UNIT 5

ISSUES, DEBATES AND CONCERNS OF EDUCATION

Unit 1

RESOURCE CONSTRAINTS AND RESOURCE MOBILIZATION

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION

Resources are important for realisation of goals of all organisations including the educational
organisation. For realising eh goal of RTE the resources are very important. The resources
are physical resources and human resources. Financial resources are one of the important
resource needed as it helps in making available all the physical aswell as human resources.
We all know that resources are limited in nature and due to this resource mobilisation
becomes important task for any organisation. Resources are of utmost importance for
maintaining and for development of education. We know that government alone cannot
invest in the resources for education. The government at centre and state has lots of other
major project like universalisation of secondary education, samagra siksha which makes it
difficult for catering to higher education sectors. There is therefore a need to find out the
alternatives for resource mobilisation.

OBJECTIVES
 To understand the concept of resource constraints and resource mobilisation
 To understand the importance of resource mobilisation
 To identify the ways in which resources can be mobilised.

OVERVIEW

The government alone cannot meet the requirements of education. There is a need now to
look for resources other than government. It is not possible for the government to cater to all
the requirements of education. It has now become imperative to look for resources other than
government. In this unit a discussion on resources need in education is being done. In the
later part an attempt is made to understand the constraints of resources and now how the
resources can be mobilised for education has been deliberated. In the light of the apparent
constraints on educational resources their efficient utilization for maximum result need not be
overemphasized

RESOURCES
Resources in education system refer to human resources, material and non material resources
which facilitates the efficient functioning of education system. It includes the teachers in the
educational organisation, human beings in the society, the policy makers etc. Material
resources such as stationary, teaching learning material, audio visual aids etc. These materials
are needed for making the entire process of education effective. We can classify the resources
as follows:
(a) Material/Physical Resources
Material resources are tangible in nature. It includes the physical resources which can be seen
and touched such as machines, raw materials and other tools and equipments which are
needed to facilitate the daily activities of organisation. In education then physical resources
would be class rooms, offices of the staff , laboratories, library and many such things which
facilitates in achieving the desired goal.

(b) Financial Resources

Another important resource which needs to be mobilised is Financial resources. Financial
resources can be termed as the funds which are needed for the smooth functioning. Finances
are needed for procurement of facilities, infrastructure facilities, equipments, electronic
gadgets etc. Financial resources are also needed to make payment of salaries of the
employees. Funds are needed for acquiring the assets also.

Time Resources

Another important resource is Time. Time is an important resource which is scarce. It is very
important resource as it is non recoverable in nature. A time which is lost never comes back.
Time should be utilised properly. One should allocate the time wisely and properly.

Human Resources
The most important resource for any organisation is human resource. It is the human who is
going to utilise the other resources appropriately. Human resource is the resource which is
responsible for performing important tasks of planning, organising, controlling, directing and
also managing the other resources. All the actions of any institution are initiated by the
human resource.

Education resources includes the teachers in the school, human beings in the community, real
objects, specimen or models, chalk and display boards, school buildings and layout, the
community at large and other fundamental materials like pencils, pens, exercise books etc
which the learners are expected to have at any point in time to facilitate learning (NOUN,
2009). Education resources are no doubt important in the development of a conducive
teaching-learning environment. The use of these resources could give more valuable and
powerful direction to the teacher than any personal efforts without the materials.

RESOURCE CONSTRAINTS AND RESURCE MOBILISATION

We all know that resources are limited in nature. This leads to resource constraints. Resource
constraints can be called as lack of sufficient resources. If the required resources are available
in large amount then there will be no issue in day to day functioning of any education system.
But if we have resource crunch then it creates hurdles in the day to day functioning. This
requires careful planning at different levels; a thought process has to be initiated to plan the
resource requirements and its implementation.

In economic terms resources are limited in nature. This makes it imperative that we identify
the essential resources which are need for the fulfilment of our work. This process of
identifying resources well in advance so that we do not face any hurdle in the continuation of
work to achieve our organisational goals is known as resource mobilisation. This needs that
we develop proper relations with our resource providers and also develop the required skills
and knowledge needed for proper utilisation of resources. So we can say that resource
mobilisation is not only managing the monetary resources but also managing the knowledge ,
skills and material resources needed for execution of our task. It also means seeking the
alternative sources for resources mobilisation and optimum utilisation of available resources.

