by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World, News
Representational Image
The report noted that Indian Muslims lagged far behind other marginalised communities, and urgent attention and holistic measures are needed to deal with the situation.
Waquar Hasan | NEW DELHI
- Muslims continue to be among the poorest and most disadvantaged groups in India
- Post-Sachar education policies specifically targeted at Muslims have had very limited impact
- Learning skills of vulnerable Muslim primary students are among the poorest and significantly substandard
- All Disadvantaged students including vulnerable muslims likely to be disproportionately represented among the weakest school and college learners
- Schools failing in equipping disadvantaged students to become responsible citizens
A new report titled “A New Agenda for The Education of Indian Muslim in the 21st Century” reveals a gloomy picture of Indian Muslims’ educational status, and shows the way out of this mess.
The report, compiled by Pune-based educationist Dr. John Kurrien, noted that Indian Muslims lagged far behind other marginalised communities, and urgent attention and holistic measures are needed to deal with the situation.
Noting about the educational backwardness of the minority community, the report said, “Official data indicates that Muslims have now the lowest levels of school and higher education enrolment–even lower than traditionally disadvantaged groups like SCs and STs–and have also the lowest participation rates in all prestigious school and higher educational institutions including KGBVs, central universities, and institutions of national importance”.
Citing a pioneering 2018 intergenerational mobility study, the report observed that during the economic liberalisation period, all marginalised communities, including SCs and STs, have made upward mobility gains but for Muslims, these opportunities substantially deteriorated.
It said that the Sachar Committee report sheds light on the educational backwardness of the Muslims. But even more than 10 years after the report came out, the situation has further deteriorated and new developments have come up in this decade.
The new agendas proposed by Dr Kurrien argue to “focus exclusively on the learning of poor and lower middle-class (vulnerable/disadvantaged) Muslim youths under 25 years, who constitute about 80% of the total Indian Muslim population”.
It has laid down three goals of the new agenda for the education of Indian Muslims:
1– Ensure all Muslim children complete a full cycle of 12 years of quality school education from Classes 1-12 leading to relevant learning outcomes by 2030.
2 — Ensure all Muslim children between birth – 6 years benefit from access to Early Childhood Development programmes, which include 2 years of pre-primary education by 2030.
3 — Ensure all Muslim youths outside the formal education system under 25 years have better access to educational opportunities and vocational training.
Talking about the condition of the learning capability among Muslims, the report said “recent ASER and IHDS 2–both large scale learning surveys of Indian students–revealed that in terms of acquisition of reading, writing and arithmetic skills, Muslim primary students were either the worst performers, or among the worst, in comparison to OBCs, SCs/ STs and their peers from other religions”.
In this regard, the Urdu medium students are also not in good condition. “A 2005 Pratham study indicated that primary students in Urdu medium Municipal Corporation schools of Mumbai fared significantly lower in reading and writing than Hindi and Marathi medium students.
“In Class 3, as much as 54.3% of Urdu-medium students were classified as unable to read; and 58.8% as unable to write. The corresponding figures for Class 4 students were not less shocking at 41.2% and 44.6% respectively”.
The report draws attention towards three important issues which concern school education of the vulnerable Muslims: Girls education, medium of education and madrasa. Regarding the girl education, the report noted that there was negative behavior among the religious Muslims but the situation has changed. There has been progress in girl education but it has been limited.
The report pointed to the issues with the Urdu medium education in schools. It said that in the absence of Urdu medium higher education system, those students who get their school education in Urdu face difficulties to go to the higher stage of education.
“The disaggregated data reveals the fundamental problem that Urdu medium schools face in all states. Even in Maharashtra, for parents and students who want to pursue a full course of Urdu medium school instruction from primary school to higher secondary or even high school, there are few such complete schools in most rural and urban locations.
“An analysis of transition rates of students in Maharashtra has noted that “Muslim students are not able to move from Urdu medium schools to other medium schools and they drop out from the education system early,” noted the report.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Interviews
Vice chancellor Professor C. Raj Kumar
By Gokul Bhagabati,
New Delhi : With higher education institutions in India, barring a handful struggling to make a mark at the global level, Vice chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) in Sonipat, Haryana, Professor C. Raj Kumar, is vouching for greater engagement from the private sector to improve both quality and access to higher education in India.
