A New Paradigm in Higher Education in India

Abstract

India has a massive 1.2 billion population of which a high proportion of them are young. The demand for education in developing countries like India has skyrocketed as education is still regarded as an important bridge of social, economic and political mobility. India has innumerable challenges in terms of infrastructure, socio-economic, linguistic and physical barriers for people who wish to access education. The focus of this paper is to examine the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in with a new paradigm in higher education in India in the 21st century. India has a billion-plus population and a high proportion of the young and hence it has a large formal education system. The demand for education in developing countries like India has skyrocketed as education is still regarded as an important bridge of social, economic and political mobility. There exist infrastructure, socio-economic, linguistic and physical barriers in India for people who wish to access education. This includes infrastructure, teacher and the processes quality. There exist drawbacks in general education in India as well as all over the world like lack of learning materials, teachers, remoteness of education facilities, high dropout rate etc. Innovative use of Information and Communication Technology can potentially solve this problem. Internet usage in home and work place has grown exponentially. ICT has the potential to remove the barriers that are causing the problems of low rate of education in any country. It can be used as a tool to overcome the issues of cost, less number of teachers, and poor quality of education as well as to overcome time and distance barriers. To conclude, Higher education in India is an extraordinarily important part of modern Indian society and it is intertwined in the political and social systems of the society. It is in need of change, development and important. In order to effectively plan for reforms and improvement, it is necessary to have in realistic perceptions of what is possible and what is not.