‘Stress should be on guiding private sector in opening new centres’
says Prof S. K. Khanna, Advisory Committee Chairman, EPSI
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As the chairperson of the Advisory Committee of EPSI, what do you believe has been the driving force for creation of this body?

India has been experiencing tremendous economic and social transformation with the rapidly changing world economic scenario. To match the pace of global economic progress, we need healthy and skilled manpower – this can be ensured through a robust education system. To facilitate this, it was felt that the country needed an agency that could act as an interface between the government, statutory/regulatory bodies at one end and the aspirations of the society at large on the other end.

Thus the need for setting up EPSI as a nodal body which acts as an interfacing platform for education providers, government, statutory bodies and the student community at large. EPSI focuses on taking up development and planning agenda as conceived by the Planning Commission documents.

EPSI would target at creating higher awareness through workshops for all the relevant participants in the education sector – academia, education providers, government agencies and industry – to improve the quality of higher and technical education in the country.


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What are your views on privatization of higher and technical education in the country? What is the state of preparedness of Indian educational institutions vis-à-vis international universities and colleges?

Since Independence, the central and state governments have been upholding the entire gamut of responsibilities of maintaining, strengthening and upgrading quality of higher and technical education in our country. This has effectively meant that the societal contribution towards this sector has been abysmal till recently.

Responding to this need, the private sector has shown initiative in setting up institutions of quality but unfortunately, the effort has been received with negative vibes.

To correct this scenario, what is needed is a two-pronged strategy: one, the statutory bodies could map the need for setting up dedicated institutions of technical and other specialized fields across the country and serious private sector players could be encouraged to participate in the creation of such new centres.

Secondly, the emphasis should be on guiding the private sector interested in opening up such institutions, instead of making it an entangled process caught in red-tape.

Vis-à-vis international educational facilities, Indian institutions suffer only from shortage of financial resources. But India is at par when it comes to manpower competence level with the best available in the world.

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EPSI has become a frontrunner for the creation of an Educational Development Bank. How would such a bank benefit in improving the quality of education in the country and what would EPSI's role be in such a set up?

The Gyan Prakash Committee of AICTE (1993-95) recommended the setting up of an Education Development Bank of India, on the lines of IDBI. Unfortunately, the recommendations could not be materialized till now.

Such a bank could be set up with an initial corpus of Rs 1000 cr, resourced from the budgeted allocations for higher and technical education by the Government of India.

Such a bank could play an effective role in:
- Providing soft loans to students.
- Providing financial loans to education providers.
- Facilitating and supporting industry to set up core groups with educational organizations.

Such a bank could function as an ancillary of EPSI and it would aim at drawing the right kind of investment for the education sector. It would also ensure higher accountability of all participants, including students and make the system responsive.

The bank would begin with a corpus, and eventually work towards becoming a self-reliant body.

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What are your views on the quality of primary and secondary level education in the country?

The primary to secondary level education structure is very theoretical and superficial at present and this needs to be changed. The focus has to shift towards more practical exposure for students and experience of real life situations for learning at all levels of education in the country.

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What are your views on the state of accreditation system of higher and technical educational institutions in the country?

The NEP document (1983) cited the need for accreditation with a focus on the quality of education. But with the rapid population growth, the mushrooming of educational facilities to meet the demand has led to erosion of quality at such institutions.

Even at present, barely 15 per cent of the total higher and technical educational institutions are of quality mark.

It was perceived that quality should be a process installed after the establishment of an institution – thus the NAAC was set up by UGC and NBA was set up by AICTE.

The total number of higher and technical educational institutions that have sought accreditation up till now is between 5-18 per cent.

The major lacunae in the accreditation process are:
- It is a cumbersome and time-consuming process.
- It creates a sense of scare among education providers.
- The number of specialized training manpower is too low and the training process for trainers is also very slow.
- The fact that accreditation agencies have been set up by the regulatory agencies also dilutes their effectiveness.

To ensure a strong accreditation process, what is needed is a consortium approach, with a focus on involvement of large number of level one players – IITs, NIITs, IIMs, government bodies, to name a few. This would establish a sense of credibility to the accreditation system and pave the way for improving quality of education.

EPSI could also assume a role in the accreditation system by offering rankings on the line of GRE.

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You have played a rich and long innings in the education sector in different capacities. What is your message for education providers and the student community at large?

For the education providers, the focus has to be on participating in building opportunities in innovative and emerging areas of education. They must identify speciality fields and design programmes that cater to the global economic scenario.

Students need to focus on learning process that is self-dependable, project oriented and problem solving in nature. They must have sound fundamental knowledge about their area of specialisation.