Globalisation and Higher Education in Kerala: Access, Equity and Quality

GLOBALISATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION IN KERALA: ACCESS, EQUITY AND QUALITY Report of a Study sponsored by the Sir Ratan Tata Trust Praveena Kodoth Centre for Development Studies Trivandrum 695011 Kerala Acknowledgement It has been possible to carry out this study only because of the support received from several colleges in the state, which responded to our request for information. In particular, I am grateful to the seven colleges, where we conducted surveys and did more intensive fieldwork. I am also indebted to the representatives of managements, Principals, teachers and students who were willing to give us their precious time and their valuable input. There are many people who contributed so warmly to my understanding of the area and it pains me not to mention them but I do so in order to protect the identities of the colleges and the persons concerned. I would also like to thank Dr D. D. Namboodiri and Professor K N Panikkar for discussions at the initial stages of the study. Rakhe and Kochurani for so kindly helping to locate researchers. Anjana MV, Alice Sebastian, Feba Elizabeth Jacob, Sujith P. K. and Loshita Prabhakaran conducted the field work in five of the six colleges taken up for in depth study and transcribing the interviews and discussions. Additionally, Feba also took responsibility to get us the completed questionnaires from some of the colleges in central Travancore. Maya S carried out the survey in one college. Mr Unnikrishnan, Mr Padmanabhan ensured that we received filled in questionnaires from colleges in the northern region, whereas Mr Anil’s efforts are responsible for the large number of colleges that returned questionnaires in the southern region. Vinod S. managed the difficult task of cross checking the data received from colleges, calling them up wherever there were doubts and also entered the data. I am grateful to all of them. The long and laborious task of data entry and analysis of the survey data received from seven colleges was undertaken by Anjana M V with assistance from Sudha. Sreelatha R assisted in the process of analysis of data and preparation of tables for the report. At various points during the data entry and analysis we received help from Braja Bandhu Swain and Anirban Kundu. I would like to thank all of them. I am immensely grateful to Anjana for overseeing a process, complicated by the need to standardize the questionnaires, with care and commitment. At the Centre for Development studies, I would like to thank the Director for his interest and encouragement. U. S. Mishra, V Santhankumar, V.J. Varghese have been supportive throughout the study in terms of commenting on the questionnaires and providing advice on research techniques and data analysis. I am indebted to them. The Registrar, Mr Soman Nair was always willing to help and I am very grateful to him and to Mr Suresh at the accounts for their support. I am also happy to thank the office staff for always being ready to help. CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Interpreting Access, Probing Equity Chapter 3 Framing Quality in Higher Education: Standard Indicators, Reported Problems and Teacher Availability Chapter 4 The Challenge of Providing Quality Higher Education: Access to Basic Facilities Chapter 5 Negotiating Quality in Higher Education: Politics and College Environment Chapter 6 Conclusion Executive Summary • The failure of the publicly funded segment of arts and science colleges to expand has restricted the access of students, particularly from the more marginalized sections of society, to higher education. • Barriers to access to the publicly funded segment of undergraduate arts and science education are relatively greater in the northern parts of the state, where the majority of students continue to rely on parallel colleges. • The pressure on the publicly funded segment to expand is more apparent in southern Kerala in the relatively greater resort to marginal increases in colleges in the region. • There is a marked shortage of enrolment in specific basic science courses in the central Travancore region, in an indication that the preference for professional and technical education and job oriented self-financing courses is better honed in the region. • There is no significant dearth of applicants for the humanities and social science courses in any of the university regions and there is a marked preference among students for courses in commerce, economics and business in all regions. • At the state level, the proportion of SC / ST students in arts and science colleges is far below the reservation quota and the social and economic profile of students currently in select arts and science colleges indicate that those from underprivileged backgrounds face barriers in gaining access. • Colleges are unable to retain students from the most marginalized groups on account of cultural barriers. • The domination of girls over boys in arts and science colleges is on account of a combination of the desire of girls to find employment and the lower importance attached socially to girls’ employment. • The college environment and the quality of education offered by colleges are influenced by the nature of the management, which may be of three kinds: excessive, indifferent and measured. • Excessive management is found usually among private aided colleges and is marked by a suspicion and lack of trust leading to lack of incentives for teachers to perform and restrictions on students against the use of even basic facilities. • Excessive management usually leads to prohibition of politics unless the college does not have social support in the locality to withstand the resistance from students. • The Government colleges and a section of privately aided colleges suffer from indifferent management which fosters weak administrations, shapes poor incentives to perform and leads to little systematic effort to raise additional funds. • Indifferent management makes way for indiscipline among students, could affect transparency and accountability in vital aspects of the education process including admissions and examinations, enable interference by political parties and could result in a coercive environment. • A few of the private aided colleges benefit from measured managements which foster strong administration, provide incentives for teachers to perform and give students access to good basic and student support facilities. They are marked by efforts to raise additional funds from public and private sources. • The Government colleges are less responsive to external assessment, offer little performance incentives for teachers and students, make little effort to get newer employment oriented courses and thus are less competitive than private aided colleges. • The private aided colleges are weighed down by a framework of patronage dispensation, which compromises the standard criteria (merit and reservation) for admission of students and recruitment of teachers. • The single biggest constraint faced by arts and science colleges is the scarcity of teachers, a problem that is heightened in the remotely located government colleges including those more generally in the far north and north east of the state, which are unable to retain teachers allotted to them. • The less powerful aided colleges are also affected more than others by the scarcity of teachers’ as they are less able to challenge Government restrictions against recruitment by going to court. 2 • The remotely located Government colleges have poor or inadequate physical infrastructure but they are well equipped with IT facilities. • Students in many colleges experience the denial of political space through capture of politics by student organizations or through prohibition of politics by the college management. • Even where political mobilization is permitted and is the basis of elections to the student’s council, political space may be compromised due to the subordination of student organizations to the vested interests of political parties. • Depending upon who wields power in a college, the administration or the student organization mobilizes gender to discipline women and to legitimizes intensive moral policing. • While there is no effort to mobilize on the basis of identity as Dalit, the dominant discourse in colleges dismisses caste discrimination as irrelevant. • Teacher’s trade unions too are perceived to be too closely associated with political parties to be able to respond critically to the policies of governments and are seen to compromise on the academic interests of teachers. • Political interference is perceived to have compromised the standards of teaching in colleges by breeding irresponsibility among teachers who are not self motivated. • The ongoing reforms package is perceived widely as useful but also as being implemented in politically motivated way. Thus, the private aided colleges see the cluster college scheme as a means to allow student organizations from outside to enter their campus and disturb peace. 3 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction Since the 1990s, higher education in Kerala has been subject to significant policy shifts, which hold long-term implications for the general arts and science segment. At least three sets of policy moves in the recent past have altered or hold the potential to alter significantly the context of general arts and science education in the state. First, the opening of the doors to self-financing colleges, somewhat ambiguously in the 1990s but with full force since 2000, initiated full fledged private participation in

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