Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

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were 3.15 and 3.00, which means that in the 1990s, the
growth of graduates as a percentage of 7 years and above
population in Kerala has not been more than that in the rest
of India. Given the impressive march of school education,
it is somewhat surprising that Kerala should trail behind five
major States – Maharashtra, Karnataka. Tamil Nadu, Gujarat
and West Bengal – in higher education, even though all the
five States lag far behind Kerala in terms of achievements
in school education. From even the available indicators,
it emerges that Kerala has not seen adequate quantitative
expansion in higher education. By higher education here,
we mean mainly general education in sciences and arts,
not technical or professional education.
It is difficult to arrive at a plausible explanation for the
lack of expansion in higher general education. While it
may appear to be a lack of demand, how do we reconcile
the declining demand for conventional courses with the
thriving business of ‘parallel colleges’? As argued earlier,
individuals make investment in education for both its
instrumental worth and intrinsic value. Some branches of
education perceived to have instrumental worth dominate
other considerations, while some others are seen as worth
pursuing even though the immediate benefit in terms of
job prospects is known to be rather limited. If in a social
milieu, having a university degree carries social prestige,
or not having one means the lack of ‘ability to appear
in public without shame’, then even the conventional
university degrees might be in demand. Parallel colleges
can be seen, at least from an individual’s point of view,
as extending the opportunity to achieve this valuable
functioning, and permitting the flexibility of participating in
job-oriented self-financed courses, the demand for which
has been increasing rapidly. Surely, the dominance of girl
students in total enrolment in arts and science courses has
had an important positive effect in terms of employment
potential. Against this, the fact that women are relatively
under-represented in professional and technical courses is
a cause for concern.
4. On Access and Quality
in Higher Education:
A Study of Technical Education
4.1. Introduction
Two important messages have come out of this analysis.
One is the need for concerted action on improving
the quality of education, especially in schools, and
the second is the need to give greater attention to
the development of higher education to respond to
the dramatic changes in labour markets at home and
around the world.
For the purpose of analysis, we specifically take up the
case of technical higher education, but such analysis can
be extended to any branch of higher education. Today,
technical education has come to acquire a great deal of
significance in the context of the demand for it linked to
expanding job opportunities in some selected areas.
4.2 Status of Higher Technical Education
4.2.1 Early Development
As in the rest of the country, there is a three-tier pattern
to modern technical education in Kerala: Degree,
diploma and certificate. Graduates are expected to
become engineer–scientists who can give professional
leadership, innovate and create new designs and
systems. The diploma-holders are expected to play the
crucial role of middle-level supervisors, combining good
practical knowledge with a basic understanding of the
relevant theory, and capable of taking responsibility
for actual production / construction work in the shop/
site. Certificate holders are, of course, the all-important
skilled workers in the field or shop floor or office.
The first institution of higher technical education in
Kerala, started in 1939, with an intake of 21 students
each in the three branches of civil, electrical and
mechanical engineering, for both degree and diploma
courses. The diploma courses were later shifted to a
separate polytechnic. Two new branches, architecture
and electronics and communication engineering, were
added in the 1960s. The Regional Engineering College
in north Kerala was started in 1961 under the direct
initiative of the Union Government. In the mean
time, one more Government college and three aided
private colleges had been started and the intake rose
to about 1,000. Chemical engineering was introduced
in one of the newly-started Government engineering
colleges. Until about the mid-1980s, this situation
prevailed, despite demand for an increase in capacity.
The official position was that priority should be given
to consolidating existing facilities and improving the
quality of technical education, rather than increasing
the numbers indiscriminately.
However, during this period, an ‘explosion’ in the
field of technical education in the neighbouring
States, using the self-financing model, including