“We need to create a system where our students can find good opportunities. Indian education reflects the narrative of the 4Es — equity, expansion, excellence and employability — that needs to be looked at in context with our demographic complexities and contradictions.
In focusing on the first two Es, we have somehow neglected the third E that is excellence,” Dr Shashi Tharoor, Union minister of state for human resource development, said while speaking at the Study World Education Confluence 2013 at the Imperial Hotel on Saturday. Mr Tharoor also launched a book on education, Educating India, edited by Nalini Menon and published by Study World. The book is a collection of stimulating new insights from leading educationists on the subject of how our education system might best evolve to meet the complex demands of an increasingly globalised and challenging environment.
The confluence was marked by a substantive deliberation on the issue: should India change its education model?
The discussion was moderated by renowned TV journalist Karan Thapar. Panellists included Prof. Arun Kumar and Prof. Saumen Chattopadhyay of JNU and Juhi Mendiratta, an M.Phil student.
The discussion threw up a number of concerns including the deteriorating status of public universities; the alarming proliferation of profit-oriented private universities; the need of a single independent monitoring body and the growing trend of non-academic professionals becoming heads of educational institutions.