The quality and quantity is needed for one and all in India--Dr MM Goel
There is a strong case to remove inconsistencies and contradictions between educational goals, actual policy and resources for sustainable human development for Indians in India and elsewhere in the world which calls for manpower planning ensuring accessibility, affordability and quality. To ground the educational programmes in the labour market realities, there is an urgent need of the data to develop occupational analysis with forecasting coupled with appropriate institutional mode of delivery. It is essential for manpower planning because the vocational, higher and technical education programmes have not only failed to tackle the problem of educated unemployment but aggravated it as the rates of unemployment have a tendency to rise sharply with every increase in the level of education' opined Dr MM Goel, Professor & Chairman Department of Economics, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. He was addressing the students of Bhagwan Shri Krishna College of Education, on 'Excellence Models for Teachers in a Changing Economic Scenario'.There is a strong case for reducing the gap between intellectuals and politicians in power to ensure good governance in all sectors of the economy including education which calls for teacher's constituency in parliament as well as State assemblies, believes Professor Goel who is the convener Intellectual cell of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC).Every possible effort needs to be made for the quality and quantity (both -which has a trade off) for making education as a life insurance for one and all in India. We need to declare education as the basic infrastructural activity.To reduce the critical gap in terms of availability of opportunity of higher education between the rural and urban area in India, Professor Goel justified more allocation of public sector allocation for opening more educational institutions of higher learning in rural areas. He made a call for treating higher education as a highly valuable service that has a price tag and not a heavily subsidized commodity. There is a case for formulating a well-conceived, well planned and equally well implemntable strategy for higher education in India, believes Professor Goel. He said that the educational value of education is more important than the economic value of education which should increase the value of education rather than devaluing the value of education. Professor Goel firmly believes that the education which makes people selfish, egoistic and intolerant is no education. We need to promote a healthy reaction to the individualism and materialism- the dominant trend of modern education and re- conceive the process of education, not merely as an instrument of providing job but an activity that nurtures a continuous growth of the mind and the spirit, and respect the ethics and morals necessary for ordering and illumination of life, observed Professor Goel who belongs to a family of teachers for four generations. Professor Goel feels pain in saying that spiritual bankruptcy and the Commercialization of education are the root causes of deteriorating educational standards in India and is a serious issue of concern for polluting relationship between teacher and student of today. He admitted that to some extent, the teachers are eroding the faith and confidence in Indian education system Being a humble devotee of Lord Krishna , Professor Goel believes that spirituality- the science of soul which is ism neutral and religion free flowing from Bhagwad Gita -a sacro-secular epic needs to be accepted as mantra of excellence by the entire humanity including the teachers of today and tomorrow in all walks of life. Professor Goel emphasized the active participation of private sector in the likelihood of growing demand in future which has to effect a change in the mind set of the masses. To keep the higher education within the reach of poor aspirants, Professor Goel made a case for effective monitoring and regulation of the private sector through appropriate policy measures - a judicious mix of policies, which ensure efficient use of the available educational resources. He has justified the use of cost-benefit analysis for developing new projects of higher education. To plug the loopholes in non-performance, he has rightly pointed out the need for accountability. To justify the Skill of writing as an art, he quoted Alexander Pope, "True ease in writing come by Art not by chance as s (he) moves easiest who has learnt to dance". In his opinion, the writing is not an easy task and is an art which can certainly be developed through lot of reading. It needs to be noted that societies and nations can live without writing but no society can exist without reading, added Goel. Earlier Mrs. Poonam Gupta Principal of the college welcomed & introduced Professor Goel.