Accessibility and Equity: A Challenge for Higher Education in India

Abstract

Education is power. It constitutes the foundation of all the multidimensional socio-economic development of a country. In the present context, we need manpower or human capital for generating the growth and development in a country. The Government of India has taken several many initiatives for promoting education at all the stages i.e. Primary, Secondary and Higher. But still, we find such issues as a high dropout rate at all the stages of education, rural-urban disparity, gender disparity, inter-state variations pose as some of the problems that impedes the development of human resources in our country. Even the work participation rate in India indicates the necessity of proper planning of skill training and employment opportunity. Most interestingly, the existing general and conventional higher educational institutions have not effectively been able to cope with the contemporary challenges and changes with the result that the nature of curriculum which is by and large in place tends to create only degree inflation in our country. So, we need such institutes and institutional arrangement that can cater to the contemporary challenges so as to upgrade the quality of education as well as to provide need based educational programmes that can develop human power in the society. Effective or quality education especially at higher level can play a vital role in bringing around multifaceted human resource development, enabling the learner's absorption in the job market and self-employment. This paper will discuss how the accessibility of education can be promoted to all through a convenient mode of education system and how the disparities in education can be minimized, and also focus on the various strategies for strengthening higher education system in the country.

Keywords: Access, Equity and Higher Education in India