Harnessing Potential and Meeting Aspirations of Students Pursuing Higher Education Especially in Govt Funded Institutions

There are over 35 million students enrolled for higher education in India today. With an ever-increasing youth base & dearth of job opportunities in the formal sector, India’s demographic dividend may not see optimal utilization in the near future. While technical & professional colleges produce focused & enabled students who are employable and can contribute towards Nation building, students from general streams graduating or completing post-graduation from Govt funded institutions, leave much to be desired. Political violence, religious fundamentalism, social extremism & criminal activity have found their way into these institutions which churn out unemployable students with a history of rebellion, biases or criminal records. While researching for solutions to this situation it is firmly opined that politics & religion are important facets of life; rather than banning them, institutions should educate students on the correct perspective of these subjects. Moral Values, theology & sex education are important topics for students & should be taught in colleges. There is a need to review the system of higher education in the country. Integrated degree courses of four years should be introduced as against separate graduation & post-graduation courses. While the first two years concentrate on the general aspects of the stream, the third year concentrates on vocational education. The fourth-year has a semester on-field exposure & activity & a semester on internship or research. Redundant, outdated & repetitive (from the higher secondary curriculum) topics should be removed from all courses to facilitate this. The scope of NCC, NSS, arts & sports activities should be enhanced. A credit-based system of assessment with substantial weightage to co-curricular, extra-curricular, social development, military & Nation building activities should be introduced. Exposure & training for entrepreneurship including startups should be given adequate focus especially in the manufacturing & agriculture sectors. The aim should be to produce employable youth with ample general education & social status contributing to society & the Nation. Indiscipline com& external influences should be curbed positively rather than by coercion, reinstating Govt institutions as temples of learning.