The suicide of Jishnu Pranoy, a first-year undergraduate engineering student of Nehru College of Engineering at Pampady in Thrissur, who was found hanging in the hostel, with veins cut, has generated intense debates and spawned student ire over the plight of self-financing engineering education in the State. There have been allegations that the student took the extreme step after being caught copying in the examination and the college authorities threatened to ban him from appearing in other exams. Ever since the State opened the higher education sector for the entry of self-financing institutions, Kerala has seen the spectre of burgeoning engineering, medical and other professional colleges. Among these, the top slot comprises 146 self-financing engineering colleges, of which 23 are government-sponsored. The government and government-aided colleges together are only 12. Does a small State like Kerala need such a vast number of engineering institutions? After the liberalization of the higher education sector, successive ministries have, without rhyme or reason, accorded approvals for more and more private self-financing colleges.
Often, universities under whose dispensation such institutions were to be affiliated had little say as to whether another institution would augment engineering education or generate quality professionals for the existing job market. The higher education “industry” thus flourished in the State unlike other industries. Every admission was based on down payment of cash. In spite of laws forbidding capitation fees, huge amounts of capitation also became the norm if one had to obtain a branch of choice since only those with a rank of 1000 or below in the entrance examination secured admission to the government or government-aided colleges; the remaining had to seek admission in private colleges. Universities and statutory bodies such as AICTE often turned a blind eye to the necessary infrastructure and the availability of quality teaching professionals in these institutions, enabling them to function with impunity. Often there was political pressure on these bodies to accord affiliation. Students and parents eventually became scapegoats since most of these institutions, barring a few, did not provide quality education as evidenced by the dismal pass percentages in many of them.
When such institutions started faring poorly, it dawned on them that tightening the student discipline was one way to engineer a better output. When the prospect of closing down the shop with a lucrative business loomed large, managements took recourse to more regimentation without realizing that a liberal atmosphere is far more conducive to learning. Parents were probably guilty too since many supported or turned their back on such draconian rules and regulations in the hope that it would elicit better performance from their wards. The de-politicisation of professional college campuses, devoid of student unions to raise their voice against draconian rules, helped managements to become callous and indifferent. It appears that there has not been any significant debate or discussion among the academia, government or the intelligentsia whether our institutions produce quality engineers, capable of solving complex technological problems that face us in the 21st century.
Short-term goal seems to be providing manpower to the software industry for which a couple of years' instruction in coding and in English language is good enough. It is sheer waste of time and money to train an electrical or mechanical engineer as fodder for the software industry. Student suicides happen in public-funded institutions also, but often do not get much media attention or raise public ire. There is a general perception that private entities are indifferent to genuine grievances of the student community since there are no mechanisms to fix their accountability towards students or society. Higher education, especially professional higher education in Kerala, has been at the crossroads for many decades. The public, academics, the intelligentsia, political parties and student unions have been mute spectators to successive ministries’ policies for decades.
While there is an endless debate and discussion in the print and electronic media and among the public on whether we need an airport somewhere, there appears to be none when it comes to the establishment of a technological, medical or another uni-disciplinary university, let alone a new self-financing college in the engineering or in the medical sector. Universities are born out of ordinances promulgated by the government and are a fait accompli no matter what little discussion takes place in the legislature. If higher education woes have to end, this mindset needs to change with the realization that education, especially higher education, is an enabling force that can change the destiny of the individual, society and the State at large. Till then, we will only be shedding crocodile tears whenever a tragic incident like the death of the young student like Jishnu happens, fervently hoping such tragedies do not recur.
Uniformity in higher edu breeds mediocrity
Much harm has been done to the higher education sector with narrow-cast universities. The establishment of a Technological University further aggravated the scene. Colleges affiliated to different universities used to be monitored better by the syndicates since their number was not too large. When all engineering institutions came under the dispensation of the Technological University, it was impossible to monitor them since the university did not have adequate resources and professional manpower. The fault lies squarely with the government for creating monstrosities such as technological and medical universities on the pretext that it would encourage research.
Apart from their inability to monitor and mentor, the new institutions merely implemented uniform syllabi and examination. All diversity that existed in the engineering curriculum (or medical curriculum) was gone. This further led to mediocrity in engineering education. To borrow a phrase from Bertrand Russel, 'uniformity in higher education creates mediocrity in adult life'. Mediocrity was also encouraged by government policies such as doing away with the minimum score that an aspirant has to secure in the entrance examination (in mathematics for instance).
This was with the unabashed aim of furthering the self-interest of these self-financing institutions on the argument that those who could not secure admission in Kerala will run away to institutions outside. Engineering education is a strategic foundational element to build innovation capacities and requires a strong foundation in mathematics. Those who do not possess a strong aptitude for mathematics and natural sciences are not going to be engineering material.
(The author, a former VC, Kerala University, teaches at IIT Chennai)
