Academicians call for reforms in education system

Leading educationists have made a strong plea for widespread reforms in state's higher education at a workshop on 'Gujarat of my Dreams - Road ahead for education' organised by the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) in Ahmedabad recently.

"Paucity of funds, weak and inadequate infrastructure and unavailability of qualified teachers plague higher education," said A U Patel, vice-chancellor of Gujarat University.

"There have been no changes in the curriculums for more than four decades and they have become outdated. There is no bold leadership to carry out changes, impart dynamism and change the mindset of the people in the field of higher education," he said.

"The institutions of higher education should be run like corporate bodies, fix goals and make efforts to achieve them," he added.

The educationists laid emphasis on developing skills so that students satisfy the need of industries and get employment.

" Gujarat should develop professional education, participation of the private sector in education and remove restrictions of the government in this field. There is need of setting up of most modern world class centres of professional education in biotechnology, management, medicine education in cities such as Vadodara and Surat," said N V Vasani, vice-chancellor, Nirma University.

Sunil Handa of Eklavya Foundation, said, "Lack of political will has hampered the development of education in India. Even after the appointment of 53 committees and commissions on education, our problems have remained unsolved. The time has come to utilise all the available resources in a commercial way and spend the huge amount saved for improvement of education."

Muktak Kapadia, principal of H B Kapadia New High School, said, "High drop outs and low percentage of girl students are matters of great concern. In order to help our future generations, urgent steps are required to improve and strengthen teaching of English, right from school level."

The workshop was the third in the series of 'Gujarat of my Dreams.'