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At the Eighteenth Convocation of Indira Gandhi
National Open University, New Delhi
on the 17th March, 2007
I feel privileged to participate in the proceedings of the
18th Convocation Day of this great institution, named after one of
our foremost nation builders, who did not ever doubt the infinite
potential of our people and our nation - in this she defied the
logic of her times, when it was almost fashionable to give into
pessimism and lament our destiny. Indira Gandhi followed up her
optimism with undaunted courage to go ahead and shape the path of
our advancement - our achievements in space related technologies is
but one example. It is quite natural for all of us to be excited in
the present times about the phenomenal prospects and pace of the
Indian success story - some even predict a global future with India
at its core - yet we cannot but acknowledge the debt we owe to our
founding fathers who gave us a Constitution that creates the
ambience for us to realize our potential; also to our nation
builders.
At the outset I greet Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai,
Vice-Chancellor, Directors of Schools, Professors, Other teaching
and non-teaching staff of IGNOU for their contributions and services
in preparing young generations to face the present day challenges of
the world. I congratulate Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, well-known
Agricultural scientist, who has received the D.Sc. Honoris Causa
today. I congratulate all the students who have received degrees,
diplomas and special certificates of recognition and distinction
today.
I do realize that this solemn occasion marks the acknowledgment of
new achievements for the students of this University, which can
boast of being the largest University in terms of enrolment. The
achievements of the IGNOU, in terms of the sheer numbers that it
represents, contribute significantly to realization of the dreams of
our youth. I understand that the Open and Distance Learning (ODL)
format of higher education is the fastest growing segment at the
tertiary level of education. Indeed, even the modest achievement of
some 11 million students in our campuses of higher education owes in
some measure to the enrolment in the IGNOU, the State Open
Universities and the ODL programmes of conventional universities.
Yet, we must all be acutely aware that the problem of access to
higher education continues to be formidable; and therefore, must
remain a priority for our society.
The ODL, which derives its strength from the application of
technological advancements, does give us some hope in this respect
because technology after all is a great leveler. The ODL system, it
may easily be seen, enables access without discriminating on the
contents or the pedagogical parameters allowed by the system. I wish
to confine myself to the question of access to higher education. If
the purpose of education is to bring about harmony in society, the
structure and processes of education have to be carefully tailored,
lest education itself ends up as a cause for divisiveness and lack
of harmony.
Such division is possible when the capacity of the education system,
when limited, becomes the bone of contention due to rising
aspirations and demands for education. However, the problem of
scarce capacity can be addressed through creation of more capacity - greater allocation of resources to achieve the desirable level of
capacity, even though such increases take time; and where there are
finite limits to creation of capacity in the conventional
institutions the ODL mode presents a viable and potent option. There
is an even more damaging cause of potential division in society
which could be attributed to the structure of education that is
followed or the policies of education that may be pursued. I shall
elaborate. The principles and values enshrined in our Constitution
imply that there is a certain right to access a comparable quality
of education to all children in an equitable manner - irrespective
of such considerations as caste, class, creed, language, gender,
economic background, geographic location or disability. Viewed in
this manner, the purpose of education could be easily identified as
that of creating conditions for an egalitarian society which alone
can benefit from the concept and practice of equality. Failure of
the education system to do so would have the undesirable
consequences of increasing social segregation which the D.S.Kothari
Commission Report of the National Commission on Education (1966)
leading to the National Policy on Education (1968) called "widen and
perpetuate class distinctions". Prof. Kothari articulated this
thought while advocating the need for a Common School System of
Public Education as the basis of building a National System of
Education.
A well-functioning education system is essential to modern
societies, and higher education has a pivotal role to play in the
renewal of education systems and development in general. The
institutions have an influencing role to play on all societal
activities. Education is central to addressing the paradoxes and
inequities that challenge our society today.
I am pleased to note that IGNOU is also ably addressing the
challenge of imparting knowledge and skills that is relevant in
enhancing the human resources of our country to make us globally
competitive. The graduates who earned their degrees today are the
fortunate ones, having gone through the ODL system which involves a
blended media approach. Blended learning which combines classroom
and online study, new learning methods with open source software and
courseware and altogether a learner-centered pedagogy, the teachers
being facilitators, have prepared you to venture into the
knowledge-driven world of today. With the kind of training you had,
you should be part of the knowledge revolution that is sweeping
across the world. You need not be obsessed with the "career
prospects" alone but the pursuit of knowledge should also be
included in your goals. Through the ODL system you are equipped for
it since the main thrust of the ODL system is capacity building of
learners.
You would agree with me that Higher Education comes at a later stage
in life. Important as it is in defining creation, harnessing,
imparting and dissemination of knowledge, the schooling system
provides the building blocks to the tertiary system of education. It
is not too difficult for us to imagine a society, dynamically
transformed and integrated through what the Kothari Commission
called the Common School System or any other pragmatic variant of
it, where entrants to the higher and professional levels of
education compete with the same or similar advantages - ready to
compete on a level playing field, without fear of iniquitous
opportunities that provide a distinct advantage to only a few. Such
a melting pot of schooling would undoubtedly provide unique
opportunities to all sections - rich and poor alike - to understand
the social and economic, political and cultural realities of India.
