Reward teachers to get quality education: Arun Grover

Speaking on Zee Media`s #BBV ‘Mudda Aapka’, Arun Grover vice-chancellor Panjab University, Kavita A Sharma educationist and former principal of Hindu College and SS Mantha chairman AICTE discussed the grim situation of education in India and also debated ways to make it more job oriented. The panelist collectively stressed upon making a national policy for higher education in the country to make it job oriented.

Zee Research Group The government should take action to honor and reward primary teachers said Arun Grover vice-chancellor Panjab University. “To be honest, you cannot expect a teacher to be competitive on current salary. The government immediately needs to improve their salary structure to boost them”, suggested Grover. Recently, the Panjab University has recently been ranked as India’s best and among the top 250 institutions of higher learning worldwide. Endorsing Grover’s point of view, Kavita A Sharma educationist and former principal of Hindu College also pitched to review the salary structure of teachers and demanded them to be treated better. “The government needs to treat teachers better if they expect them to give their 100 per cent.” On Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, she also opined that Teachers’ job is to teach but if they are entrusted with tasks like collecting Census data or perform to do polio duty, government is insulting them. SS Mantha chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) however, stressed on providing technical education to students. Suggesting improvement at undergraduate level, Sharma pitched to upgrade the skills of teachers. “We have to improve education at undergraduate level which is the base for a student. Moreover, teacher training programs like B.ED for teachers need to be updated”, suggested Sharma. She also opposed the idea of having one board exam to decide the fate of lakhs of students. On BBV, Grover supported her point of view and suggested to increase the technical knowledge base of students. However, on the question of employability it seemed that all experts struggled to answer in same tone. When asked about students’ employability, Grover revealed, “In Panjab University the percentage of students getting jobs in professional courses is very high but in streams like science and humanities the number is less than 50 per cent.” Sharma, however, didn’t buy the argument that good marks can also get you a job. “I agree that only by doing a B.A or B.Com you cannot expect a good job but marks are not the only criteria to decide what a student is going to do”, said Sharma. She also stressed that since everyone cannot study in Delhi University, students should also look for other universities. Mantha believed that skills and education should go together for employability. “For job oriented education educational institutions should collaborate with India Inc. so that students can be trained with technical education through internship programs”, he added. More so, on why no institute here is in the top 200 best universities of the world Grover at PU reasoned, “Education system is at the crossroad in our country. The universities which are on the top of the ladder are those that lay emphasis on research. But, in India we are still struggling with the graduate school system”. (Mudda Aapka airs every Monday @ 10pm)