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

Abstract

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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 Redundant, outdated & repetitive (from the higher secondary curriculum) topics should be removed from all courses to facilitate this.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 & external influences should be curbed positively rather than by coercion, reinstating Govt institutions as temples of learning.

Keywords: All round development, Aspirations, Commerce, Education, Employability, Exposure, Graduation, General stream, Humanities, Integrated course, Post graduation, Professional streams, Research, Science, V

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