The important question which arises now is how to mobilise resources in education ?
Community participation can be one way of mobilising resources. All the stake holders
should be involved in the decision making. The parents who are also a stake holder can be
used to mobilise resources. They can contribute in terms of services or financially. We can
also seek private partnership. The public private partnership can be another way of mobilising
resources. Industries has an important stake in the higher education as they provide them with
trained man power and also they contribute a lot through research. By have university
industry linkages also we can mobilise resources. By having such closer relationship the
industries will be directly benefitted and thus would not hesitate in funding the education.

Why Resource mobilisation is important?

 Resource mobilisation is very important for any institution. Resource mobilisation
will help in diversifying the resources. It helps in planning and allocation of resources
properly and even helps in expanding the resources.
 Resource mobilisation is also important way to reduce one’s dependency on others. It
helps in making one self sufficient.
 It also helps in smooth functioning of an organisation as it enables you to plan your
resources well in advance.
 Resource mobilisation also enables to meet future uncertainties. It provides you an
opportunity to make arrangements well in advance.
 The work does not suffer if you mobilise your resources. It keeps the work in
continuation and helps to achieve the work target within the time limit.
 Resource mobilisation makes it easy to begin any new task or plan.

POINTS TO PONDER

 Discuss the ways of mobilising resources in education.

 How the industry university linkage can help in mobilisation of resources?
 Why is resource mobilisation important in education?

SUMMARY

Government both at the centre and state has been taking the responsibility of financing the
education at all levels. With the increasing population and expansion in education a need for
identifying the alternative modes of financing has been felt. The resource constraints led to
the need for resource mobilisation. It is now important for the educational institutions to
mobilise their own resources which can be through charging fees, educational loans, inviting
public private partnership and by establishing the university industry relationships. One has
to be innovative n identifying such resource mobilising strategies to sustain themselves.

PRACTICUM

 Identify any education institution which has university industry linkage. Study how
both of them are benefitted with this linkage.
 Survey the educational institutions and identify the constraints of resources faced by
them.

SUGGESTED READINGS/GLOSSARY
UNIT 2

PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION

Public-private partnership (PPP) emerged as a financing model for providing financial

resources for the public infrastructure projects such as a telecommunications system, airports,
roadways or power plant. The private partners can be a privately-owned business, public
corporation or consortium of businesses with a specific area of expertise. PPP models are of
utmost importance for huge projects which need the expertise and professional skilled
workers and also need huge finance to begin with. PPP model is an emerging trend for
development in both developed and developing nations. It has been accepted in many
countries and different sectors such as airports, railways, roads etc. but is not anymore limited
to only these sectors. PPP has also been now accepted in Education sector which was once
the sole responsibility of government for many decades. PPP has entered in education sector
at all levels. Recent experience has shown that the role of the private sector in sectors such as
education and health has been producing mixed effects, more often negative effects on
quality, equity and other dimensions of education, jeopardizing the well established goals of
human development.

OBJECTIVES:

 To understand the concept of public private partnership

 To understand the need for PPP model in education
 To examine the benefits of PPP model
 To identify the different tpes of PPP model

OVERVIEW:

Public-private partnership (PPP) is the new slogan in the present era. It is one of the
innovative way to mobilise private resources and motivate the private bodies to participate in
the national development. This is very much advocated when the public resources are limited
and are not sufficient to meet the demands. PPP is already being adopted in many other
sectors and now it is being extended to education also. In this unit an attempt is made to
understand the concept of PPP and its need in education. The benefits of introducing PPP
model in education are also discussed. There are different types of PPP model which can be
adopted. These different types of model are discussed in the unit.

Need for public private partnership in Education

The large population puts pressure on government for providing education to all of better
quality in an efficient manner. This leads the governments around the globe to involve private
sector in delivering education which was earlier provided solely by government sector. This
is done because it is believed that public-private partnerships (PPPs) can bring about
improvement in not only quantity of education but also quality of education. Governments
which are encouraging such partnership are basically doing this to increase access, enhance
quality and to impart education in the most efficient manner.

RTE has put a greater challenge on India to provide education of quality to its citizens.
Without mobilising resources and expertise this RTE will not be attained. This also makes it
necessary for India to invite partnership from both government and non government sectors.
Thought the private sectors has its own challenges wherein they are criticised a lot for
charging high prices, making profits, corruption , etc. but it’s imperative.

