I begin with the quote: “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today” – Malcolm X

For social progress and prosperity, people need to be educated about their culture, environment, the natural resources to be explored and how to explore them. To enhance the capabilities of people for facing challenges of life, higher education plays a decisive role. It also prepares responsible citizens and good neighbors.  Simply put, higher education lays a strong foundation for society which prioritizes harmony, progress and prosperity; such education heals and helps.

It is on the strength of right education that some two dozen countries of the world enjoy the status of being developed in all walks of life. Education has empowered and enabled these countries to explore and utilize their natural resources for the social progress and for achieving supremacy in various sectors of life. On the strength of enlightened education, a nation is able to explore its potential.

Higher education shapes a person into a quality human resource and enhances the resolving power of a human mind to produce intellectuals, scientists, leaders and administrators who will guide society to the path of progress and prosperity. A person, receiving higher education, gains opportunities and options to examine things critically. Produced thus are leading personalities.

Given the present day challenges globally and the role of education in revolutionizing societies, the higher educational institutions in Jammu and Kashmir look to have fallen behind the times . A dispassionate analysis of our colleges and universities shows that these institutions just act as factories to churn out an army of graduates and post graduates only to be unemployable. These educated job seekers people find no good source of income and end up in depression or doing a modest job for very low wages.

A post graduate person or a research scholar with no means to contribute to the prosperity of his family or society is a question mark over our higher education. An uneducated person doing some business or a contractor's work or a manual work is no burden on anybody. He /she has a home, is married and is contributing to social life. But a person with an educational degree is either idling at home or is struggling to meet his/her both ends.  Should we call him/her a burden on the parents?

Our higher educational institutions must explore resources for employment to increase job opportunities, keeping in view the fact that the government — as the major source of employment in J&K— should be supported by private sector which can absorb our unemployed but employable population.

We have more than 100 government and private colleges and many universities here. In view of the poor infrastructure, inadequate faculty and facilities, quality in these institutions is declining. Though we spend millions of rupees on higher education and open several institutions, quality education is evading us. The educated youth with an academic degree must be armed with technical skills and confidence to find out a good source of income for themselves.

Learning by rote memory, non- application of knowledge and examination based on faulty practices —all have impacted our higher education. The system does not encourage critical thinking, creative use of knowledge, decision making and problem solving skills. The end result is an alarming addition to the number of job aspirants.

Most of the students register themselves in undergraduate classes at colleges but do not turn up till the NEET and AIEEE exams do not end. Thus science academics take a severe beating at colleges. Then despite having a massive attendance shortage, these students appear in the university exams and get degrees.  We cannot and should not stop these students from the competitive exams. Yet the rescheduling of exams need to be ensured so that no clash of timings occurs.

Most worrying fact is that our higher education students pursue academic courses half-heartedly as they are disappointed that an academic degree lacks better prospects. We will require special counseling cells in our colleges to clarify to the students that about 60% of jobs advertised yearly in J&K or India require a college degree. We need to brief them that even exams like IAS just require a college degree.

Besides, our universities need to frame job oriented syllabi and narrow down the gap between an academic institution and industries, thus enabling the students to live up to modern global trends and professional requirements. However, the academic subjects like arts and sciences should not pale into insignificance as they train and help students to succeed in many fields of life. Further, the admissions to colleges can well be provided through competitive exams to get the best crop of students.

Talking of administration in colleges, we need to bring energetic and competent principals to the helm of affairs. It is the principals around whom the entire college education revolves. They set the stage and work sincerely and seriously with teachers to maintain high standards of curriculum, evaluate the performance of all staff members, and monitor the students’ progress and performance. They also keep a close eye on class rooms, teaching methods, attendance and discipline problems.

The administrative mismanagement, indiscipline, polarization, lobbyism, indifference towards students and personalized dealings- all are eroding the system mainly due to lack of leadership qualities in the administrative component. That brings into question the appointment procedure of principals. These officials are appointed on the basis of length of service. Let us opt for descriptive written examination so that the best people come to the reckoning and hold the reigns of administration. Besides, the principals should be mandated to visit the top academic and professional institutions of India to enable them to learn about the modern trends in academics and administration.

The quality of education in our higher education institutions and its relevance in today’s world is debatable. Our visionary educationists, academicians, bureaucrats, statesmen and journalists can well discuss these issues on education and come up with innovative solutions. We need to change our outlook on higher education if we seek to change the outlook of students pursuing such education. Time to act now!

(Author is a teacher by profession and RK columnist. He can be reached on: sheikhshabir518@gmail.com)