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The education business

“The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values,” a maxim which seems to have lost its true meaning in the rampant commercialization of education in our present day. Value education is an important rung in the ladder of education but sadly our schools and colleges fail to provide the same to our students. Today education has been taken over by the syllabus as education ends with the completion of the syllabus, a trend which in turn has given rise to a number of institutes and universities carrying forward the wheel of education in a mechanical sense.

Imparting of knowledge has become a business to certain people who claim to provide various courses for exorbitant fees. Guwahati itself has witnessed the boom of such spurious colleges in every nook and corner of the city by self styled educationists. Some colleges are even seen to be running in ramshackle conditions where the students are accommodated in tiny thatched classrooms by in some cases incompetent teachers.

‘Have money will open a school or college’ that is the prevalent attitude of some of the owners of such schools. There are many universities in India who sell degrees for a price which is a mockery of the education system. The students too are aware of such a trend and prefer to seek greener pastures in such institutes where education can be brought and sold.

There are some autonomous universities which fall under the deemed university category but sometimes fail to fall under the Distance Education Council (DEC) which are therefore de-recognized by the UGC. DEC is a statutory body of University Grants Commission (UGC) which provides university status to such universities if they fulfill certain norms and for this the UGC gives them a few years time. If the university fails to fulfill these norms the university is de-recognised.

In such cases some universities find themselves in a soup if they are not approved by the UGC. And in such cases the students are the worst sufferers as they run the risk of being stripped off their degrees. The government needs to tighten its reign over these universities who allot study centres in different parts of the country and charge exorbitant fees without providing proper infrastructure and facilities. Therefore before enrolling in such colleges students and guardians need to check the background of these universities which can be done by visiting the UGC website which lists all the recognized as well as de-recognised universities.

The business of education may have a lot of pitfalls and the potential consumer needs to be aware of these in order to avoid falling into their trap.

Comments

jaay's picture

There is a hoard amongst the younger generation to pile up degrees, no matter what it costs. The ant to gear up with an MBA degree or an MCA degree or probably hotel management diploma, you name it and just walk out of your door, you will see hoardings, offering these degrees in a plate. People are not losing the precious time but tons of money in these ventures. This must stop and it can be done through bringing in proper legislatures and bills, but surprisingly we find that half of these ventures are somehow connected to the politicians or their relatives. So that is why we find that when it comes to taking actions against any such ventures, politicians are the last people to support it. In this era when education proves to be the only pillar for someone’s prosperity, these institutes are certainly creating hindrance. Nice article.

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