Professor Kumar — Rhodes scholar at the University of Oxford, where he obtained his Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.) degree; and a Landon Gammon Fellow at the Harvard Law School — became the founding VC of the university in 2009 and, in the nine years since, he has guided the institution to rank among the top 450 universities in Asia, as per the QS Asia University Rankings 2019.
In an email interview with IANS, he sheds light on how the higher education system is burdened by over-regulation and why more corporates and high net worth individuals should come forward to support the government in making India a preferred global destination for pursuing higher education and research.
Q: What is ailing India’s higher education system? What kind of reforms, according to you, can improve the system?
A: The Indian higher education system is over-regulated and under-governed. This is evident in recent government policies that aim to reduce regulatory oversight through initiatives such as Graded Autonomy for well-performing institutions, and the Institutions of Eminence project that will allow for selected institutions to self-regulate on key aspects such as recruitment, admissions and collaborations. However, given the gap in scale, access and relative quality of higher education in the country, further reforms are urgently needed to match the rapid expansion of the sector with performance and quality. We also need greater engagement from private actors, including from industry, to promote quality in higher education.
Q: What is stopping private universities in India from becoming world-class universities?
A: If one were to look at the parameters on which international ranking agencies such as THE (Times Higher Education), QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) and ARWU (Academic Ranking of World Universities) operate, one would notice common metrics such as research, reputation and internationalisation. Indian universities primarily focus on teaching and less on research. Secondly, functions of internationalisation (i.e. hiring of foreign faculty members, admitting foreign students and building student mobility programmes) within higher education institutions are currently over-regulated by the government. For private universities to flourish, there needs to be greater balance between government oversight, functional autonomy and a diversified funding ecosystem within the country for such institutions.
Q: How can Indian universities improve rankings in list of the world’s top universities?
A: Indian universities need to prioritise research impact and outcomes. There is greater need for funding in Indian universities, which ought to come from both public and private sources. Secondly, the regulations that encumber the internationalisation efforts of universities need to be eased. Universities need to be encouraged to promote all forms of internationalisation. We need to create an ecosystem in which students from other parts of the world should desire to study in India just as we create opportunities for student mobility programmes where Indian students go abroad for various short- and long-term programmes. All of this will require greater support from the government and private actors.
Q: What measures should India put in place to improve access to higher education among the underprivileged?
A: While public universities now provide the broadest access to students from under-represented and disadvantaged communities, private higher education institutions need to play a far greater role in expanding access to quality higher education in India. The higher education sector is yet to see meaningful private participation in a not-for-profit mode where corporates and high net worth individuals support access to quality higher education. O.P. Jindal Global University is a stellar example of private, not-for-profit and corporate philanthropy in higher education. Unfortunately, for a large country like India, there are very few such examples and we need more of them.
Q: What role do you see for universities in shaping the future of the nation?
A: A nation is built on the basis of its people and, indeed, institutions. Visionaries who inspire others and change the way of doing things are critical in every effort to build a nation. In order for our citizens to dream, aspire and inspire, there needs to be greater imagination and efforts in creating enabling and inspiring environments in the form of university spaces where teaching, learning and research can happen. Institution-building is central to nation-building and that is how we can create an enabling environment for the future.
(Gokul Bhagabati can be contacted at gokul.b@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Opinions
By Kavita Mehta and Namita Mehta,
In India, the concepts of “higher education” and “career planning” are often conflated. Parents think of higher education choices as determinants of a child’s career, expecting a clear and direct connection between what their child will study and what his or her career will be.
This logic has worked for those pursuing careers in medicine and law; after all, who wants to engage a lawyer who didn’t go to law school or a doctor who doesn’t have a medical degree? Today, however, most higher education choices rarely result in a career directly related to a major. For example, not all Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) graduates work as engineers and not all economics students become economists. And even if you attended law school, there is no “rule” that you must work as a lawyer. The main point of education is to develop critical thinking skills that can be used in any career.
