to 62 besides presenting research medals to 10 students in Arts, Commerce, Education, Law, Engineering, Pharmacy and Science and Technology.
Vice-chancellor of Andhra University Beela Satyanarayana, Registrar of AU P V G D Prasad Reddy, Visakhapatnam District Collector J Shyamala Rao, professors, research scholars and students of various departments and judicial officers from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were present.
–Agencies