The low performance of government schools combined with high fees of private schools
which makes it non affordable to large number of parents is also one of the reason why the
public private partnership is needed. Job security of teachers is also one reason which leads to
poor quality of education in government schools. The teachers on being secured do not give
their maximum input and also discourage the hardworking employees as they are protected
by the teachers union.

In the Eleventh five year plan the PPP model has been proposed as one of the important
strategy in Education. It has proposed to set up 6000 new model schools in secondary
education which will be affiliated to CBSE. Out of these, 2500 schools have to be under the
PPP Model. These schools are to be set up in the backward and remote regions where the
children are deprived from good educational facilities. The intention here is to make quality
education available in the remotest area.

Benefits of PPP:
Some of the reasons for adopting the PPP approach for setting up model schools are as
follows:

Access:
PPP model in education has the potential to meet the demands of education due to growing
population. There is a possibility to set up more no of institutions that what a government
alone can do. It will help in increasing the access rate to education and helps in reducing the
burden on government schools. The contribution of private sectors in education is still less
than what is needed. PPPs can help in extending the reach of the government system to
provide children access to schools.

Quality:
The PPP model provides scope for government institutions to focus more on their primary
functions of policy making, educational planning and program development. In this way it
will given them enough scope to focus on quality of their services.

Using underutilized school infrastructure:

It has been observed across India that there is 25 percent reduction in the enrolment of
students in government schools over the past 10 years despite the simultaneous increase in
the education budget. This trend has made government schools ineffective. By inviting the
private sectors to manage schools in the empty buildings there is a scope for government to
optimally utilize the existing infrastructure with the government.

Improving the quality of education:

As discussed above the government schools needs improvement. PPP models can help in
introducing the new pedagogy and technology in teaching and learning. Change in school
management techniques can be introduced to through PPP model to make the existing
schools as centers for excellence.

TYPES of PPP Model:

Having understood the need and importance of PPP in education sector, let us the the
different models which can be followed

Private Philathropic

1.Philanthropic Initiatives

Philanthropic initiatives is the most commonly seen form of PPP in education. Eg Bharti
Foundation in India

2. School Management Initiatives

In this type of model the public institution is managed by private sector. The management
here is with private sector but is owned by government and funded by government. They can
also be called as contract schools. Eg Adarsh Scheme

3. Purchase of Educational Services from Private Schools

In this type of model the government bears the expenses of students to attend the private
institutions. This is normally done to help the government meet the demands of access. Eg
under RTI the government pays the fees of the students to the private schools.

4. School Voucher Program

Under this model a certificate is issued whch the parents can use to pay for the education of
their child at any public or private schools which they like instead of going to the closest
school assigned to them. Eg. The project in Delhi “ARK’s ensure access to better learning
experiences”.

5. Capacity Building Initiatives

This includes the assistance taken of the experts for capacity building of teachers and quality
improvement of all education sectors. It can be in the area of curriculum development,
pedagogical support, text book writing etc. Eg. Government of Gujarat has invited private
organisations to provide assistance on various areas for improving the quality of education
and for the capacity building of the teachers.

6. Provision of Infrastructure
In this model the infrastructure facilities are made available by the private organisations to
the government for operating educational institutions. In return the private organisation is
paid fees for a long term contract for about 20-30 years.

POINTS TO PONDER

 What is public-private partnership?

 How does it work in case of education sector? Is it a new model?
 Do you think PPP model in Education should be encouraged? Why?
 What are the different types of PPP model existing in education?
  Which type of PPP model do you think is better? Why?
 What are the strengths and weaknesses of the PPP as a development strategy?

SUMMARY

Public private partnership is two or more public or private sectors coming together for a
longer tenure to achieve a goal. PPP is buzz word over last few decades. This helps the
Government to share the burden of national development. This is an opportunity to encourage
the several private sectors to share their resources and contribute in national development.
PPP model is being implemented in various infrastructure sectors such as development of
railways, airports, roads etc. Now we do find this ppp model being extended even to
education. As per RTE education is right of every individual and should be provided to
him/her. To achieve the RTE goals PPP model is very supportive. It can help in setting up
model schools which will provide access and quality of education. It also helps in optimum
utilisation of resources. There are different types of PPP model which are being adopted in
the field of education such as : philanthropic initiatives, school management initiatives,
purchase of educational service from private schools, school voucher program, capacity
building initiative and provision of infrastructure.

PRACTICUM

 Indentify any Institution in your state which is working on PPP model. Study the
benefits of this model and indentify the challenges faced.