Moreover, it is important to understand that the employment landscape is changing swiftly. As conventional business models are upended, new jobs are emerging, and the pace of change is exponentially fast. Jobs are fluid, requiring multiple skills; a singular focus is no longer adequate for a career that spans 40-plus years. Since no one can say with certainty what the jobs of the future will look like, developing foundational skills is key to remaining employable. This means that, practically speaking, studying any subject in university can serve as a platform to access a range of careers.
When engaging a career counselor, be sure to understand that, while higher education and career choices can go hand in hand, the ground reality can be quite different. Here are some things to consider.
Sidestep Grade 8 panic: As educators, we meet parents of Grade 8 students who worry that their child “has no direction” or “doesn’t know what he/she wants to do”. Don’t panic, it is perfectly normal for a 13-year-old to be unsure. They have barely been exposed to subjects such as physics, economics or calculus nor have they critically examined Shakespeare or UN policy toward refugees. The point is, up until Grade 8, they have acquired the building blocks to learn more, at a faster pace and across disciplines. It seems premature and slightly unfair to ask them what they want to do when they are just beginning to build knowledge and hone skills. At Grade 8, students lack the capacity to make career-related decisions, so parents need to guide them in making informed decisions, keeping as many options open as possible.
Make informed choices: The Indian education system forces students to make irreversible choices early. Understanding this is key when deciding a “stream” and choosing subjects after Grade 10. Eliminating certain subjects, especially science and math, just because they may not seem related to a potential future career, is shortsighted.
Let’s say a student wants to be a journalist, so they drop math and/or science in high school, reasoning that these subjects are irrelevant. In doing so, they are neglecting to prepare themselves for a world in which disciplines intersect. For example, as a features journalist, they may want to profile a start-up that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to offer time-sensitive medical solutions. In this case, a writer with a working knowledge of science and math can craft an insightful piece on how this type of game-changing technology can transform healthcare delivery. Taking math and science in high school would help this journalist draw parallels and see intersections between seemingly unrelated concepts.
Ensuring children have a broad-based education across subjects that are “core” — mathematics, languages, science and history — puts them in good stead to pursue whatever they want in university and beyond.
Psychometric tests do not have all the answers: In India, we tend to test for everything. From board examinations, to music, dance and art, the ultimate recognition is through an examination that validates competence. While this seems logical, it can dilute a child’s true passion for an activity or subject. Sometimes a young person might just want to play the piano, learn hip hop or paint on a canvas without seeking anyone’s approval. This idea may be alien, especially to parents who carry folders of certificates to prove how accomplished their child is.
This same logic applies to psychometric tests. While these tests can offer an indication of key strengths, they cannot decide someone’s “career.” Only the individual can do that. We recently spoke to a frazzled mother who said, “This psychometric test says my son should take commerce, but he wants to take science. What do I do?” I find asking students probing questions about what they enjoy, motivating them to try harder (if needed) and encouraging them with digestible action items to be more effective than an algorithm that spits out an optimal “career”.
Who says one career/job only?: Justin Tobin, founder of innovation consultancy DDG, recently told The Guardian that, “…more and more independent thinkers are realising that being an employee for just one company is the equivalent to putting all your money into one stock — a better strategy is to diversify your portfolio. So, you’re seeing a lot more people looking to diversify their careers.”
We see this in practice every day. We know a professional colleague who also owns a thriving salon business and another who has invested in a bakery, supporting his friends’ passions while creating a diversified income stream. Service-focused industries such as advertising and management consulting draw upon the experiences of creative individuals such as novelists, anthropologists, photographers, designers and technologists, in addition to data-and-information-focused engineers, accountants and lawyers. The diverse successes and failures of these individuals inform their effectiveness when collaborating with others to develop innovative solutions.
When an individual has the opportunity to indulge a range of interests, their creativity and satisfaction soar. And that’s when their best work and efforts materialise.
(Kavita Mehta and Namita Mehta are Partners at The Red Pen, an independent education consulting company, advising applicants who seek to study abroad. They can be contacted at info@theredpen.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Opinions, Technology
By Amit Kapoor,
As India gets ready to celebrating its 71st Independence Day, concerns over honing its human capital come to the fore. These mus be addressed if the nation is to seize the opportunity offered by a demographic dividend for sustainable and inclusive digital growth.
