How colleges and universities are violating the standards?

How colleges and universities are violating the standards?

Author: Krishna Bhattacharya, KIIT school of law, Bhubaneshwar, India

Nelson Mandela once said: ” Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Education is as powerful as a sword. Education brings can help bring a social change and its impact is huge upon the societies and its people. However, this important area is being neglected today. On one hand, Indians are the most hardworking people in the world[1] but on the other hand, according to UNICEF over half of Indians would not possess the skills to secure a job in the 21^st Century.[2] The college and Universities are not imparting the right skills to the students which they should have and that is why Indian students who were once desired by any foreign or multinational company are now becoming undesirable.

The problems faced by students with Indian college/Universities are as follows:

1. Absence of good teachers- The teachers teaching in the college/ Universities are not up to the mark.[3] They do not update themselves and keeps on repeating what they had learned. Most of the teachers have their own notes which they had prepared years ago and stills teach with those notes. Every day new theory or a new law is being passed. These are not discussed in classrooms. Teachers prefer to stick to their old notes without modifying or addition.

• The selfish attitude of teachers- There was a time where teachers were genuinely concerned about student’s welfare, but now the teachers simply don’t care. They get their salary every month and that’s what matters to them the most. Students cheat in the examination and the teachers know the trick but simply ignore it. This encourages the students not to study. In college/ Universities, the internal assessment is corrected by teachers and while checking assignments they take out their personal vengeance on students. This is one of the main reasons because of which students are afraid to complain about the incompetence of teachers.

• Training of teachers- Teachers have to pass the NET examination to be qualified to be enrolled as a faculty. A teacher may have a reservoir of knowledge but if he/she is not able to deliver it properly, then the most interested student of the class also becomes disinterested. This is what is not checked while recruiting a teacher how he/she can deliver. College/universities claim that they have the most educated teachers but fail to determine whether they are good while delivering a lecture or not. Faculties of college/Universities should undergo training as to how to deliver a lecture and how to engage the students in the lecture.

• Marks oriented- The students and even teachers are very marks oriented. They teach only with the perspective of getting passed in an examination and to somehow get through placement. But this temporary knowledge does not work after college. The college/Universities always advertise that how many students have score 90% or more and people get lured away by the fact that since students get good marks it would be a good college/university but that is not true. In real life more than marks one should possess practical knowledge which is absent among students.

• Old teaching method- The college/University makes a student memorize case laws or chemical equations, etc but when it comes to practical knowledge of it, in the end, the student hardly knows anything. There is no practical training given to them. Most of the practical work is learned when one enters the job and most seniors are reluctant to even teach properly. If the result is this then it would be better to study by own because ultimately things would be learned on the job. The glorious years of college life are gone to doldrums.

• Wrong curriculum- The curriculum of colleges/Universities is absurd. Mostly theoretical subjects are put in the curriculum with no innovation and creativity. Subjects such as basics of accounting, banking law, stress management and many others which are crucial for any educated person are absent in most of the college’s curriculum. In the case of law colleges, vast subjects like CPC, CrPC, IPC, and others are crammed in one semester which should be stretched up to two semesters or more. For lawyers, the master of these subjects would make them eligible to earn their bread and butter.

• Setting wrong standards-Most of colleges/ universities give assignments, research paper or articles as internal assessments. These are a good way to develop the research skills but what the teachers fail to check is plagiarism. Students even make their assignments through someone else. Most teachers know about this practice yet they do not seem to care. They could check plagiarism but instead, they ask the students to submit the report as a mere formality as students through photoshop change the plagiarism percentage in the report and submit it. The worst part is that students who do their work diligently and the students who use the short cut way are given almost the same marks. This completely destroys the work ethics of students. Another problem with colleges and Universities is that they give too many assignments just to show on paper that their college has taught so much but they forget that it is impossible for students to do that much work. Its high time the Universities understand that quantity could be less but the quality of work should be maintained at any cost.

• Leniency while giving marks- Most teachers give marks even if they are not worthy of just to save the reputation of their college or thinking that bypassing them they could get land up some menial job or higher studies. But this leniency makes the quality of the entire education system to rust. The students have the impression they are good but in reality, they stand nowhere.

• Questions set for exams- The questions set for examination should be such that it tests the basic and the advanced stage of the course so that the students could critically analyze the problem and develop creative solution or logical solutions but instead the questions which are set up are mostly straightforward which a students can pass by studying the subject just the night before exams. By this method, the entire purpose of taking an examination is vitiated. Nowadays the examination does not test a student’s ability to reason but his/her ability to mug things up.

1. Lack of discipline- Most teachers let enter students whenever they want and leave whenever they want. The habit to be patient, to have integrity and to be disciplined are completely destroyed. Most colleges/ Universities have a debar system only on paper but there are many inside ways by which students who do not attend a single lecture are allowed to give exams at the end of the semester. This demotivates students who diligently attend lectures/classes every day.

1. Charging exorbitant prices – The colleges/Universities charges sky-high fees promising a bright future for the students but in reality, the future of the students is into the gloom. Parents’ entire savings go into their child’s education. People take loans for giving fees but in return, the college/universities fail to provide what they had promised. The basic necessity such as hygienic food is also compromised in most of the colleges/Universities.

1. Deficiency of infrastructure- Many law schools do not have proper libraries or access to online databases or law schools have libraries and other infrastructure but most of them are old books and non-functional facilities, this hampers the holistic development of the students. After paying high tuition fees, the lack of infrastructure is a great disappointment.

1.  Commercialization of education-Every year new private colleges is opening with less qualified teachers and poor infrastructure. Students are getting degrees but of no value. Poor people are spending thousands of rupees which holds no value. The number of people who get employed is insignificant compared to the number of students who graduate. Even if people get employed they leave the job within a year as they are unable to cope with work or pressure as their understanding of basic concepts is faulty.

1. Poor placement in colleges- Only a few students make it to big firms but the rest ( which is the majority of the students) are placed in firms where they are paid less and made to work for long hours. Colleges declare a student placed even if the company takes the student for a training period of one year. After a year the company may or may not offer a job to the student. In that case, the colleges declare the student to be incompetent to secure a job. Colleges also bring small companies who do subcontract work for big companies and during the recruitment process uses the big company’s name when in reality the students are being fooled. Colleges advertise 90% or 100% placement but they don’t show how many students have opted for on-campus placement in the first place and whether the pay was adequate or not. This way universities/colleges makes fool of parents and as well as students.

The college and Universities extract money but in return, they give nothing except for unskilled graduates and depression. The college/Universities are blatantly violating the standards and no check is imposed upon them. Parents and students are getting fooled by this every day. Its high time people should realize that compromising education is like playing with fire. That damage done would be incomprehensible.

[1]Indians are the most hardworking workforce in the world: Survey, (November 9, 2018, 9:19:16 PM), available at <https://www.financialexpress.com/jobs/indians-are-most-hardworking-workforce-in-the-world-survey/1377344/>, ( accessed on 29.12.2019).

[2]Preeti Soni, Over half of the Indian students will not have skills for 21st-century jobs, warns UNICEF, (Nov 6, 2019, 16:25 IST) available at
<https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/over-half-of-indian-students-will-not-have-skills-for-21st-century-jobs-warns-unicef/articleshow/71938857.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst>, ( accessed on 29.12.2019).

[3]Pushkar,Like it or Not, Faculty Shortages in Indian Universities Are Now Permanent, ( 14/JUN/2018) available at <https://thewire.in/education/like-it-or-not-faculty-shortages-in-indian-universities-are-now-permanent> (accessed on 29.12.2019).