Higher Education: Indian Perspective

Abstract

The paper presents an overview of the contemporary issues and challenges of Indian higher education. India has an old tradition of knowledge and learning. Initially, the British had accepted the indigenous system of knowledge and allowed institutions for indigenous education to exist. English was established as the only medium of instruction permitted for university education. Indians valued European higher education as the means to acquire employment in the British establishment; to enter the professions of law, medicine and teaching as practised under British rule; and to gain access to European social circles. When India acquired independence in 1947, education was chosen to be the principal instrument for the country's transformation from a poor, dependent, economically and technologically backward imperial colony into an advanced nation. India's experience illustrates how difficult it is for developing countries to bridge gaps and to keep pace with the developed world. Quality is also affected by the fact that few students are academically motivated. Most pursue a degree for the status it carries and because it is a required qualification for employment. But the reservations system has enabled the disadvantaged castes and tribes to advance significantly, in education as well as in employment. In the face of this scenario, higher education in India can hardly claim to have functioned successfully as an instrument of equality. Yet, there is visible, as well as statistical, evidence of a complete transformation of the structure of opportunities in the country for the traditionally disadvantaged castes and tribes, for women and for the classes that not very long ago had little or no access to higher education and to the futures that education opens up.