The growing working population, which is expected to increase by 1.3 million every month between now and 2025 (World Bank, 2018) demands a focus on higher education and skilling to create a pool of human capital in the ongoing digital revolution and take India on a higher growth trajectory. While India already lags behind its peers in terms of employment generation owing to various socio-economic reasons, growing digitalisation can further accentuate the frictions in the job market if the country doesn’t align the skills of its rapidly growing workforce to the demands of the new digital economy.
It is, thus, essential to adapt to the new technology to tap the full potential of digital disruption and reduce inequality in the society.
This could be achieved in part by transforming the higher education system in India in a way that it enables students to prepare for the challenges of future jobs. This, however, requires an understanding of the way innovations are going to impact the country’s labour market. There seems to be a likely increase in the demand for the high skilled workers who use non-routine cognitive and ICT skills and the low skilled workers who use non-routine manual skills, while the mid-level skilled workers who are in their routine occupations are more likely to experience a decline in demand for their skills because of the automation of the repetitive tasks.
A 2017 OECD study, “Future of Works and Skills”, points out that employment in high skilled occupations in India experienced a 6.3 percentage point increase over 2002- 2014, while employment in medium skilled routine occupations declined 5.3 percentage points over this period.
Sectoral analysis of the Indian economy reveals that the manufacturing sector has a high potential for automation, with an estimate of 69 percent of the tasks that could be automated in organised manufacturing in India (World Bank Group Foresight Report, 2016).
The automobile sector is expected to buy 60 per cent of all industrial robots sold in India (ET Auto, 2015), which could be used for doing a large number of routine tasks such as welding, polishing and painting in the manufacturing plants, leading to a consequent decline in such jobs.
Further, looking at the services sector, e-commerce provides an example of India’s industry where technology-enabled innovations, such as digital payments, hyper-local logistics, analytics driven customer engagements and digital advertisements are expected to support the growth of the sector. While the sector is set to grow from $38.5 billion in 2017 to $200 billion by 2026 and, consequently, expected to generate employment in e-commerce and the allied industries such as logistics, transport and warehousing, there is a greater likelihood of displacement of small to medium retail enterprises and shop floor salespersons they have, because of the increasing demand for the automation skills in the industry.
The IT sector has been undergoing a huge technology transformation and has seen tremendous growth over the last 20 years. Its contribution to India’s GDP rose to approximately 9.5 percent in 2015 from 1.2 percent in 1998. However, the sector is expected to experience a 14 percent decline in its workforce by 2021 on account of application of machine learning and Cloud computing technologies which will automate the routine and backend tasks.
Thus, IT sector workers need to upskill themselves on the SMAC (Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud) technologies to overcome the labour market frictions arising out of the digital transformation. The SMAC market is expected to grow to $225 billion by 2020 and create employment opportunities in related capabilities.
The impact of automation technologies has also been felt in the financial sector, where there is already an extensive use of chatbots and internet banking at the customer services end. While there will be some job displacements for the digital transactions which are non-risky in nature, there will always be a requirement for human intervention when it comes to risky transactions and investing money. In fact, digital finance is expected to create 21 million new jobs by 2025.
A review of the future of work in India across various sectors on account of the ongoing digital revolution necessitates the need for transforming its system of higher learning to deliver a workforce which is industry ready. This could be achieved by learning from the success stories of countries such as Russia, Singapore and Switzerland, which have developed special industry-specific programmes to prepare their people for future jobs, and also analysed the in-demand future skills to provide appropriate skill-based training to young people.
Further, encouraging more private sector participation in setting up higher education institutes catering to the needs of industry can bridge the skill gap experienced by the Indian economy.
However, the government needs to ease the regulatory requirements for setting up universities to encourage greater private investments. In addition, emphasis should be laid on outcome-based indicators, such as the number of students who get employment after graduating from the university, instead of input-based measures, such as the gross enrollment ratio for a university. Moreover, online courses from platforms such as Coursera, edX and Udacity, which have emerged as the online solution to the demand supply skill gap, should be awarded credits in the undergraduate/graduate studies, to encourage greater student participation.
