Education & Human Civilization
The best act of human civilization is the art of getting civilized. In this process, human beings exchange opinion, mental and physical views and, above all, begin to explore the non-existent things or concepts.
Education is, indeed, the medium through which expansion and exploration of human civilization have been taking place. The educational institutions have made tremendous contribution in this respect. These institutions, under a certain curriculum and infrastructure, convert the raw intake into efficient resources, which are needed for the society and the societal needs.
Education in India
Ancient Indian education system was in gurukul where the students were living with guru’s family doing all the ashram work and study the subjects. The method of teaching in the ashram was theory with practical with sustenance of the gurukul. It was the practice in the gurukul to take a student to heights of his/her knowledge in which the student had a zeal. The lifestyle of the students was simple without any discrimination between rich and poor.
Arrival of Mughals converted education in schools. The emphasis was given on cramming subjects. This was further modified by British colonial power to rule India by giving the knowledge suited to them and created a class which is educated without knowledge to be implemented. The present education system is expanded form of schools allowing and assessing a student on the theoretical knowledge not the outcome of the degree as performer. In this process, education system became expensive and non-employable due to lack of ground level experiences to be implemented for the survival of the individual and society.
New education policy of skill-based education is one of the solutions proposed by Government of India. A better approach can be to bring back ancient Gurukul with sustainability using skill and zeal.
Higher Education & Industrial Scenario
As per the ASHE (Annual Status of Higher Education) Report 2021, Gross Enrolment Ratio in Rajasthan has been steadily increasing from about 20% to 25% over the last five years. There is a lot of opportunity for Rajasthan to not only achieve, but surpass the national average of 27.1%. As per ASHE 2021, given the number of colleges per lakh of population (30 in 2019–20), there exists scope to set up additional higher education institutes, as well as expand the number of seats per institution.
Rajasthan is focusing on the establishment of industries in and around Jaipur specially the Delhi-Jaipur and Jaipur-Agra corridor. Skill development agencies and incubating institutions are being established in and around Jaipur due to this development. The State Government has been encouraging quality education in general and professional education in particular by insisting on standards/norms of statutory organizations. Every year more than 20 lakhs students enrol for Graduation, Post-Graduation and its equivalent studies and nearly 7.5 lakh students qualify.
A large number of students from Rajasthan State are migrating to join in reputed institutions like IITs, NITs, IIMs, XLRIs and other Universities in India. Hence, there is a scope for the institutions offering quality higher education.
After analysing all these facts, Sharda Foundation is proposing to set up a Private University near Jaipur offering various courses to operate at par with top global universities.
The university is planned to be built within a rural setting of lush green fields, where the institute will be a virtual paradise of pristine nature and idyllic beauty. The campus plans to have splendid avenue of trees and gardens which will bear testimony to the importance of ecology and environment. The campus ambiance will be most befitting for scholastic training.
Concept of Selecting to Nurturing
We think that obtaining professional education in India is quite confined to the narrow gates of entrance (entrance tests). The concept of defining eligibility for any professional course such as engineering, medical, business administration, etc., through difficult entrance exams, is based on considering that talent in India is quite scarce. This concept has worked good for the ones who were found eligible but a much bigger mass, who would have contributed professionally either on par or better in the Indian context, have been left out unattended.
Of course, some of this mass, who have zeal, may still have found their path on their own (i.e. without the help of the professional courses) but many have still been left out. We, therefore, think that the concept of the entrance exams, as a procedure to define the eligibility to pursue professional courses or higher studies in the Indian education system, has failed to bring up and nurture the majority of the existing talent.
In other words, we strongly believe that the talent in India is abundant, which should not be let confined through the narrow selection procedures of entrances. Instead, the eligibility criteria should be broadened to focus more on zeal in the student than testing his analytical and/or temperamental capabilities to score better in the entrance exams. In sum, we should concentrate more on nurturing the zeal than simply selecting it.
