Mass Higher Education (but with a difference)
Dr.B.K.Passi
Economic Development and Higher Education

We believe that a nation cannot rise beyond her people. We also believe that the quality of people of a nation is the outcome of alert-systems of higher education. We further believe that higher education has the ultimate responsibility of developing total manpower in all its shades, and for all the stages of life. Of course, this responsibility will be direct at times, and indirect at others.

Higher education will assume a threefold role. These roles are played directly or indirectly. First role is to provide education for those who fall within its direct fold. The second role is to guide the functionaries and planners of those who fall outside the fold. The third role of higher education is to harness the resource groups including the wisdom of senior citizens.

Higher education must assume leadership at four levels- viz. holistic level, system level, organic level, and at cellular level. Higher education will take care of its own base-education namely, school education and will also look into the needs and resources available with all the segments of population.

The World Banks report (1998) says, "Economic development is correlated with the development of higher education: enrollment ratios in higher education average over 50% for countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), compared to 21% in middle income countries, and 6% in low income countries. The report also says that the economic development of any country depends on the education system, at large".

We may also like to know the views of Gnanam who presented a paper Rationale & Process of Assessment. In this paper he asserts that, "it is now well understood world wide that without value added human resources no country can flourish in the competitive world. Consequently, there is a premium on both quantity and quality of higher education. Quantity in terms of increased access to higher education to the level of at least 40% to 50% of relevant age group and quality in terms of relevance and excellence of the academic of the academic programs offered." He too wants to expand higher education.

On the other side we want to raise a question "Is the proposition of 50% mark of higher education an essential criteria for economic development? Is it valid? We need to examine this figure critically.

Though we agree that higher education and the economic growth of a country are directly proportional then too we want to emphasize that it is not any higher education that can contribute towards economic growth of a country. In, fact, inappropriate higher education can adversely affect the economic health of a country. We have seen that inappropriate higher education have created havoc.

We want to say that appropriate higher education must possess the following attributes. Higher education should

contribute to productivity

ensure social relevance

accommodate individual differences

encourage diversity of cultures

encourage originality in processes

play a proactive role.

Obviously, we must give a major call for expansion of the above mentioned appropriateness of higher education. Let us call it a Mass Higher Education Program with a difference.

In this paper, we will restrict ourselves to mass expansion of higher education. We know that we will confront with three difficulties - (a) where from do we get the financial inputs for expanding this program? (b) How do we ensure employment to the pass-out students? (c) Will the Expansion of Higher Education negatively influence the quality?

If we ponder over these issues, we find that all these so-called difficulties are trivial. Let us look into these one by one. We know that there can be counter arguments. Let us present our case.

Regarding the financial resource, we must avoid costly models to avoid the financial wastage. We have had the experience of the fallacy of costly models, in DAV University at Indore. We must generate resources in acceptable manners. We must create a balance between the expenditure on the service provided and the revenues received. The fee patterns should be rationalized. We have a few experiences of cost-effective models for expanding higher education. In fact, we have seen that distance models can reach the unreached within the framework of reasonable costs. These are convenient, and cost-effective. These models facilitate and support the working students. The use of technology has expanded the access and spawned new ways of teaching and learning. Technology has enabled to reach the un-reached in a cost effective manner.

Regarding the issues of unemployment, we must understand one thing that higher education, as such, does not create unemployment. There are many facets of the problem. However, the solution within the fold of higher education lies in the much-needed modifications of our programs. It is the contents and orientation of the programs, which have to be, made work-friendly. We need to introduce the component of entrepreneurship and make our programs vocational and professional.

As for the fear about the decline in quality, we must know that quality is dependent upon the processes. Variation of numbers of students can be adjusted to, by varying the modes of learning. Many a times, numbers, as such, do not play any significant role in terms of quality. We know a few mega universities providing high quality education. However, we should understand the opposite picture. We have seen a few programs, where shortage of numbers has lowered the quality of learning. This means that numbers, as such, do no have any causal relationship with the quality. If modes are allowed to vary concomitantly, the numbers will lose their spurious relationships with quality. In order to maintain quality we ought to give emphasis on strategic planning and instructional designs.

Having responded the three popular objections, we brainstormed about the expansion plans with a view to identify new audience of higher education.

We wanted to set a new agenda of expansion while ensuring quality.