SUGGESTED READINGS/GLOSSARY
UNIT : 3

MARKETISATION AND COMMODIFICATION OF EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION
The enrolment rate in higher education is showing immense growth worldwide and even in
India. The state budget for higher education could not meet the demands and there was a need
to find the alternative mechanism to share the burden of higher education. Thus we find
privatisation as an alternative which led to marketisation of higher education. The
marketisation theory sees education as a product to be marketed. In economics when any
goods or services are left to market forces, the buyers and sellers exchange their goods and
services at an agreed price. In a broader sense to understand the marketization in the
educational sector, Marginson (1999) summarizes: (Marketization) is apparent in the growing
role of private costs, in the increasing inequalities between the resources and status of
education in different institutions, and in the varying experiences of 'consumption' within
common systems. It can be recognised also in the growing role of competition between
institutions, and in the plethora of corporate activity, such as marketing, business plans . . . (p.
230)

OBJECTIVES

 To understand the way GATS has impacted the education system

 To examine the how education is being treated as commodity to be marketed
 To understand the issues and challenges of marketisation of education

OVERVIEW
The cross boarder supply under the GATS agreement has led to opening up new avenues for
commercialisation of education. The foreign institutions now have freedom to open up their
franchises in different part of countries. This has led to some contradictions between the local
and global cultural values. Its challenging to create the balance between preserving the local
cultural values and also meeting the global requirement of commidifying the education. This
unit discusses how marketisation and commodification has impacted the education. What are
the issues and challenges of comodification of education? Can education be treated same as
any other product. The marketing concept which is borrowed from business cannot be applied
to education in the similar way. It is very difficult to clearly identify the product to be
marketed. What is the product here, is it teaching or research? Can we really treat the students
as customers and provide them where they demand? These are some of the issues which
needs to be answered.
MARKETISATION OF EDUCATION

We have discussed in the previous unit regarding GATS and how it led to privatisation
in education. The emergence of knowledge economy has led to commodification of
education. In today’s era of globalisation the commitment for education does not remain
the sole responsibility of the state, we should accept the reality of private agencies
entering into education. The technological revolution has also impacted the education.
In this situation the state cannot be just an observer to the market taking over on
education. The state should also think of taking measures to provide quality education
which matched the requirement of the society.

Marketisation of education makes the educational institution look like a commercial

company. The ownership of educational institution from state body gets transferred to
the private individuals and institutional investors. The marketisation of education
makes the educational institutions as similar to corporate organisations which are
capable to run as businesses. GATS have led to introduction of market driven
competition among different partners. The educational institutions have to now
undergo merger deals and operate like multinational companies. Traditionally it is
observed that educational institutions contribute to national building by performing
three tasks of dissemination of knowledge, creation of knowledge and service to
community. After GATS agreement the whole focus shifts from nation development to
treating education as a commodity and adjusting the content of education in terms of
market demand. GATS agreement also led to change in attitude of Government towards
the higher education institutions. The emphasis has shifted towards funding in private
educational institutions through fees hike, introduction of educational loan, increasing
the self financed courses.
With globalisation and privatisation, most of the educational institutions has now realised that
they have to market their product in the regional, national as well as global market. They
have started employing the market tactics to education. We find many glossy brochures
highlighting the beautiful buildings, infrastructural facilities; even foreign faculty members
are also highlighted to market their institution. Various strategies such as, exchange of
students with foreign universities, having collaboration with foreign universities and making
one semester in the foreign land are being adopted. The educational institutions are now
working as a corporate company having a relationship manager. The students are viewed as
customers who buy the educational services and the focus is on what the customer needs and
focusing on their satisfaction. The whole emphasis is customer centered and not production
centered.

Commodification of education will lead to corporate entering into market and charging
higher prices and will leave the price to the market forces. The pack of biscuits costs us a
very low price as the manufacturing cost remains low due to assembly line techniques used
for its manufacturing. If the customer finds any problem with the product, he can shift the
brand of the biscuit next time without any major loss of money but the similar kind of
exchange is not possible if we consider education as a product. The product here in
commodification might be seen as degree in the form of a paper and not the quality of
education. This might lead to having many sellers in the market offering easier way to get
that product in the form of a piece of paper and giving little emphasis or no emphasis on the
quality of education, curriculum, teaching or evaluation.
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