At this juncture in the global economic scenario, India must make significant revisions to its higher education system to make their future workforce industry ready. While change is difficult, it is also inevitable.
(Amit Kapoor is chair, Institute for Competitiveness, India. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at amit.kapoor@competitiveness.in and tweets @kautiliya. Deepti Mathur, senior researcher at large, with the Institute has contributed to the article)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
Abdul Rashid Agwan
By ABDUL RASHID AGWAN
With the declaration of Aligarh Muslim University as the 4th best universities of India by the India Today-Nielsen Survey 2015, the Muslim institutions of higher education in the country are about to touch the acme of their long drawn struggle of almost two hundred years in serving the community and the nation through modern education. Exultant on the AMU’s achievement, its vice chancellor Lt. Gen. Zameer-Uddin Shah has vowed that the AMU will further go up in excellence and become the best one among all Indian universities by 2017.
Mujtaba Farooq, Vice President, AIMMM in last session “Presentation of Lifetime Achievement Awards” at the Golden Jubilee Conference of All India Muslim Majlis-E Mushawarat on 31 August, 2015 at India Islamic Cultural Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi.(Photo Facebook)
In fact, other renowned Muslim institutions such as Jamia Millia Islamia and Hamdard University are also not far behind on the list of excellence ladder and could be seen over the years among top 100 excellent institutions of the country. The mentioned survey has put Jamia Millia Islamia on the 7th slot and other institution of Muslim background, Osmania University, even better, on the 6th. In the list of Ranking Web of Universities covering 1622 universities and eminent colleges of India, Osmania University, the AMU, Jamia Millia and Jamia Hamdard are respectively slotted at 31st, 33rd, 42nd, and 77th positions. The India Today-Nielsen Survey 2015 results show that Jamia Millia was just one step behind the AMU among the top 5 universities of north India while remaining on 5th position after Delhi University, Banaras Hindu University, Jawaharlal Nehru University as the top three. According to Times Higher Education Asia Ranking 2014, AMU ranked 3rd among Universities in India. Jamia Millia’s media education center, MCRC, has been deemed best one in the country in its genre for last several years and its half dozen departments range among top 10 colleges of the country. The AMU’s law department has been marked as the 6th best in the country. However, all these are not easy achievements for the community as could be seen from the brief review of the journey which began long back.
Perhaps, the oldest extant Muslim institution in the country remains to be the Anglo-Arabic School founded in 1696 by Ghazi-ud-Din Khan Feroze Jung I, a general of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. It was originally termed as Madrasa Ghaziuddin Khan. East India Company gave it the status of Anglo Arabic College in 1828 with an expressed intention (sic) “to uplift uneducated and half-barbarous people of India.” Presently, it exists as two separate institutions; as Zakir Husain Delhi College since 1975, affiliated to Delhi University and as the government-aided Anglo Arabic Senior Secondary School.
The first seeds of modern education or rather western education were sown in the Indian subcontinent with the establishment of an Arabic institution called as Madrasah-i-Aliah or Calcutta Madrasah by the East India Company in 1780. Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of Bengal, justified his decision while saying that it was done “at the request of several Mahomedans of distinction.” The need for that arose for running courts in the territory of the British rule, which necessitated carrying on the prevalent law codified in Urdu-Persian language for some more time, before the local judicial system could be changed according to the law of the new masters. The Company started classes in the madrasa in Urdu, Persian, English and law for the natives. The said institution did not garner any immediate support from the antagonized Muslim community of Bengal in the wake of anti-Muslim policies of the colonial rulers after the 1757 Plassey war and it consequently passed through a chequered history. However, over the years it became the Mohammaden College of Calcutta in 1848 and finally Aliah University in 2008.