Reaching New Audience with New Agenda

We categorized the population into following seven groups and then looked into the changing roles of higher education. The seven groups are: Group I (between 0-3 yrs) Infants, Group II (between 3-6yrs) though we had great difficulty in naming this group, but we settled to call this group Baby children, Group III (6-12yrs) Children, Group IV (12-18years) Adolescents, Group V (18-25years) Youth, Group VI (25-60) Workforce, Group VII (60+) Senior citizens. Higher education has to play direct and indirect role for all the seven groups. The first four groups will not receive anything directly from higher education but the educators, parents and the policy makers of these four groups will receive indirect help. The groups five and six have to learn directly from the higher education and life-long education. Higher education must ensure the appropriate expansion of life-long education in multiple forms. The seventh group has to play the roles of receivers and givers vis-a-vis higher education.
Table 1: Agenda for expansion of higher education

Groups
Present

Status

Desired

Status
Group1- years (0-3)

Infants

Estimated that 100% of this group stay in their homes, grow under the supervision of their parents.

Stay at home with their parents, but should also be involved in play activities. Higher education should undertake research and system design activities for parents, teachers and policy makers

Group2- years (3-6)

Baby children

Estimated that 10% of the children actually go to attend the preparatory schools.

100% of the countrys children should be attending some kinds of preparatory schools. Higher education should undertake research and system designing for parents, teachers and policy makers

Group3 years (6-14) Children and

Group4 years(14-18) Adolescents

Estimated that 50% of this overall group go to the school. Most of the children of these groups receive low quality education.

100% of this group should be enrolled in good schools. Quality education has to be provided. Higher education has to make all efforts of policy formulation and programming for quality education.

Group5- (18-25) years, youth

Estimated that only 6% of this group go to the academic institutions. Higher education should facilitate this group, and help them to retain their studies and motivate them to pursue higher education.

However, it is desirable that at least 50% of this group should be involved in academic related activities. Make education more interactive. It should make use of all modern technologies available to make education more interesting and facilitate the learner in every possible ways.

Group6- (25-60) years,

Workforce

Estimated that 0.5% of this group has enrolled for Higher education. Open education provides facilities. Higher education is becoming functional through distance mode and thus is transforming the present educational scenario.

At least 50% of this group should have been pursuing higher education. Higher education should conduct research activities that would benefit the human race. The unreached has to be brought in through life long-learning mode.

Group7- (60+)

Senior Citizens

Very few of those who were in organized jobs start moving away from work responsibilities. Many of them develop a feeling that they, no longer, can contribute to the productive work. This feeling has to be changed. However, the unorganized persons continue to work upto the last days of their life.

All the healthy persons should be enabled to continue and to become part of the mainstream. However, the format may change. They have the competence, experience, free time, rich source of knowledge, and some idealism. They can become Opinion leaders and help in establishing new business set-ups. Higher education should help this senior citizen group wherever need be, and should also use their talent.

Group1: Infants (0-3 years),
100% of this group, at present, is spending their time at home with their mothers. We feel that the play activities of this group are somewhat neglected. We must enrich their play environment. Higher education should undertake comprehensive research for all aspects of their development. Higher education should develop software to create awareness among educators, parents and policy makers for improving the child rearing processes.
Group2: Baby children (3-6 years),
10% of this group is presently going to the preparatory schools, whereas 100%of this group should have been going to school. Higher education has to undertake research for production of materials and system for this group. Higher education should facilitate in educating the teachers, policy makers, and the parents so that they take keen interest to educate a child right from early ages.
Group3: Childhood (6-14 years),
50% of this group go to school and perhaps get poor quality of education, whereas it should have been 100%. All of them should receive high quality education. Therefore, the higher education should train the parents, policy makers, and teachers to bridge the gap.
Group4: Adolescents (14-18 years),
only 60% of this group pursue academic courses, whereas it should have been 100%. The higher education should thus initiate innovative means to attract the remaining children for pursuing their studies. Relevant systems may be designed. Higher education should undertake research and development programs for facilitating the functioning of support-persons like parents, teachers, and policy makers.
Group5: Youth (18-25 years),
only 6% of this group go to the academic institutions of tertiary education. As per new hopes, at least 50% should have gone to higher vocational, professional and liberal higher education. Therefore, the higher education should formulate programs to strengthen itself. The nature of programs must slant themselves towards self-reliance and economically independence.
Group6: Workforce (25-60 years),
only 0.5% (perhaps) are involved in pursuing higher education, when 50% of the people should have been engaged in higher education. These are perhaps engaged in the productive function of the society. The higher education should become more relevant, and functional. Higher education should become functional through distance mode, and become more utilitarian as per needs of the society. We must make more efforts to attract to those who are indifferent.
Group7: Senior Citizens (60+),
are negligibly involved. The desirable scenario would mean that all healthy persons should continue to be socially useful, culturally creative and economically productive. Higher Education should reinvigorate the so-called retiring persons. This category may be sub-divided. Some of them may continue with their old productive skills, some others may become new entrepreneurs in a new job, whereas a few others may like to create new ideologies. They should write reference and learning materials for all systems and sectors of education including higher education. Higher Education should provide support for this group to record their experience and transfer the same into ideologies, which may play significant role for the development of the other groups. This requires organized planning for a continuous up-gradation of the society.
Implementation of Agenda