 Knowledge is seen as product which can be manufactured, branded, packaged and

sold. This will lead to having only such courses in the curriculum which will be in
demand. This might lead to general education being neglected. We do see nowadays
that universities are facing lots of challenges to find takers for liberal arts curricula.
 In this era of globalisation and internationalisation, the private universities understand
that the need to cater to global demand. The market is not restricted to local demands.
They will offer courses which have international market and will attract students by
having collaborations and alliances with foreign universities. The curriculum is more
towards meeting the global requirements which in turn leads to neglect of indigenous
knowledge. The local requirements will totally be neglected.
 Many times it may not even be based on students demand but they speculate and
assume that such demands would emerge in future and try to put this idea in the mind
of students through their advertising campaign. The need is being created in the mind
of students. Such courses are started with the main motivation of profit making.
 The research is also impacted by the marketisation. The research will be considered
good only if it is able to create a new product. For maximising the profit only such
researches would be promoted which are market driven. A market driven university
would not like to fund researches which are good for public at large and can be useful
for longer period rather they would prefer to fund those researches which would make
profit and gets completed in short time. They also would like to make the results
secret instead of making it available for the public at large. The secrecy of the results
was maintained along with the industry to which the results would be useful. This
would lead to reduction in generation of any new knowledge.
 The administrators in such a scenario would act like a CEO of any company. The
students would be seen as stake holders and thus their importance will increase. The
professor or faculty is now like a manager who has to attract the customers, students
in this case. The universities governed by marketisation would spend more on its
administration rather than on teaching learn in g or instruction. The whole focus shifts
from teaching towards searching for market. They keep on expanding their education
companies in search of market within the country or even outside. The universities
will now be competing with each other attract students.
 The educators in this marketisation are treated like employees treated in industry.
They also face the harsh realities of product production, attracting customers, lack of
autonomy, supervision, job security, managerial pressures to reduce cost and
maximise profit. This commodifacation of education leads to deprofessionalisation of
the educators.

 The academicians are forced to sell themselves in the competitive market. The
branding techniques are nowadays being used by the educational institutions to sell
themselves. They also have now their jargon with a mission.

POINTS TO PONDER

 Can education be treated like any other product to be marketed?

 What are the issues and challenges of marketisaion of higher education?

SUMMARY
Marketisation of education is social, economical as well as apolitical process. The increase in
public expenditure has led government to seek for alternative measure and marketisation of
education was seen as an alternative. With the introduction of GATS Agreement the
education was also seen as a product which can be marketed. This created pressures on higher
education institutions to meet the market requirements and sustain in the competition. They
started acquiring the characteristics of corporate. Universities started adopting corporate
strategies in their operation and day to day functioning. Many corporate started their own
educational institutions to meet the requirement of the future employees. There are various
issues of such commodification of education. The courses which had market value were only
offered. The private universities do not focus on general education courses but only
introduced professional courses.

PRACTICUM

 Find out the private universities and study the way they market their institution
 Prepare a list of foreign universities which has opened their centres in India? How do
they market their institution?
 Critically examine the courses which are offered by private universities and its
relevance in present era.

SUGGESTED READINGS/GLOSSARY
UNIT 4

GATS AND EDUCATION

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION

The communication barriers are nowadays broken to a larger extent with the advent of
technology. This has led to development in almost all fields at global level. With
globalisation and internationalisation taking place the world is open now for business.
Various international agreements are signed wherein the service sectors are now open for free
international trade. Education is also one of the services listed under this agreement. This
agreement is being referred as GATS i.e General Agreement on trade services under the
framework of World trade organisation WTO. WTO in the year 2000 decided to include
education services also under the umbrella of GATS. As per GATS, education was also
considered as one of the commodities which can be traded in the same way as other services
like banking and health services can be traded. Unlike other services like bank and other
commercial services, education service is seen as the right of an individual all over the world
and hence it becomes the moral responsibility of the state to provide education.

OVERVIEW

With the emergence of globalisation, digital expansion and knowledge economy, we see
education as a commodity to be traded. GATS has impacted the education system. In this
unit we are going to understand the concept of GATS and overview of GATS rule. The
principles on which the GATS rule function is also explained in the following unit.