Two decades after the first attempt, the British rulers made another effort to engage Muslims in their pattern of education by taking over the Imambada Madrasa at Hooghly, already running under the endowment made by Haji Mahommed Mohsin in 1806. By 1836, it was providing education in Arabic, Persian and English. In this institution, a medical class was established in 1827 wherein anatomy by English authors was taught in Arabic till 1835. It was the first batch in allopathic medicine in the Indian subcontinent. In due process, the Imambada Madrasa became the first law college of the land and its name was changed to Hooghly Mohsin College in 1937. It is still extant and providing yeoman service under the control of West Bengal government.
In 1882, Hakim Abdul Majeed established the Madrasa Tibbia in Delhi, which progressed in due course and elevated as Tibbia College in 1926 with its foundation stone laid by the then Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge. When India got freedom, a large number of refugees from Pakistan settled in Karol Bagh area, mostly around the college. They took possession of the college building during a riotous situation in September 1947 and its furniture was used or disposed of by them, its property was ransacked and its boarding house was occupied by the settlers. The family of Hakim Ajmal Khan, the founder of the college and one of the major financers of the freedom struggle and the fifth Muslim president of the Congress, became highly disgusted on being helpless and left for Pakistan within three months of the devastation. After its long spell as a Unani college of Delhi University since 1973, the institution has been accorded the status of deemed university as The Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College in 2008.
Four decades later than the establishment of the Calcutta-based Mohammaden College, a similar college got established with the British support and through diehard efforts of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan at Aligarh in 1885, named Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College, which was elevated as Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 1920, which is now poised to became the best university of the country.
A group of nationalists under the leadership of Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, not satisfied with the pro-colonial policies of the newly formed AMU, ventured to establish an institution named Jamia Millia Islamia the same year at Aligarh itself, which was later on shifted to Delhi and achieved the status of deemed university in 1962 and finally turned into a central university in 1988 and now has become the 7th best university in India.
Before these two universities of north India could take shape, Osmania University was established in the south around the same period by Nawab Yawar Jung in 1918 in Hyderabad. It is the first Indian university to have Urdu as a medium of instruction. In 2012, the university was placed sixth among the Nation’s Premier Universities in Humanities, Sciences and Commerce stream, which secured the ‘University with Potential for Excellence’ status. The India Today-Nielsen Survey considers Osmania University as the best among top 5 state universities of the country and 6thbest among all. One of its excellent colleges, Osmania Medical College, was taken over by the state government in 1952 and it was attached later on with NTR University of Health Sciences in 1986. It began its journey as Nizam’s Medical School in 1846 and European medicine was taught there in Urdu for almost a century. It is the oldest medical school in India and perhaps in Asia. It was only in 1948 that the medium of instruction and examination for the MBBS course of the college was changed from Urdu to English.
After these noteworthy efforts during the British period, a long phase of freedom struggle and post-partition hangover gripped the community and not much could be done for a long time towards establishing new institutions of higher learning on its part. However, in the post-independence era, People’s Medical College, Hyderabad, was founded in 1954 by Dr. Syed Nizamuddin Ahmed who was its first principal and the founder. Soon, it was also taken over by the state government, as its predecessor Osmania Medical College, and its name was changed to Gandhi Medical College. Noorul Islam University was founded in 1989 by Dr A.P. Majeed Khan at Kanyakumari but it also turned into a state owned university afterwards.
Almost seven decades later than the above-mentioned three universities of the second decade of the previous century, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, was given the status of a deemed university in 1989. It started its journey as a research and education center in Unani medicines in 1964 and its visionary founder Hakim Abdul Hameed started procuring land for the institution in Tughlaqabad area of Delhi, as back as in 1953. His educational dream took shape with the establishment of Hamdard Tibbi College and Indian Institute of Islamic Studies in 1963, which provided base for founding the first medical university of the Muslim community more than two and half decades back.
Last fifteen years have seen a spurt of universities established in both the government and private sectors, primarily for the benefit of the community. They include Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad (1998), Integral University, Lucknow (2004), Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, Rampur (2006), Maulana Mazharul Haque Arabic and Persian University, Patna (which was established in 1998 but became functional only in 2008), BSA Abdur Rahman University, Chennai (2008), University of Science and Technology, Ri-Bhoi, Meghalaya (2008), Aliah University, Kolkata (2008), The Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College (2008), Khwaja Gharib Nawaj Arabic Urdu Persian University, Lucknow (2009), Al-Falah University, Faridabad, Haryana (2014) and Maulana Azad University, Jodhpur (2014).
