Faulty higher education system in Pune is producing unemployable graduates

Slamming the failure of India’s higher education system to create employable graduates, former vice chancellor of the Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, SN Pathan, said here on Sunday that higher education which could not ensure that students get jobs, was useless.

While speaking on the eve of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s birth anniversary, which is celebrated as Education Day, he said, “The root cause of the problems with the higher education system is that it was created by the British to provide clerks. It was based on spoonfeeding and rote learning. It does not incorporate vocational training and trains people only for white collar jobs. Moreover, in arts and commerce colleges, attendance is abysmal, with many students coming only to write examinations and not attending classes at all.

“They don’t even read their textbooks and rely only on notes. The syllabi of universities is outdated as are the teaching methods. As a result, people with education are not getting jobs because they have no skills that can be used in the job market.”

He added, “The solution to the problems of higher education is to lay more stress on practical, job-oriented skills. The affiliated colleges must also be given independence to frame their curriculum. We must stop compartmentalisation of education, i.e. science students should be able to study arts subjects and arts students should be able to study science subjects and so on. This is only possible, if there is a political will to tackle the problems. Otherwise, in near future, we will have a huge youth population with no employment prospects.”