Welcome Address by CA Prashant Jain

A very Good Morning to Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Dr. Rajkamal, Additional Director Higher Education Dr. N.K. Dhakad, Shri P.C. Jain, Dr. CA P.K. Jain,  CA R. K. Khandelwal, Shri Anil Gorani, my dear faculty members, all the dignitaries sitting on the Dias and off the Dias and my dear students.

 

I welcome you all to the 13th National Conference on Mapping for Excellence: Challenges Ahead Higher Education: Shaping Future Managers.

 

The higher education system in India has grown in a remarkable way, particularly in the post-independence period, to become one of the largest systems of its kind in the world. 

 

Challenges in higher education are no longer only nation centric. They have already attained global dimensions, particularly after trade in services has been brought under the purview of the WTO regime. 

 

With the explosive growth of knowledge in the past century and with the development of handy tools of information and communication technologies as well as of other scientific innovations, competition has become a hallmark of growth all over the World. 

 

As a result, knowledge is not only going to be the driver of Indian economy, but also, it is going to permeate into all the strata of Indian society for a better quality of life and living conditions. 

 

Therefore, India has to rise to the occasion urgently and reorient its higher education system to be vibrant, competitive, meaningful and purposeful. 

 

Besides, there is absolutely no substitute to quality of higher education, although the country has been faced for a long time with the serious problem of meeting the quantity needs of our society. 

 

It is, therefore, essential that a careful balancing of the two is given priority to meet the twin requirements of the society in the foreseeable future.

 

The Indian higher education system is one of the largest such systems in the World. It is estimated that there will be a tremendous pressure of numbers on this system and a large number of additional students will be knocking at the doors of higher education institutions in the country. There are also new challenges of management and regulation being faced by these institutions, which require serious attention, both at the institutions in the public sector and also those in the private sector now growing at a fast pace. As a result, the old structures of management established in pre-independent India and working during most of the twentieth century are now required to undergo drastic changes. Besides, the demands of the society for equity and accommodation cannot be neglected any more.

 

I want to flag few questions which are coming to my mind especially to the students sitting in the auditorium:-

 

• Who taught you how to write, read and talk?

• Who taught you manners?

• Who taught you how to behave?

• Who taught you how to calculate?

• How did you learned banking?

• How did you learned computers?

 

Again, I want to flag few more questions but this time especially to the respected delegates:-

• Will you leave your child to the current system of education?

• Will your child develop without your support?

• Will he be able to stand in this world without informal learning?

• Will he match the industry requirement with present curriculum and education system?

• How much faith do you have in evaluation system? Will you agree that current evaluation system is perfect to judge?

• Can a student’s knowledge be judged with an examination of 3 hours? 

 

I want to share to the audience the reality of current education system. I want to share the current picture of education in India with following points:-

What generally / Maximum number of students are doing – Students View Point:-

• Cramming, Cramming and Cramming – that too only at the time of examination

• Completely Examination Oriented

• Marks Oriented

• Placement Oriented

• Syllabus is the boundary and closed circle of learning

• Students read only what can make them clear exams

• Less sense of Outside Competition 

• Less focus on basic essential things like read, write, speak and other PD aspects

• Less focus on basic manners

• Very few students have respect for teachers and parents now days

• Most students get de-focused and enter in wrong practices

• Incorrect usage of technology (Rather Misuse of Technology)

• Less focus on practical aspects of life

• No place for morale values

• I would call ‘Google Based Generation’ / ‘Copy Paste Generation’ – Considers themselves as fully aware and knowledgeable 

• I would call ‘Fully Automated Generation’ 

• Less focus on current updates, newspapers, etc

• Less financial discipline, burden on parents

• Less willingness in student to learn

• Great level of distrust between parent and student

• Training – Mostly done dummy, for name sake and only for compliance

• Minor projects / Major Projects – mostly taken from a photocopy shop / copied from elsewhere; totally dummy and fake – giving students nothing but just a compliance 

 

What Generally Maximum Number of Education Institutes / Bodies are doing?  

• Less focus on overall development of student 

• Education has become Commercial / Business

• Less focus on learning 

• No link with industry requirements

• Too much to teach in short time

• Most of the Institutes are only becoming a placement hub / co-ordinators

• Most of the Institute do not teach basic things like public speaking

• Only aim left is to take admission and somehow use contacts to get them placed

• Hardly any effective teaching done in most of the colleges

• Low grade examination scheme

• Improper examination paper setting

• Ineffective evaluation system

• Degree – Name sake, lost its relevance completely

• Research – Completely became Paper Work, copy and paste exercise

• Very Old / outdated Curriculum

• Theory Based Curriculum

• Very Less use of curriculum in practical situation

• More emphasis on old ideologies & concepts 

• Not in line with industry demand and requirements

• Lecture based not Case Based / Practical Situation Based

• More emphasis on Spoon Feeding & cramming

• Less emphasis on Real Research

• More emphasis on examination than learning

• Negligible emphasis on upcoming technologies & Changes

 

Pioneer Institute has organized this conference on the theme centered at higher education scenario. I am hopeful that the eminent personalities from academics, industries and media along with the future generation – i.e. students will discuss and recommend on above issues.

 

With this I now declare this conference open.