President Pranab Mukherjee in a recent meeting with the vice-chancellors of central universities has proposed several initiatives which could perhaps help in transforming higher education and connection between academia, innovators and rest of the society. According to the press release dated Feb 7, 2013, he would interact with teachers separately during his visits to various universities.

For long, the agenda for policy and institutional reforms has not been influenced by inspired teachers. This has created a gap at national and state level leading to decline in the standard and contribution from institutions. An inspired teacher brings out the best in a student. Nothing will come in the way of national transformation, if such teachers lead the design and delivery of pedagogy and content, policy and institutions and influence the culture of our society.

The paradox is that while the president has decided to bring about this change, the minister of HRD and the secretary at national and state levels are yet to take a cue to pursue similar dialogues across the country. No society can really come out of the morass of mediocrity unless it learns to respect merit and be guided by meritocracy.

The president also decided to interact with the innovators who would be invited to the university for an exhibition of their innovations. When he starts interaction, the rest of the academia cannot remain indifferent and insensitive to the need for closer partnership with creative people. I hope that the connection between the academic world and individual innovators and inventors will get strengthened beyond what Honey Bee Network has been able to achieve so far. He also advised the vice-chancellors to set up chapters of National Innovation Club to be coordinated with National Innovation Foundation [NIF], Ahmedabad. 

These Clubs will have four primary functions: search, spread, sense and celebrate. They will search innovations in the hinterland in various sectors, document them and add value to them. They will spread the innovations from other regions in local areas. They will sense or benchmark the current conditions of inertia in various sectors and regions and trigger change in them. They will also celebrate contributions of local achievers, including social entrepreneurs from the region. Once the experience of such social change agents start being referred in classrooms and laboratories, the mood of the youth will change. They might be inspired to bring about socially inclusive innovations in the region.

Another idea proposed to the president was the celebration of local cultural excellence and uniqueness by providing space like a wall to showcase traditions. This may prompt private sectors in creating opportunities for folk artists. Imagine if one wall in every building is dedicated to display local traditions with contact information. A market may be created for creative minds and incentives for conserving cultural creativity may thus be generated.

Creation of open source content for education was another idea that has been appreciated by the president. While it may be difficult for the states to provide quality teachers in primary and secondary schools or motivate the existing teachers, by providing open source content, children may get opportunity to learn on their own. Through 1.5 lakh post-offices, reaching 6.5 lakh villages with high quality multimedia, multi language content is not an impossible task. With the support of various well-wishers, overcoming the asymmetry on this account is not only possible but also imperative for an inclusive India.

Many institutions of higher learning are trapped in trivia. There is no large-scale engagement of elite institutions with the enormously complex challenges that society is facing. A social, cultural and institutional connect is waiting to be forged. A new social contract is on the anvil. The question is whether it will come about peacefully or large-scale social protest by the impatient youth will have to force it on us.  The time will tell.