Education and culture of excellence

By

Randeep Wadehra

There is a symbiotic relationship among education, culture of excellence and industrialization. A good education system, which is responsive to the needs of various industries, can do wonders to the process of generating skilled and highly skilled manpower imbued with the value system that facilitates maximum professional excellence and ethics. Research oriented educational centers can facilitate creation of futuristic scenarios that would factor in potential opportunities and threats in different spheres of economic activity; thus leading to creation of such dynamics that would generate employment and resolve various societal contradictions and tensions inevitably caused by industrialization of an agrarian society. In turn, various industries can help establish skill-upgrade facilities in different institutes of learning; this can be achieved through interactions between various technocrat-management teams on the one hand and teaching faculties on the other, thus creating an understanding regarding the quantitative and qualitative needs for manpower. Conversely, corporate honchos will get an insight into the potential of various educational and technical/technological training institutes and suggest modifications accordingly, so that they remain consistently relevant to the present as well as future needs of industry.

Haryana has made impressive progress in terms of agricultural as well as industrial growth. Apart from the bustling industrial townships of Gurgaon and Faridabad attempts have been made, with varying degrees of success, to carry the industrialization process to other parts of the state. Schemes to set up industrial model towns in Sirsa, Hissar, Karnal, Manesar, Barwala etc are on the anvil. Then there are projects involving big industrial houses in India as well as schemes to attract investments from abroad. This is where a word of caution is needed. If we go by the experience of small scale industrial units in towns like Panipat, Ambala, Jagadhri, Yamunanagar etc then we have to appreciate the fact that constant technological upgrades should be made readily available at feasible prices. Many SSI units have died for want of these inputs. There is no point in setting up an industrial unit and then allowing it to go to seed after a few years at great economic and social costs to the state as well as the nation just because the powers that be do not find it worth their while to keep the technological environs conducive to further growth of these units.

This is where the role of indigenous research establishments comes into play. It is well known that imported technology is generally extremely costly and, often, not the latest; mostly it is obsolete. If more focus is laid on indigenous research efforts we would eventually be world beaters in different fields. Admittedly, research centers are not easy to establish and run. This is where long term relationship between educational and industrial establishments becomes vital; state as well as central governments too can play a constructive role in this regard.

Apart from research, the educational institutes should realize their role as purveyors of the culture of excellence – something the state, and the country at large, lacks woefully. Haryana has more than 11,000 primary schools, about 7000 middle, high and higher secondary schools, four universities and hundreds of colleges, polytechnics, ITIs etc. The NIT Kurukshetra is one of the most prestigious institutes for technical studies in Haryana. Then there are other institutes of higher learning, viz., Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University at Hissar, Maharishi Dayanand University at Rohtak, Guru Jambheshwar Unive