'Higher education in the country is dead' so said the former cabinent minister of MHRD and his secretary agreed in public. How ever they didn't elaborate who killed higher education in the country – so started Padmashri Prof. K. L. Chopra, chairman board of governors of HDF School of Management in his key note speech in the inaugural session of the state level consultation on “Challenges and Prospects of Higher Education in Orissa”. Going on with his elaborate presentation on the higher education scenario in the country, Prof. Chopra called for wide ranging reforms at the national level with strong accreditation authority at the center of a comprehensive education policy. He also strongly recommended Odisha to create its State Council for Higher Education and develop a state policy for education at the earliest with the aim of creating global professionals.
Padma Bibhusan (Prof.) Trilochan Pradhan observed that the national level principles and policies and the global developments in higher education need to be applied in the local context. He wondered how does the knowledge commission which has made wide-ranging recommendations on reforms of higher education can be relevant or applied in the case of the local government college in a remote rural area.
Sri Debi Prasad Mishra, the newly appointed minister of Higher Education in his opening remarks welcomed the initiative of the HDF to facilitate wide ranging discussions on the problems of the state in the higher education arena which holds much promise as well as significant hurdles. Sri Mishra sought cooperation of all stake holders in order to come up with a roadmap for the future.
Mr. Madhusudan Padhi, Secretary Higher Education was also presented on the occasion and chaired the first technical session on Governance and Administation of Higher Education in which Prof. Abani Baral, eminent leader of Teacher's movement and Prof. O. N. Mohanty, Vice Chancellor – BPUT spoke on the challenges of governance in higher education – in particualr the university system.
In the post lunch session, chaired by Prof. Binayak Rath, Vice-Chancellor of Utkal University a number of eminent speakers such as Prof. D. V. Ramana, Prof. Sukadev Naik, Prof. T. K. Chandrasekhar, Prof. S N. Torasia and Mr. Binod Das spoke on wide ranging issues to do with social science, professional education and science education.
In the final session to come up with a road map for the higher education sector of the state, the key participants reviewed the views of all and recommended that urgently needed reforms must be undertaken to achieve the vision 2020 set forth by the Knowledge Commission for Odisha based on the objectives of
- Universal Accesss (enough opportunities well distributed so that all can access)
- Equity (must reflect the societal composition of SC, ST, minority and women)
- Affordability (no deserving students should be deprived for financial reason)
A state council of higher education need to be formed with eminent academicians which should come up with an Education Policy to make Odisha an education hub at the national level. Among others Sri D. K. Ray, Sri Sudarsan Das, Prof. H. Panda and Dr. Dhanada Mishra of HDF facilitated.
Some Snap Shots
