Rohith Vemula's suicide proves not all's well with our academic system

The syllabus under the new educational policy need to include social inequality.

Efforts should be made to increase the rate of enrolment in higher education. The representation of women, Dalits, tribals and Muslims is significantly low. There is need to remove this incongruity.

Currently the Central government is trying to formulate a new education policy. It's good; it will take education a step ahead. But simultaneously, it is important to keep in mind that the earlier measures that were taken on education, need to build up. The reason is that the problems of higher education were studied in the 11th Five Year Plan from 2006 to 2011. The measures taken to address the problems were also studied and on that basis the education policy was formulated.

The new education policy should be formulated on the basis of the policy that was there already. I understand the problems of higher education are of four types. The first problem is that the rate of higher education, that is the enrolment number, is very low. This should be increased.

The second problem is that of standard, or quality, which should be improved.

The third problem is the reconciliation of education, and the fourth problem is that of relevant education which would orient students towards employment.

Currently our rate of higher education is around 25 per cent, which is necessary to be increased to 50-60 per cent. For that it will be required to increase the capacity of the existing universities and the number of universities and colleges should be increased wherever it is necessary.

It is primarily a matter of money. The government has to help universities and increase the number of colleges.

As far as quality is concerned, it is determined by three things: one is the teachers that are there, secondly the infrastructure and the third is the syllabus.

We have had problems owing to a shortage of teachers. We will have to appoint a large number of teachers. The salary of teachers was increased in the last five-year plan. It created the likelihood of good people joining this profession. But we need more and more PhD students to come into teaching. The economic security of the teachers needs to be augmented. This will increase the supply of teachers in higher education. As far as infrastructure is concerned, it is commonly understood that in education institutions and other academic matters, fundamental requirements need be fixed and enhanced.

Regarding curriculum reforms, credit and grading system, semester system, all these have already been introduced. If the present government is also focusing on this, then it should be done in a better way. This will enhance the quality of education.

The third issue is that all should have equal access to education. Currently, in higher education the number of Muslim students is lower than that of women, Dalits, tribals, Hindus and Christians. Similarly, villages are less represented than cities. We must remove this asymmetry in enrolment in higher education.

A policy should be created for it. Everybody should get education; everyone has the right to increase one's productivity. So it is an important issue. Similarly, in the case of useful learning, skill education should be increased. It is a good thing that the present government at the Centre has formulated a separate policy for skill development.

Another important aspect of education is that we need to provide such an education which can create better understanding of civil rights among the students. The unfortunate case in the University of Hyderabad, involving the suicide of a student, seems linked to it.

Students from different castes, communities, and religions do come to universities for learning. They come along with their own ideas, and this causes alienation among them. As a result, there are disputes among them. This also involves the matters of discrimination and equality and because of reservations, often there are animosities between Dalit-Adivasi students and those from other social categories. So, we have to teach the fundamental considerations of equality and justice, respect for everyone's religion and culture by means of a course.

The recent controversy in University of Hyderabad is caused by seclusion of students. This segregation is based on caste, opinion and so on, as we are unable to provide an education, which can imbibe the sense of equality. In the US, issues such as inequality, poverty, caste, religion and gender are taught through a proper course.

In this way, we can try to break the walls of discrimination and alienation in the campuses. At present, there is nothing of this sort in our higher education institutions. Surely, sometimes the issue of human rights is discussed, but we are not able to provide that in a precise manner too. I was the chairman of the committee on similar caste-based discrimination at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and the committee too found administrative discrimination to be prevalent. Such discrimination does happen at most of our education institutions. This further presses for the need of education to remove discrimination amongst the students.

(The piece first appeared in India Today Hindi.)