The dramatically adverse ratio between India’s rural population and the institutions of higher education relegates the entire rural population to the category of ‘educationally disadvantaged’. […]
In democracies all over the world, electoral politics inevitably envelopes public institutions, and the social or ethical imperatives quickly get subsumed within the political dynamics. The policy of reservations for marginalised sections in institutions of higher education in India has faced this hazard far too often in the recent past. There have been violent demonstrations and inter-group clashes round the question of positive discrimination for the marginalised. Even if there has been no civil war in India on the question of the quota system in education and employment, the intensity of popular sentiment on both sides of the social divide continues to keep Indian society in a perpetual war-like mood on this issue. The number of ‘seats’ in the ‘quota’ system in institutions of medicine and engineering continues to be at the heart of the acrimonious debate. […]
Over the last quarter of a century it has been the lot of regional universities meant for distance education and continuing education and the Indira Gandhi National Open University to grapple with the legacies of multi-layered denials in the Indian society. The achievements of these have been impressive, particularly in that they have accomplished so much in an area and in a manner that have been unprecedented in our history. But the challenge is vast in its scope as well as in its complexity.
Source: “A View of Higher Education in India” pp. 21-22 & 26-27 by Prof. Ganesh Devy
Chair, People’s Linguistic Survey of India, Bhasha Research and Publication Centre
Read or download “Inclusive Education: A View of Higher Education in India” by Prof. Ganesh [G.N.] Devy
Delivered on September 26th, 2010 at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore
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