Volume : VIII, Issue : II, February - 2019

Higher Education for Rural Transformation in Assam

Dr. Surjya Chutia

Abstract :

Education has proved to be the engine of social, economic and cultural transformation of a society and there is no alternative or substitute to it. As well it is the primary agent of transformation towards sustainable development, increasing people capacities to transform their visions for society into reality. Education especially higher education not only provides scientific and technical skills, it also provides the motivation, justification, and social support for pursuing and applying them. Generally, higher education refers education in post higher secondary level, i.e. colleges and universities. Higher education system is supposed to prepare youths to become effective and earning members of the society. For this the youths have to be empowered in real sense. It also aims to prepare youths who will able to face the challenges of life and get employability. In this respect, improving the quality and coverage of higher education for sustainable development must be among the society‘s priorities. Assam is not so much developed in the educational field but it has a strong base in HRD. The state has nearly 90% rural areas because of slower growth of urbanization process and most of the colleges of the state are situated in rural areas. The higher education system in Assam has a lot of problems not only for quality management but also for its stable existence. It is very disheartening to see in Assam that the higher education system has become merely a factory of producing a large number of graduates, post graduates who are nothing more than a burden on the society. Despite the recent reform initiatives, Assam has fared poorly in terms of Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education. As per the recent ‘Annual Status of Higher Education in States and Union Territories 2013’ (ASHE) prepared by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the GER in higher education is 13.4 percent in Assam against the all-India GER of 19.4 per cent. In terms of overall GER, Assam ranks 28th among all states and Union Territories (UTs) in India. In this paper an attempt has been made to assess the role of higher education in transformation of Rural Assam and also to explore the major challenges of higher education in the state.

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Article: Download PDF    DOI : https://www.doi.org/10.36106/gjra  

Cite This Article:

HIGHER EDUCATION FOR RURAL TRANSFORMATION IN ASSAM, Dr. Surjya Chutia GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS : Volume-8 | Issue-2 | February-2019

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