Arguments and counter arguments of merit vs. opportunities would be
redundant in such a society where no section, however weak or
marginalized in other respects, can claim to have been discriminated
and therefore needs special protection at least in the field of
accessing knowledge at any level of education - primary, secondary
or tertiary.
I understand that the Central Advisory Board on Education, which is
the highest policy advisory body in our federal structure, had some
time ago reiterated the need for moving towards the goal of a common
school system. I recall that way back in 1998, the Law Commission of
India, in its 165th Report, had also recommended a somewhat similar
approach to school education. It is important to understand what
such a system should imply - it should not try to bring down the
quality of education to any common denominator - but make it
imperative to raise the quality of all institutions, whether public,
or private; in elite neighbourhoods or in modest locations; meant
for farmers, labour or peasants or for the white collared.
While on the purpose of education, there comes to my mind no better
conceptualization than the one Swami Vivekananda elucidated - that
"education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man. Therefore, the only duty of the teacher is to remove all
obstructions from the way." Today, the teacher remains as relevant
but is fortunately in a position to leverage technology to bring out
the perfection already in our children and youth. Open and Distance
Learning allows this leveraging of technology. The great sage's
description of the essence of education as not the collection of
facts but control of the mind may have sounded mystifying in his
times. The advances in technology and the access to facts and
information in today's world reveals to us, how true Swamiji's
assessment was. If access to facts and information alone were to be
considered as education, those who are fortunate to be on the
information highway and those unaffected by the digital divide would
all be "educated" in comparison to all those who are at a
disadvantage. In my opinion, the process of education must focus on
the "controlling of mind" by imparting to our young citizens the
tools that would equip them with the powers of synthesis and the
powers of analysis. I believe, from what I understand of the ODL
system, that this format of education can do so sometimes entirely
on its own and sometimes by assimilating pedagogical devices and
processes of the conventional system.
The flexibility provided by the ODL system needs only a passing
reiteration. In comparison to the traditional methods of education,
there are flexibilities in terms of age, gender, learning habits,
capacity barriers, pedagogical or mediating processes, time and
place, learner mobility, cost-effectiveness etc. As we all know,
there are finite limits to the capacities that can be created in the
conventional system of campuses. The need for resources in higher
education is only one aspect; and there is no doubt that by all
estimates enormous resources would be required to take our Gross
Enrolment Ratio (access rate) to the levels prevailing in the
developed societies or that a doubling or tripling of the access
rate would be required to match the developed countries. The problem
is that even if resources were to be available, there would be a
time-lag before the infrastructure - physical as well as academic - can be ready for providing access. In contrast, it seems to me that
the ODL system offers us a quicker approach in multiplying capacity.
I understand that the infrastructure is already in place - the
dedicated Educational Satellite (EDUSAT) and several other
alternatives that already exist can be utilized. The IGNOU, which
has done some commendable work in hand-holding of State Open
Universities, has already created relevant contents. Therefore, I
foresee a great future for the ODL efforts.
One particular area of interest to all of us who are concerned with
the welfare of our education system is that of quality. Quality in
education must permeate every level of education - beginning with
the primary level itself. How do we ensure quality at the primary
level? We can ensure so, by revisiting the purpose of education as
the "manifestation of the perfection already in man" for which the
teacher is the most critical stake-holder. How exactly do we ensure
that we create an entire generation of teachers who are imaginative
and resourceful, knowledgeable yet humble enough to draw out the
best in a child and guide in giving shape to the inherent potential
of perfection in him or her. You would agree with me such an effort
must begin at the level of higher education in the myriad ways of
training and preparing graduates and good teachers. The numbers
required are mind-boggling by any standards. It is certainly not
possible to create such staggering numbers without sacrificing
quality - unless, we take advantage of the potential of technology
and the format of the Open and Distance Learning that IGNOU and
other similar institutions can offer. Herein lies the challenge for
the IGNOU and on this occasion I urge the University community to
focus on this challenge.
We must all take pride in the fact that Eastern culture has been
renowned over the centuries for encouraging academic debate and
discussion, and intelligent disagreement. Such a tradition brings to
the fore multiple perspectives and has helped India maintain its
pluralist traditions. The faculty and students must thus inculcate a
strong convention of such debate and turn students into not just
degree holders with knowledgeable but also responsible citizens. I
am pleased to note that IGNOU has made a worthy contribution towards
this tradition.
I also find this an appropriate occasion to remind ourselves of the
importance of ethical training in education. Today, we are faced
with a situation where the evil of corruption has permeated all
sections of our society. We live in a society where increasingly one
tends to respect wealth without perhaps enquiring into the source of
such wealth. Therefore, it is the duty of the teaching community in
our country to impart a strong sense of ethical values amongst our
student population.
I am certain that the graduates of this university should who will
embark on their jobs with their newly acquired skills will pledge to
maintain the highest standards of ethics and professionalism in
whichever profession they choose to undertake.
While healthy competition amongst students is a prerequisite to
maintaining and raising academic standards, we must not forget our
duty to those who may not have had access to acquire such knowledge
and education. It is thus also the responsibility of students like
you who now hold the wisdom of knowledge to be equally competitive
in sharing it with those who have not had such opportunities. I hope
each one of you will render all necessary and possible contribution
for access to education to the downtrodden and the poor and uplift
them to the main stream of the society. My best wishes to the
students graduating today. Good luck and a bright future to you all.
Thank you
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