Kalahandi crying for Centre of Higher Learning

Kalahandi crying for Centre of Higher Learning
Tathya.in, Feb 8, 2007

Bhawanipatna:08/February/2007
Why carry coal to New Castle?

But it is the Policy of the Human Resources Development Ministry to adopt the same principle in setting up institutions of higher learning in the places where a number of institutes of national level higher education still exists.

Consider the case of Kalahandi.

While Kalahandi is in news for last 4 decades for wrong reasons, there has been not a single centre of higher learning in the district.

That is why of late Non Resident Oriyas are trying to raise hue and cry for setting up a National Higher Educational Institute in district.

Justify the cause NRO Dr. Digambara Patra of Waseda University Okubu, Tokyo, Japan said in the article that effectiveness of primary education is losing as there is no parameter in higher education.

All over the world employment rate is always higher for people having a master degree to that of a high school certificate.

Quality education has always paid the best in India like for the graduates from IIT, IISc, ISI, and central universities.

Access to higher education is very much crucial as it inspires many through its success like the case of IIT education.

In a region like Kalahandi, illiterate and poor people often ask validity of education when their children can not find employment and finally work in the agriculture field after graduation.

They argue rather their children should start to earn for the family working in the agriculture field from the beginning itself.

Although intellectually it is not correct, there is some amount of truth in their argument as well.

Unless we provide quality education in this region that could make them employable after their degrees/diploma, poor and illiterate people would never be encouraged to send their children to primary schools.

This is the reason why dropping out from schools and illiteracy rate in the region is one of the highest in the country and not improving substantially in recent times.

Most of the issues like caste, creed, and religion are often raised in India except the geographical location of remote and multi-facet backward places like Kalahandi that has never been addressed by policy makers with respect to establishing national institute for higher learning.

Quality education has always been a far reaching aspiration for those unprivileged and poor citizens who live in remote locations of the district.

Not a single national institution like IIT, IISc, IISER, Central University etc, is located within 500 km radius of Kalahandi.

Even the state government has done little in the district for improvement of higher education.

This is when all its neighboring districts of Orissa such as Nawrangur, Koraput, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Boud, Bolangir and Nuapada districts and that of Chhatisgarch such as Raipur and Bastar districts do not have any national institute and are equally backward.

The whole cluster has been in news for last four decades for wrong reasons of backwardness and poverty.

National institute of higher learning in smaller towns have delivered well both qualitatively and quantitatively all over the world.

Unfortunately in the current rush of establishing national institutes like IIT, IISER, IIM, IIIT, IIPH, NIPER etc, by HRD ministry and by various central government ministries, not a single location like Bhawanipatna, the district head quarter of Kalahandi, is being chosen.

Rather the central authorities overcrowding our polluted and exploding cities, many of those would be ecologically in high risk during few decades as per the predictions by environmentalists.

Location like Bhawanipatna is ideal for national educational institute not only because of environment but contradicting general perception it brings infrastructure and employment both directly and indirectly to a multi-facet backward region.

It would also usher in many national level academicians, researchers and students to work in this region changing its current outlook.

Recent NSSO figure shows states having national higher educational institute like Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, etc have higher attendance compared to states without having such institutions like Orissa.

Beside other social development programs a central university and national institutions like IIT, IIM are urgently required in the backward Kalahandi to get the best effectiveness of other on going developmental programs; otherwise it would still take another four decades to change the fate of this backward district.