R K SINHA
The Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi and Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi are once again in the top ranking educational institutions of the country. In the management and business category, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad is at number one rank amongst the top ten Management Institutes of the country. Indian Institute of Technology, Madras is number amongst the top ten engineering colleges. St. Stephens College and Miranda House of Delhi University are top colleges of the country. The teachers and other Members of the Faculty of the institutions and colleges deserve all praise for their sincere efforts devotion to take these temples of learning to the height of excellence. The list of top colleges and institutions were released by the N.I.R.F. (National Institutional Ranking Framework of India) for the year 2018 by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development.
It is a matter of concern that new colleges and universities have failed to make any place in the ranking framework. If we take Miranda House and St. Stephen’s College, both the institutions hold high place in the country. Do these colleges give desired attention towards overall development of students who are enrolled in them? There is fierce competition of meritorious students from all over the country to get admission into these colleges. There must be something special that the status of these colleges is intact for decades. They stand today where they are because of sacrifice made by many generations.
Miranda House was established in 1948. The faculty of science, arts and social science are very good in Miranda House. St. Stephen’s College on the other hand is 125 year old. It has produced large number of bureaucrats, teachers, politicians, artistes and sports persons for the country.
It is known that the NIRF evaluate the colleges and institutions on the basis of certain parameters before giving ranking. It is not easy, therefore, to get a place in the ranking. For this there has to be good faculty, rich library, good laboratories, and facility for research. Shall we take that other colleges and institutions lack the basic facilities required for excellence in teaching and are poor on these parameters.
Not a single college of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh etc. has been able to get a high placing in the ranking. The condition is not satisfactory at all. We will consider that our educational institutions are progressing in right direction only when new colleges and institutions find a place in the ranking. The new colleges should try to replace established institutions like St. Stephen’s and IITs. This determination is not visible anywhere in the country. Why they are still out of race in achieving high placing in the standard of teaching? This is worth consideration.
It is not that there are no good, old and established colleges and institutions in Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi, Bhopal, Indore. Gwalior and Jaipur. Not a single college of Bihar was able to make a place in the high ranking. Of 100 top engineering colleges, IIT, Patna is ranked 24th position. For the last three years in succession, it has slipped in the rank. Last year it was in 19th position. Whereas, Coaching Institutes of Patna have helped prepare students to qualify in the entrance examination and get admission into top engineering colleges including IITs, Colleges and Universities of Bihar have failed to achieve any distinction. In absence of quality education, talented students are migrating to other places from Bihar for higher
education.
IIT, Patna, NIT, CUSB, Chanakya National Law University, Bihar Agriculture University, Vaishali Institute of Business and Rural Management, Patna Sahib Technical Campus had also applied for national ranking. The ranking is being evaluated since 2016. Three institutions were in the list of N.I.R.F. In 2016, IIT, Patna, NIT, Patna and Central University of South Bihar were given ranking. After 2017, NIT, Patna and Central University of South Bihar were out of the list.
When we talk of Uttar Pradesh, none of the colleges and institutions right from NOIDA to Lucknow was able to find a place in the top ranking of N. I R. F. It is when Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were considered to be place of learning and knowledge earlier.
JNU which is ranked among top ten institutions has maximum number of students from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.