There are other state-managed universities or deemed universities having Muslim name in their nomenclature but they are general universities having nothing special for the community such as Barkatullah University, Bhopal; Hidaytullah University, Raipur; Abdulkalam Institute of Technological Sciences, District Khammam, Andhra Pradesh; Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal; and Fatima University, Kazipeth, Telangana. Azim Premji University, Bangalore, was founded in 2010 by the top Muslim billionaire of the country in his name, but for common students.
There are also some state-run universities in the country which have a large number of Muslim students therein by virtue of their location such as Kashmir University, Srinagar; Islamic University of Science and Technology, Pulwama, J&K; Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri, J&K and Calicut University, Kozhikode, Kerala.
It should be noted that due to obvious reasons, the British rulers first began to mold Muslim elites of the time to their way of administration, rather than the elites of other sections and for this purpose they took initiatives of modern/western education in the subcontinent as back as in 1780. It was four years later that the Asiatick Society was formed in 1784 and the first Sanskrit College was established by the British administration at Banaras a decade later, in 1791, which was later on merged in the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Banaras. Thus, Muslims were supposed to take a lead in the new education of the time but they staunchly resisted it due to their aversion towards the British rule and the Hindu elite had gradually shown increasing interest in learning the masters’ ways. This retained Muslims behind their counterparts by almost one hundred years and their switch over to modern education remained very slow and problematic.
Although the Hindoo College (later on Presidency College), Calcutta, founded in 1817, remains the first private initiative in the country towards providing higher education, but in the independent India Al-Ameen Medical College is the first private college established in 1984, after a long drawn legal battle up to the apex court for privatization of education. Its legal victory brought an educational revolution in the country and paved the way for a spurt of private institutions of higher learning thereafter. Muslims took advantage of the liberalization of education along with other sections and established several professional colleges, particularly in the south. It seems that in the post-Sachar positive environment both the leaders of the community and the respective governments have taken keen interest in the promotion of higher education among Muslims through a chain of universities in different parts of the country as could be marked from the fact that eight universities, primarily for the community, were opened from 2008 to 2014.
While taking an overview of the growth story of Muslim institutions of higher learning, it may be recalled here that the recent years have not only seen an ascending trend of Muslim institutions in the rat race of quality and excellence among Indian universities but also a spurt of new universities and professional colleges serving educational needs of the community in various parts of the country. The formation of National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions in 2005 gave a valuable opportunity for Muslim education, as institutions established under the community initiative could ensure 50% reservation of minority students in them.
A number of surveys over the years have been illustrating an upward movement of some Muslim institutions of higher learning such as the AMU, Jamia Millia Islamia and Hamdard University. All these are ‘A’ Grade universities, as marked by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Their different faculties and departments have also been rated high from time to time as centers of excellence, as the recent survey of Outlook Weekly has done. After two hundred years and more, Muslims in the country have endorsed the worth of modern education for development and progress and are trying to excel the same. Perhaps, the community could have done better in terms of higher education if many of its past initiatives had not got distracted due to their takeover by the government. But, it is also a fact that the promising script of this growth story would not have been possible without public resources made available to the existing institutions.
Now, the policymakers and educationists have three specific goals to take into consideration. Firstly, they should sustain the vertical and horizontal growth of Muslim institutions. Secondly, they should accept Muslims’ first claim to get benefitted from them as valuable assets of the community for helping it advance in a highly competitive world. For this purpose, the AMU, Osmania University, Aliah University, The Ayurvedic and Tibbia College and other minority institutions, historically founded by the participation of the community, should be given minority status so that their 50% beneficiaries could be ensured from the concerning communities, including Muslims. Lastly, public support should be ensured and eased out for the establishment of new institutions under community initiative. Pursuing these goals may perhaps change the dismal scene of Muslims’ attainment of higher education from 3% graduation enrollment rate for several decades to some better one.
[Writer is social activist, analyst and author of many books including the recent one, “Islam in 21st Century: The Dynamics of Change and Future-making”.]
