By Amol Padwad
In this first post from India, I propose to briefly sketch a scenario of higher education in India. I will follow this up with further discussions of specific issues, aspects and trends, which seem relevant to the MODISH project.
India has a massive higher education system, with over a thousand universities and about 45000 higher education institutions and 38.5 million students, as the recent All India Higher Education Survey (AISHE, 2020) reported. However, access to higher education is not equitably available across the country, and considerable disparities exist in terms of gender, socio-economic status, location and socio-cultural background. English and EMI (English Medium Instruction) have a very strong presence in the Indian higher education, especially in STEM disciplines, which is a legacy carried forward from the long British colonial rule. The significant presence of English and EMI adds to the complexity of issues around inclusion/ exclusion in Indian higher education, as unequal opportunities and provision for learning English during school years engender issues of inadequate English competence for many sections of the population. Another dimension of the inclusion/ exclusion issues in higher education was brought into sharp relief during the COVID pandemic – the availability of and access to digital technology, especially in terms of efficient devices, connectivity and service providers. Access to the internet and smart phones has been very uneven across the country, with the poor, rural and younger generations most adversely affected.
In this context, a systematic exploration of the three-way association between English, EDI and technology holds huge potential for higher education in India. As India rolls out a new National Education Policy (NEP 2020) and aspires for a nearly two-fold jump in gross enrolments in higher education by 2030, these three dimensions of English, EDI and technology are of critical significance. No plans can be made effectively, nor implemented successfully, for such massive expansion of higher education unless and until issues around English-EDI-technology are adequately explored, understood and addressed. Obviously, the current MODISH project holds immense value and potential for a country like India. It is hoped that the project will help in developing a better and richer understanding of the links between these three dimensions, in identifying some concrete and practicable insights on not just various related issues but also possible ways to address them, and in informing policies and actions for the foreseeable future.
Currently, higher education in technical-professional disciplines is almost exclusively in English, while it is a preferred choice of medium in other disciplines too. English proficiency also matters a lot in employment and careers. Thus, proficiency in English is one crucial factor impacting access to and success in higher education. As a consequence, EMI has been rapidly rising in school education, particularly in the private sector, with associated issues of affordability. Typically, such underprivileged sections as the poor, the rural population, girls and religious minorities face the brunt of exclusion in the school years, which continues into higher education as well. Various affirmative actions are in place to support these sections, but these actions largely focus on the economic and access issues. The issues of English proficiency, and more recently, adequate access to technology, remain largely unaddressed. As a result, many among those who are supported to get into higher education continue to lag behind in terms of performance, achievement, employment and career progression