OBJECTIVES:

 To understand the concept of GATS

 To examine the Coverage of Higher education under GATS
 To identify the issues of GATS in higher education
Overview of the GATS Rules

GATS was a part of agreements which was agreed upon in Uraguay Round and also led to
the establishment of WTO. GAT is an agreement which is legally binding agreement aimed
at deregulating trade in services. The coverage of GATS was also extended to education
services. Earlier to this there was no multilateral agreement on services. The services earlier
were place specific and were considered as non tradable. With education emerging as a large
industry, it became an important sector to be discussed in the trade policy. The government
services were kept out of the ambit of GATs. Education in almost all nations is a service
activity carried out by government, so it should be kept outside the free trade. The definition
of government services as per GATS was those "exercised in the control of governmental
authority" and sees government activity as one that is "supplied neither on a commercial basis
nor in competition with other suppliers". Education system in most nations consists both
commercial tertiary education providers, private as well as government institutions, it has
become the part of negotiations in GATS. Similar to other WTO Agreements, majority of the
GATS rules applies equally to all the services unless there is any exceptions mentioned in
the agreement. The principles on which the GATS Agreement functions are as follows:

Market Access: It decides the degree to which markets are changed for Foreign Service
suppliers in every area.

Most Favored Nation: It infers treating the trading partners similarly. Under GATS, if any
nation is given the status of MFN then similar opportunities are to be given to all the service
providers from all the WTO members existing in that sector.

National Treatment: This implies that equal treatment should be given to service providers
whether its foreign or domestic in nature. The provision of national treatment is another
commitment made under GATS agreement.

GATS Agreement can be supplied under four different modes, as provided under Article 1
(Part I) of GATS Agreement, namely:

Cross Border Supply – This means the supply of any service from the region of one member
country to the region of another member country.

Consumption Abroad – This means supply of service in the region of one member country
to the region of another member country.

Commercial presence – This includes supply of service by the service supplier of one
member country through its commercial presence in the region of another member country .

Presence of Natural Persons – This includes the supply of service by a service supplier of
one member nation through its presence of natural persons of member in the region of other
member nation.

India has fully complied with the WTO_GATS agreement on higher education. Hundred
percent FDI is being allowed by Indian government in the higher education sector. Even the
Indian educational institutions are given free hand to participate with the foreign counterparts
by collaborating, franchising and by setting up subsidiary institutions. In spite of
commitments made by Indian government to liberalise the higher education services we do
find a lot of criticism from the society as they think it will lead to commercialisation of
education which will lead to open the gates for foreign countries to set up their institutions
into India. This might lead to destruction of Indian cultural and educational ethos. With this it
becomes important to understand the implications for free trade in education services for
India.

ISSUES:

- Education will be reduced to just as any tradable service, which will be controlled by
the market forces. The students clearly are the customers and education is a
commodity to be traded.
- Our Indian students will become customers, the foreign people will get paid and the
profit will b earned by the foreign corporate
 - A survey report published by World Bank in 2000 on foreign educational providers
states that ‘well-known universities of developed countries established low-standard
branches in backward countries’. It might happen yhat the Universities can open up
university in their country of origin which is sub standard quality and then open a
branch in India. The foreign providers may not be of good quality.
- The courses offered by the foreign universities will also be driven by the market.
- Another big issue is of regulation. Who will regulate these institutions. We have
various bodies like UGC, AICTE, NCTE, MCI, BCI and so on who work as
regulatory body for different courses. There is still no clarity that who will regulate
the courses of foreign universities. Should there be any Independent regulatory
authority as Suggested by the Prof Yash pal committee. The NCHER which was
suggested is not in force and the higher education bill is laso yet to be passed. The
BJP government in its earlier manifesto has shown their commitment to establish
Higher Education Commission.
- Another big concern can be that there are chances that these universities may
compromise with the quality of education by charging heft amount showing their
foreign tag”.

POINTS TO PONDER

 Explain the change in education in the knowledge economy?

 Discuss how GATS has impacted the education?
 How GATS and service sector are related?
 What is your opinion of education being categorized as service to be traded?

SUMMARY

GATS is the first agreement which had covered international trade in services. GATS was
negotiated in the Uriguay Round and was administered by the World Trade Organisation
(WTO). This WTO consisted of 144 member countries. Education was also considered as
service like any other service sector like banking and healthcare. Education also came under
GATS to be considered as commodity to be traded. The principles of on which GATS
agreement functions are: market access, most favoured nation and national treatment. GATS
Agreement can be supplied under four different modes such as Cross Border Supply,
Consumption Abroad, Commercial presence and Presence of Natural Persons.

PRACTICUM

Read the GATS agreement and analyse its impact on education.

