Posts Tagged ‘Kerala Education System’
Favoritism and lack of integrity have been the pain-points of private and government educational institutions. The management is not transparent in fees structure, and seat allocation. Plagued by escalating expenses, private managements are forced to encourage people to buy seats on a management quota in privately funded colleges. The details of the fees are not consistent; rather they vary, and are seldom disclosed.
What started of as a disease in private colleges, soon spread into government colleges. Most government colleges were controlled by political will. This made bureaucrats and politicians rule the roost. Large and exorbitant fees for management seats of medical and engineering colleges went straight into the pockets of politicians. The spoils were also shared equally amongst the upper froth of management. These practices left students lose their confidence in education. Higher education has been hit badly. The trend still continues in most colleges. The government’s impetus and support to education has encourages education in a big way. But there also exist a section of educational institutions that patronize unjust and corrupt behavior.
There cannot be two rulers ruling on similar sets of rules. Government colleges have seen this problem of being ruled by politicians and the private management. There is a constant tug of war between the two. The only way to uproot this problem is to decentralize education. Decentralization can expedite decisions, make the education system clear of political interference, and give colleges more credibility. Decentralization can make the system fast, and move it away from traditional time consuming procedures, that require use of influence, and political girth to push ones way up.
To set this right, the University Grants Mission, sponsored a scheme to build autonomous colleges, despite colleges lacking financial stability. However, this system has not seen the light of the day, given the lack of political will. The political influence in university administration has created multiple strata of management. This has further muddled accountability and transparency. Students are now disenchanted with all these developments. New and noble educational initiatives are finding it difficult to convince people because of this.
Kerala needs lots of financial aid to enhance education delivery mechanisms. It also needs to look at adding more capacity to its educational institutions to enable them to dispense education to more and more students. Intake capacity is not great in technical education and professional education centers. It is so less, that people have to scamper for seats, like politicians do for theirs in the state assemblies. Increasing capacity will put paid to the problem of plenty. In Kerala, there are plenty of bright students, and it makes sense for the government to provide the financial aid for increasing intake capacity of colleges and institutes.
All these activities require funds. The supply of funds has never been sufficient. The government has to lobby for external funds to support the human resource development in the state. Statistics indicate a dip in government expenditure in education post the fifth five-year plan. The state has been undergoing a financial crisis constantly. Fingers have been pointed out at the state’s expenditure on social development sectors, especially education. Education is now facing the brunt of getting a slowed-down investment rate. Foreign direct investment in education also seems to be siphoned off to other development activities. A collective realization should prevail, about education’s role in giving Kerala an edge over other states in terms of qualified human resources.
The educational sector has found it difficult to break-even. It has not been able to fully recover the investment costs, and post significant profit margins. If investment has to be attracted, these things are crucial. Charging educational fees can retrieve cost. Given the state’s inclination for free education, not much education fee is being generated. Educational loans have also been discouraged, given the low employment rate in the state. Banks and financial institutions are unsure how to control long distance loan deliveries. However, if the government thinks of loan subsidy, banks might be more cooperative, since the repayment is easy on the students, and suited to run around their earning periods and finally close down.