India's Ph.D Conundrum
By Panchendra Kumar Naik
06 May, 2015
Countercurrents.org
This article is attempted to deconstruct recent Parliamentary Committee’s remarks on ‘quality and suitability’ of Ph.D. holders in India.
To begin with, it is good that Parliamentarian have raised questions on the ‘quality and suitability’ of Ph.D holders in this country. Bravo! It shows Legislator’s concern for quality of education aside filthy communal politics of religious fundamentalism. Notwithstanding, if one decodes this published report would encounter with very startling inferences which go beyond the efficiency principle of market economy.
This very question of quality in higher education is not that new and can be traced back to Mandal Commission Report (1980) which embarks to provide constitutional guarantee in securing reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in government jobs and educational institutions. This is where the first seed of inequality in ‘quality’ question was sowed. After a long battle with judiciary National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBCs) was established in 1993 by an act of Parliament. Further, it was ratified by Constitution (Ninety-Third Amendment) Act of 2005 by inserting Clause 5 to the Article 15. It reads: Nothing …prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the SCs or the STs in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions.
Now one may wonder how above anecdote is helpful in understanding the current issue at hand.
The influx of OBC students in higher educational institutes (coupling with mild existence of SCs and STs) which is until now prerogatives of elite castes/class cognitive students, dented the precedent party’s hegemony and permanently curtailed the likelihood to get enrolled to higher education. The SC/ST students had been disproportionally represented in varsity specifically into Ph.D programs. And if at all they were adequately represented were hardly seen as a threat by the over-represented Caste elite. But a subsequent slump in elite shares in higher education and specifically from premier institutes of national repute have had raised discontent among hitherto elite caste academia and students. Hence, arose debate on quality! Of course, until then quality question was never raised, as I presume.
It is one of the stylized facts that polarization among students and teachers in educational institutes on the quality question has been unabated. Social Scientists have questioned such divide and cautioned the pervasive effect of this on academia and India at large. Prominent being Gopal Guru, who criticizes the unethical practices followed in educational institutes and raises serious concern over the morality of the preacher of the ‘theoretical’ knowledge. Reverting to the question, has really Ph.D. quality been come down? Probably, an answer would be yes! By simple logic, it may be argued that with the entry of the OBCs into the vistas of knowledge would initially pull down the existing presumed quality of scholarship. Nonetheless, Caste elites scholarship should be put into public scrutiny which have hardly had helped State in setting up the level playing field for marginalized groups. One should not forget that this group has been deprived of knowledge since primeval and participating in the process of knowledge creation for the first time. In infant stage of knowledge creation, this newcomers are ought to be supported by the State than to buried them in the name of meritocracy.
Parliamentary Committee has also “sought an evaluation report to understand why suitable candidates were hard to find for vacant teaching posts.” One may wonder how Committee came to this conclusion that there is a dearth of ‘suitable candidates’ for existing teaching vacancy without considering scientific research on this subject. Prima facie, one may argue that the nature of such allegation is unscientific and driven by rhetoric. As we know that the term ‘suitable’ is very subjective and open to different interpretation. It can be as heterodox as fixing a suitable groom where each nitty-gritty is taken into account – caste, class, color and creed, least to mention. To argue hypothetically ‘applicant’s proficiency may not be employer’s suitability.’ As Thorat and Neuman’s book ‘Blocked by Caste: Economic Discrimination in Modern India’ alerts that how systematic discriminations have been practiced in the Indian job market. This book deciphers: how despite ratified degrees and proficient expertise in respective subject, candidates from oppressed castes were/are overlooked by recruiters; how in the name of ‘meritocracy’ most suitable job seekers from oppressed castes have been sidelined. It questions the rationality of ‘suitability criteria’ adopted by employers to exclude marginalized.
It is quite disrupting to pen that in this country many of educational institutes have not filled vacant teaching positions, leave alone premier institutes such as IITs, IIMs, and NITs. The explanation goes beyond mere demand-supply mismatch which undoubtedly needs scholarly scrutiny. It would be quite intriguing to ask whether Parliamentarian have been talking about vacancy in general or evil eye is on marginalized castes and class which constitutes fifty odd percentage of reservation in varsities in particular, vide Executive Council resolution, 11 April 2007. Categorically speaking half of SC/ST teaching posts remained unfilled in Central Universities. Despite 81st Constitutional Amendment Act (2000), which empowers the State to consider the unfilled reserved vacancies of a year as a separate class of vacancies to be filled up in any succeeding year or years in roster basis (as prior to 2000 it was unconstitutional to exceed reservation beyond prescribed limit of 50 per cent in any particular year) most of the teaching positions remained vacant. The total backlog in SC category at the entry-level position of Lecturer was 341 out of 740 required posts i.e. 46 per cent of these posts were unfilled. In the ST category, 197 or 53 per cent of posts were vacant out of the required posts of 369 for the year 2010-2011 (Gaikwad, 2013). Over 84 per cent of posts for Readers and over 92 per cent for Professor’s position in the SC-ST category were vacant in 2010-2011. Drawing from the same report on reason behind backlog and poor implementation of reservation policy: “The problem,” remarked Subhash Lakhotia, Professor Emeritus at BHU, “is that candidates are often not found suitable.”
This version of the explanation is not only confined to BHU or any particular varsity rather it is pervasive. This gives us a very grim picture of poor adherence to Constitutional provisions. How one ought to quantify objectivity of ‘suitability’ is a cause of concern. Any subjective measurement to this parameter in largely socially and economically diverse country would necessarily lead to void results. We are aware of the fact that our country is newly born one and under construction to provide level playing field and equality of opportunity to all its citizens. Until it reaches parity, though it is quite hypothetical, we need to learn to accommodate each other in a more peaceful way by sidelining efficiency principle, at least in the short run. Any regressive ‘reorientation’ which Panel intended to, as I deduce, would inevitably lead to the society of unequal. Before India produces more PhD like a ‘dime a dozen’ (India hopes to be graduating up to 20,000 PhDs a year) it must try to implement affirmative action and brought about by an equal access to quality primary and secondary education, a sure step to stop educational inequality.
Undoubtedly, higher education has helped marginalized community and paved the way for upward mobility. We all know that there is no dearth of good students and faculties from marginalized castes and class. It is just a matter of chance, it is government’s social responsibility! The role of education for such community is well placed by social thinker like Mahatma Phule: Without education knowledge is lost; without knowledge development is lost, without development wealth is lost, without wealth Shudras are ruined. Notwithstanding, on the quality quotient, Shudras should not confined to empirical mode, as Gopal Guru argues, rather they must ponder to provide theoretical underpinning to confront reverse ‘orientalism of elite’ that retreat Shudras in the name of ‘quality and suitability’.
References:
Gaikwad, R. (2013). Half of SC/ST teaching posts unfilled in Central varsities. The Hindu
Accessed from http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/half-of-scst-teaching-posts-unfilled-in-central-varsities/article3592180.ece
Guru, G. (2002). How egalitarian are the social sciences in India? Economic and Political Weekly, 5003-5009.
Thorat, S., & Neuman, K. S. (2012). Blocked by caste: economic discrimination in modern India. Oxford University Press.
The Hindu (2015). Parliamentary Panel raises questions about quality of PhD holders in India.
Author is currently pursuing Ph.D. at Centre for Development Studies (affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), Trivandrum, Kerala. Author has completed his M.Phil. Degree in Applied Economics from the aforementioned department. Author can be contacted through Email: [email protected]
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