SUGGESTED READINGS/GLOSSARY
Unit 5:

AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INTRODUCTION

Around the world, educational institutions and states are negotiating a new balance of
regulatory autonomy and performance accountability. The transformation has been driven by
a variety of factors. The combination of these factors are steering public educational
institutions toward privatisation and threatening higher education’s mission of serving
societal needs. The fundamental point of the policy framework resulting from discussion in
this area is around the concept of improving each institution’s ability to fulfil its mission and
meet the needs of the state. To do so, institutions should receive greater operating autonomy
over daily operations, pursuing their missions in ways that make sense for each institution. In
return for this freedom, there should be clear agreement between the state and each institution
outlining the institution’s differentiated mission, public responsibilities/accountability and
means for measuring and reporting institutional performance.

OVERVIEW

The higher education institutions enjoy the freedom of thought and action and are supposed
to be accountable to itself. When any institution is given freedom to operate then
accountability goes along with it. In this unit the discussion about the Autonomy and
Accountability is done. How the autonomy and accountability goes hand in hand is also
deliberated upon. It is being emphasised that autonomy has to be complemented by
accountability.

OBJECTIVES

The Unit is intended to provide the view of the concept of Autonomy and Accountability in
education. At the end of the unit you should be able to:

 Explain the concept of autonomy in your own words

 Explain the concept of Accountability
 Appreciate the need and importance of autonomy and accountability in education
 Explain that autonomy and accountability are complementary to each other
 Discuss the issues of autonomy and accountability

WHAT IS AUTONOMY
The Educational institutions observed all over world are basically of three types: Government
aid institutions or partially funded by the government, Non government funded institutions
and privately funded or self financed institutions. All educational institutions are considered
as public institutions. To safeguard the interests of the public at large it is very essential that
these institutions are governed by some rules and regulations.
It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the people are not exploited by these
educational institutions. Whatever may be the source of funding, the government still has
some control over these institutions. The government do have some control on the fees to be
charged from students and rules and structure. We saw in recent years that FRC, fees
regulation committee are being framed by the government to ensure that people are not
charged hefty fees at schools level and higher education level. The government also has laid
down the rules for minimum eligibility criteria for becoming a teacher, their salary structure
and also the working hours. It is the responsibility of all the educational institutions to see
that these rules are being followed. To ensure that all these criteria’s are followed
government ha formed various bodies. There are different regulatory authorities to take care,
for eg. We have NCTE which looks into the teacher education courses; AICTE is formulated
to see all the management courses and engineering courses. For schools we have different
education boards and NCERT. UGC regulates the higher education institutions in relation to
minimum eligibility criteria and appointment of teachers. The rues for admissions,.
Appointments, promotions, reservations are laid down. The curriculum is also designed by
the state and central agencies. All these are done to see that there is no injustice is done to
anybody and minimum standards of quality are being ensured. These Rules and process are to
guide the education institutions and control them and not to intervene in the autonomy of any
institution.

Autonomy can be understood as the ability of any institution to take action on its own in
pursuit of their mission. Autonomy can be defined as freedom to act freely, i.e any institution
when has a freedom to decide their own policies and working procedures without any
intervention from any outside agencies can be said to have autonomy. Autonomy is very
important for any institution to progress the way they want by laying down their own policies
and programmes. While giving autonomy to the existing institutions we should also keep in
mind that balance is maintained with its accountability to the society. Autonomy and
accountability goes together. The autonomy of the educational institutions are seen in three
different aspects which are 1. Academic Autonomy, 2. Administrative Autonomy and
3. Financial Autonomy

Academic Autonomy
The institutions have freedom to design their own curriculum and teaching methods. The
autonomy should be given o institutions in selecting the students, appointing the staff,
promotion of teachers, deciding their course of study, area of research etc. The Programme of
Action (POA, 1992) for NPE-1986 has made recommendation to develop huge number of
autonomous colleges, autonomous departments in various universities. The components that
reflect academic autonomy are freedom in teaching methodology, admissions of students,
curriculum design, research areas etc.

Administrative Autonomy
Administrative autonomy includes autonomy in the area of policy framing, planning and
governance of institutions. It is to protect the institutions from the political influences. The
funding agencies have an important role in the administration and it becomes difficult to free
the institutions from such influences. Administrative autonomy should be considered in the
area of admissions of students, appointment of staff, promotion of staff etc. We do find
various cases where the state and central agencies intervene in the selection process and
influences the decision of selection wherein the institutions are funded by them.
Financial Autonomy:
Financial autonomy of any institution consists of its measures to generation of money and its
investment. The institutions are given freedom to decide on the ways through which they can
generate funds and how they are going to invest this money in the development of
institutions. This does not mean that money can be misappropriated. As we have mentioned
earlier that educational institutions are public institutions and the institution is answerable to
public that where have they spent the money.