For realizing the cherished goal of a productive and learning society, mere dreaming and theorizing may not be enough. Though dreams are the starting point, they must lead to the next step of implementation. We need to develop strategies of implementation. We need to focus upon the follow-up steps. Earlier strategies must have been worked out in the past 5 decades or more, something seems to have been seriously wrong somewhere. One of the colleagues told us that everything that could have gone wrong have gone wrong. Do not get upset!

Another colleague asked a question, should we take different routes for forming teams? These teams will go together in search of the solutions, solving en route some problems but definitely networking and communicating and sharing their experiences with the other teams so as to save precious resources including time and avoiding duplication of efforts. The most important aspect of this whole thing is a basic change to be effected in the MINDSET!
How is that Possible?

The brainstorming group suggested the following points.

We may involve fresh and young minds (not necessarily in physical age) but who are creative in approaches. We might even encourage wild thinking in the theorizing realm.

We might have to demolish the existing physical, infrastructural and other kinds of compartments. We may have to pamper individual and collective egos and help build small empires worth nothing in this unipolar world.

We have to begin from the top by sensitizing the opinion leaders, political masters, and leaders in every sector,

We have to create and encourage formation of various levels of taskforces, which are easy to convert in the beginning. We have to continue until critical numbers are reached.

We have to have a clear blueprint regarding target, time frame to achieve the same, pre-determined milestones/check points to assess whether the mission is heading or not.

The solution to the problem faced must be simple, viable, and practicable in order to be possible. It must take into account the Indian psyche, Indian mind, the Indian way of doing things individually and in-groups. It cannot be taken from an alien sample, howsoever successful it may have proven to be. Mere transplantation is not the answer. It must take along people with diverse socio- economic backgrounds, educational, faith etc., both the old-fashioned conservative thinkers and modern thinkers and yet be in tune with today global trend. As such, it means evolving a mechanism of operation cutting across sectors, disciplines, etc.

Yet, awareness of innovations and experiences undertaken in different societies, communities must be gathered, studied and analyzed.
Gyan Darshan and Open Universities

A giant leap has already been taken with the launching of an exclusive Education Channel, Gyan Darshan, it would not only facilitate in the distance learning but it would open new vistas, it would also bring together the premier education institutes of the country together and would definitely help in producing educational programs which would be of great help to the people in general. If utilized well, it would provide an unique platform for the scholars and educators.

Several open universities are already operating viz. IGNOU, YCMOU, Karnataka State Open University, Bhoj Open University, Netaji Subhas Open University, Nalanda Open University, Kota Open University etc. All these universities are helping to reach the un-reached and this is also a step towards Mass Higher Education. Education has also become more interactive with the help of technologies, teleconferencing, Internet surfing. Time-zones and distance have been done away with. We need to change our mind set in favor of expanding higher education. We should produce self employing person. We should use new technologies. We should ensure quality and relevance. However, we should conscious of the present obsession with excellence (of course, only verbally) in an ontogenic fashion should be done away with. We should not let excellence may be good, but not its possession, for it crowds out many desirable things like mystery, surprise and wonder; in a word, intellectual curiosity. In fact, "the constant fracturing of knowledge" is academically unproductive (Scott, 1984, 259)

Conclusion

Higher education as we can see has to play an all-pervasive role so as to restructure our present society and improve it socio-economic-status. It should thus, stimulate Mass Higher Education. Higher education should directly benefit the students, through its specially developed software & educational programs.

Higher education by its innovative means & ways be able to influence the teachers, parents & policy-makers so as to attract the non-school going children to enroll in schools wherein they can earn as well as they learn.

Higher education should formulate educational packages that are relevant to the society and may be of vocational nature. Distance/Open mode of education has to be strengthened and improved through higher education in order to enhance its reach-ability and utility.

To sum up, every effort of Higher education has to be spear- headed to transform our society into an Economically Independent, self-reliant and ever learning society.