June 22, 2007
Prime Minister's Speech
at University of Mumbai
Mumbai
Following is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech at the
University of Mumbai Friday where he announced the setting up of 30
world-class universities across India that will become "launch pads"
for the country's entry into the knowledge economy and promised to
revamp the education system.
"Dear students, distinguished ladies and gentlemen: For me it is
always a pleasure to be at a university and among students. Today,
it gives me added pleasure to be here at the 150th anniversary
celebrations of the University of Mumbai. I wish you all well on
this happy occasion. May your University continue to light the lamp
of education and serve the cause of national development.
Set up originally as the University of Bombay, Mumbai University is
one of our oldest and greatest Universities of the modern era. Like
the great universities of ancient India, Nalanda, Takshasila and
Nagarjuna, the Mumbai University has played an important role in the
spread of knowledge and learning in our country.
"It has been the alma mater of some of our greatest national leaders
- like Gopala Krishna Gokhale - of eminent scholars, scientists,
industrialists, administrators and professionals in all walks of
life. No wonder it is rated among the top-500 universities in the
world.
"My young friends, you have much to be proud of about the
150-year-old legacy of your university. When you leave the portals
of this University, you must always remember that you have been the
beneficiaries of a unique opportunity - an opportunity of studying
at the University of Mumbai.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to say that in my own academic
life I came in contact with many distinguished scholars from this
university. In my own discipline of economics, the Mumbai University
has left a lasting imprint through the work of such great Indian
economists as Prof. C.N. Vakil, Prof. P.R. Brahmananda, Prof. D.T.
Lakdawala and Prof. M.L. Dantwala. They gave leadership to what came
to be called the "Bombay School of Economics". They had a different
worldview and contested the ideas of Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis, Prof.
K.N. Raj and the Delhi School (of Economics).
"In other disciplines too, Mumbai University has made a mark for
itself. In the popular imagination the City of Mumbai has come to
represent the world of finance, business and cinema. However, let us
not forget that Mumbai is also a great intellectual centre and home
to some of our most important research institutions in the fields of
science, technology and the social sciences.
"Some of our most distinguished scientists have worked here at the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre. I therefore salute the great contribution Mumbai
has made to the world of academia and research in our country.
"Ladies and gentlemen: While we do have much to be proud of, we also
have a long distance to travel in the field of higher education and
research in India to attain world standards. We are at an important
cusp in our developmental trajectory. We are at a point when the
dynamics of our population growth can catapult us into a prolonged
cycle of rapid economic growth - growth which can be the basis for
eradication of the ancient scourges poverty, illiteracy, ignorance
and disease.
"For this to happen, we need to translate this potential into
reality. The reality at the moment is that around 10 percent of the
relevant age-group is enrolled in any institute of higher education
- as compared to 40-50 percent in most developed economies. In
almost half the districts in the country, higher education
enrolments are abysmally low.
"Less than 50 percent of secondary school students continue into
college education in any form. Almost 2/3 rd of our universities and
90 percent of our colleges are rated as below average on quality
parameters. And most importantly, there is a nagging fear that
university curricula are not synchronized with employment needs.
"If we need to capitalize on our latent human potential, we need a
quantum leap in our approach to higher education. We need to revamp
the higher education system so that it walks on the two legs of
access and excellence. On one hand, we need a massive expansion of
higher education opportunities. Through this, we can expand access
to knowledge to all classes of society and to all regions of the
country.
"This is the only way that the lamp of knowledge can be taken to
every door. On the other hand, we need to upgrade the quality of the
higher educational institutions so that they work on the frontiers
of knowledge, harnessing its immense capabilities for our common
societal benefit. The higher education system must grow on these two
pillars if it is to fulfill its role in nation building.
"It is with this objective in mind that we had appointed the
National Knowledge Commission. The Commission has come forward with
many interesting ideas, giving us food for thought on the steps that
are necessary to propel us into the knowledge era. A key
recommendation of the Knowledge Commission is that we must undertake
a massive expansion of higher education in our country. The
Commission believes that by 2015, India should attain a gross
enrolment ratio of at least 15 percent if we are to be in line with
most modern societies.
"Such a quantum jump in our university system has to be well planned
and well funded. We need, not just financial and physical resources,
but also human resources. We have to universalise our secondary
school system so that we generate enough good quality students who
can then seek admission to higher education. We need more and better
teachers and better facilities.
"Ladies and gentlemen, our Government has taken the task of
expanding higher education seriously. As you know, we have started
new national institutions in the fields of science, technology and
medicine. In the last 100 years, we have had only one Indian
Institute of Science. In past two years, we have sanctioned six
more. We have opened new national institutes in medical sciences,
engineering and management.
"Today, I am happy to announce that we intend to establish 30 new
Central Universities across the country. The work on the modalities
for setting these up has begun and the Ministry of Human resource
Development, the UGC and the Planning Commission are working to
operationalize this in the next 2-3 months. This expansion is going
to be a landmark in expanding access to high quality education
across the country.
