| Nagpur: The biggest problem, whether it is the administration, colleges or students, is attitude. Gulabrao Thakare, joint director of technical education (Nagpur division), called it the 'Futala culture'. "Most of the students just loaf around, chit-chatting. They aren't as serious about their career and future as students in Pune or Mumbai are," he pointed out bluntly, adding that no one was even trying to improve the situation.
Saujanya Vruddhula, who just did her Std XII from Delhi Public School, concurred. "The students are so nonchalant. They don't give any value to the degree." Sundari Sree, who teaches at Narayana Vidyalayam and is a parent, echoed the views when she said that students in Nagpur are averse to attending college regularly.
Siddhi Rathi, a Nagpurian who is studying at Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), explained how she went about selecting her institution two years ago. "VIT has international tie-ups, good research, a great faculty who graduated from prestigious institutions like Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT). That tilted the scales in VIT's favour. We just can't expect this quality here," she said.
Two academicians also tackled the question. The first was Vinayak Deshpande, head of the department of business administration, Nagpur University . He said many students studying in colleges in Nagpur come from lower-income families and have jobs alongside. "The quality of students is not there," he said, adding that because the region is not developed industrially, employment prospects were limited, which prompted many students to go to places where opportunities are more abundant.
Shrikant Komawar, principal of Nagpur University's Law College said that the course structure in his faculty was better than that in Mumbai or Pune. "The problem comes when private colleges give internal marks generously to students. While this artificially lifts the profile of the college, it also dilutes the standard," he explained.
Komawar added that dearth of regular teachers was also a major problem. "Out of 35 slots, I have only three full-time teachers. You can't expect contributing teachers to have the same kind of dedication. This must be changed. Some hard decisions need to be taken at the very top level, may be the ministry or the Bar Council of India," he said. Deshpande, too, said that large-scale vacancies brought down quality of education. "The university can't sanction posts. Only the government has the power to do so," he said.
Dr Vaibhav Mahajan, who is also father of HSC 2016 topper Rashi, explained why there is dearth of teachers, at least in government medical colleges. "For someone who is not doing private practice, the salary has to be handsome. But in GMCs, it is not so. A private medical college pays much more, in the form of incentives and perks," he said.
Deshpande said one way to resolve this is by increasing involvement of industry. "As part of their corporate social responsibility, many industries create chair posts in universities. They offer salaries to persons occupying these posts. This can be done in Nagpur," he said.
Vandana Benjamin, principal of Shantiniketan College of Education, placed some of the blame back on the students. "After Std X , they are more inclined to attend tuition classes and flatly tell their college teachers that they won't be regular," she said. Komawar said that the reason may be because students nowadays have information at the click of a button. "Students need interpretation and wisdom from their teachers. But such teachers are hard to come by. While appointing them, several extraneous circumstances are at play. Merit is the last thing to be considered," he said.
Will the situation improve when national-level institutions such as IIM, IIIT, NIPER and MNLU make their presence felt in Nagpur. Komawar was sceptical, saying that the institutions function in a different set-up altogether. "Even in Bengaluru, something like the Indian Institute of Science is vastly different from other private colleges," he said. Deshpande also said that unless there was a mechanism through which faculty members of the national institutions and teachers at local colleges interacted, there would be no tangible difference in the level of education in Nagpur.
Thakare was more optimistic. "There will be an exchange of ideas. The highly qualified faculty members will prove to be a knowledge bank for the city," he said. Benjamin and Sree agreed that such interactions will indeed be helpful for teachers in local colleges. Vruddhula said that the arrival of prestigious institutions will certainly increase the level of competitiveness among students. "When they see students from elsewhere studying in these institutions, they will also fight to earn a seat there," she predicted.
The panellists also discussed why students preferred to go out of Nagpur to study. Thakare said that apart from quality of education, employment prospects played a key role in students' decision while choosing an institution. "In Nagpur, apart from some top institutions, campus placements aren't all that great. In other cities, there is a wider scope," he said.
Sree said that even among them, there are many cases in which a mechanical engineering graduate lands a job in IT. "We should be able to give them opportunities in relevant fields," she said. Rathi added that many students also preferred going away to get out of their comfort zone. "You learn to fend for yourself and pick up important life skills which you wouldn't were you to stay in your hometown with your parents," she said.
Thakare, however, said that the situation was not so bad either. "The perception is just reinforced due to repetition. We start believing the situation is very bad is Nagpur when it is not so. In fact," he said, "even my son, who has just cleared his Std XII wants to go to Pune for college." |