It is observed by Prof. S.P. Thyagarajan (2004) Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras that

"autonomy should necessarily lead to excellence in academics, governance and financial
management of institutions. If it does not lead to this, it can be safely concluded that
autonomy has been misused."

ACCOUNTABILITY
Accountability can be understood by first understanding the concept of responsibility as both
these terms are related. We often hear people saying “Mr A is very responsible, and you can
depend on him”. “This man is very irresponsible and hence cannot be given any
responsibility”. In the first sentence the term responsibility is used to indicate that the person
who fulfils his duties seriously and sincerely is called to be responsible person. In the second
statement it is causal in nature.

John kaler (2002) given a schematic presentation of how the concept of accountability is a
sub – concept of responsibility.

Responsibility

Duty-owed sense Causal sense

Accountability Due-Recognition

In the causal sense we say that A is responsible for B which indicates that whatever be the
results bad or good , A is responsible, Whenever there is good consequence it is followed
with positive rewards and whenever there is bad consequence it leads to punishment, which
further leads to accountability. To be accountable thus means to be answerable. According to
Kaler (2002), “to account for something is to explain of justify the act, commission, risks or
dependencies for which one is responsible to people. And if the stake holders are not satisfied
with the explanation given by the one held responsible for the consequences, they (stake
holders) may in flies’ punishment on him/her if they find him/her guilty of carelessness,
commission or omission. So accountability, if it is limited to seeking explanation is termed as
soft accountability; but when the consequences are so harmful that inflicting punishment
because inevitable is termed as coercive accountability.”
Over the last one or two decades, this definition has changed. In many countries, Higher
education institutions have great economic freedom; they are recognised as public companies
or foundations for more flexibility. However, these institutions are often led by an Executive
Board, which would hire a Rector, often from outside. The academic community no longer
governs the institution all b y itself. The greater freedom foe the institutions mean a higher
focus on responsibility and accountability. Since the relations between the state and the
institutions are changing, higher education is considered to be a public service and public
responsibility. In recent past, globalisation and accountability trends have created a huge
market for services related to certification, computerised assessment, cross –border
recognition of degrees and diplomas, monitoring of educational outputs and program
evaluation. For its evaluation and assessment testing agencies, examination, certification and
accreditation boards are qualified to assess. In these cases greater responsibility is required to
control the mal practices.

SOME ISSUES OF AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

We can say that Autonomy and accountability are the two sides of the same coin.
Accountability enables the institutions to regulate the freedom given to them by way of
autonomy. However, the following are some of the issues of autonomy. -
• External Controls on autonomous functioning.
• Restrictions on academic autonomy as a consequence of the limitations of rules.
• Government's interference on vital issues like appointments of teaching and non-teaching
staff.
• Wide powers vested in the Chairman and Principal.
• Appointment of political executives on institutional bodies.
• Laying down of service conditions.
• Financial aid as a tool to curtail autonomy.
• State control on opening of new institutions or grant of affiliation to new colleges.
• Frequent interference of judiciary in matters relating to institutional affairs.

POINTS TO PONDER

 Autonomy and Accountability are two sides of the same coin.

 Are our Universities equipped to handle autonomy?
 How is the accountability expressed by the higher education institutions?
 To whom will the institutions of higher education accountable?

SUMMARY

Autonomy is the freedom to decide academic issues like curriculum, instructional material,
pedagogy, techniques of students' evaluation. Administrative autonomy is the freedom to
institution to manage its own affairs in regard to administration. It is the freedom to manage
the affairs in such a way that it stimulates and encourages initiative and development of
individuals working in the institutions and thereby of the institution itself. Financial
autonomy is the freedom to the institution to expand the financial resources at its disposal in a
prudent way keeping in view its priorities. Another, important concept along with autonomy
is accountability. Accountability is not to be seen as punitive or regulatory body but has a
positive goal. It helps in ensuring whether the goal of educational institutions is achieved or
not.
PRACTICUM

Select different types of universities and study the concept of Autonomy and Accountability.
Identify the different area in which autonomy is being given to the Universities and how are
they accountable?

SUGGESTED READINGS/GLOSSARY