"These Universities, in my view, should focus on achieving
international standards of excellence and should be rated among the
top institutions in the world. They should have the best faculty,
excellent physical resources, a wide range of disciplines, and most
importantly, a diverse student body. They should become the
launching pads for our entry into the knowledge economy.
"Ladies and gentlemen: I recognize that education is an important
responsibility of State Governments and most educational activity is
managed at the state level. States and local Governments must also
do more to expand access to remote areas and to marginalized groups.
"As I had said earlier, 340 districts have extremely low college
enrolments. The Central Government would work with the states to
support the expansion of colleges to these 340 districts. Each of
these districts should strive to have at least one good college and
the Central Government is considering ways of funding their
establishment.
"Access to higher education has two dimensions of which expansion of
supply is only one. If the latent demand for higher education is to
be converted to a real one, we need to consider ways of improving
the financial resources of aspiring students as well. While our
Government has taken several steps to expand the scholarships
available to students, including SCs, STs and minorities, we need a
much larger national programme so that no one who wants to pursue
further education is denied this opportunity for lack of resources.
"As a beneficiary of scholarships in my own education, I am deeply
committed to this idea. We are working on a national system of
scholarships and easily available loans so that all needy and
deserving students have access to the necessary finances to fund
their education. We will realize this goal in the coming year.
"Ladies and gentlemen: If the University system expands, it also
needs a larger pool of school leavers. We are working on a plan to
gradually universalize secondary schooling in the country. This
programme will build on the success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and
will cover the entire country in 2-3 years. Further, in order to
promote excellence, we are working on a programme for having one
high quality school in every block of the country. These publicly
funded 6,000 schools will establish benchmarks for excellence in
public schooling which can then be role models for the rest of the
public educational system.
"Ladies and gentlemen: The Knowledge Commission has emphasized, and
rightly so, that such a quantitative expansion of the university
system must be accompanied by qualitative improvement. Not only
should new universities be better universities, but even existing
universities, including State universities, must reform and improve
themselves. The reform of our existing university system should,
therefore, be as much of a priority for us as its expansion.
"Our university system is, in many parts, in a state of disrepair.
We need better facilities, more and better teachers, a flexible
approach to curriculum development to make it more relevant, more
effective pedagogical and learning methods and more meaningful
evaluation systems. The quality of governance of many state
educational institutions is a cause for concern.
"I am concerned that in many States, university appointments,
including that of Vice-Chancellors, have been politicized and have
become subject to caste and communal considerations. There are
complaints of favouritism and corruption. This is not as it should
be. We should free university appointments from unnecessary
interventions on the part of governments and must promote autonomy
and accountability. I urge states to pay greater attention to this
aspect. After all, a dysfunctional education system can only produce
dysfunctional future citizens!
"We also need to move away from routine approaches to overcome
quality bottlenecks in our university system. We should look at
alternative ways of improving the remuneration of professors, at
ways of tapping into the large pool of Indian origin teaching
manpower spread across the world's universities, and of linking up
with the best universities across the world to promote
cross-fertilization of ideas. I urge all those associated with our
higher education system to think of and suggest solutions for
improving quality. We are ready to listen.
"Ladies and gentlemen: I do believe our universities need and
deserve better leadership and more transparent, efficient and
liberal governance systems. I also believe that a university should
be a community imbued by the values of liberalism, pluralism,
secularism, social justice and the pursuit of excellence. Speaking
at Allahabad University in 1947, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said:
"'A university stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for
progress, for the adventure of ideas and for the search for truth.
It stands for the onward march of the human race towards even higher
objectives. If the universities discharge their duty adequately,
then it is well with the nation and the people. But if the temple of
learning itself becomes a home of narrow bigotry and petty
objectives, how then will the nation prosper or a people grow in
stature?'"
He further said:
"'A vast responsibility rests on our universities and educational
institutions and those who guide their destinies. They have to keep
their lights burning and must not stray from the right path even
when passion convulses the multitude and blinds many amongst those
whose duty it is to set an example to others. We are not going to
reach our goal through crookedness or flirting with evil in the hope
that it may lead to good. The right end can never be fully achieved
through wrong means'.
"These words of Panditji are as relevant today as they were sixty
years ago.
"Ladies and gentlemen: A university is not a factory sending out
batches of students on a conveyor belt into the market place. Nor is
it just a training college. One must make a distinction between a
university and a college or a training centre. The latter are very
important places of learning, no doubt. And, a university is also a
place for teaching and training. However, a university is something
more. It must be a place where knowledge is imparted and acquired,
contested and created. It is also a place where we instil values in
our youth and offer space for the full expression of human
creativity and intellectual endeavour.
"My young friends, I once again wish you all well as you step out
into the world of work. But the work of learning should never stop.
It is necessary that we should be willing to learn till we breathe
our last. Education does not end in classrooms. It merely begins
there. I urge you to adopt an open mind, be willing to question and
seek answers, to learn and to teach, to constantly improve oneself,
and seek truth from facts, seek knowledge from experience. I wish
you well. I wish the University well. May your path be blessed."
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