Higher education in T lacks vision to retain talent, save drain of resources

Hyderabad: Where is higher education in Telangana heading? This nagging question turns important as multiple visions and missions have been aired to take the State's higher education to the next level. The State government had claimed that it would focus on education and health after it successfully registered a lot of progress on the agriculture front.

Speaking to The Hans India, former vice-chancellor of a Telangana university said, "A lot was expected with the formation of Telangana; but, most is confined to talking. One of the State ministers has claimed of having the vision to make Hyderabad and Telangana a knowledge hub.

Another minister talks about the vision to send out talent from Telangana to get jobs across the globe. Bureaucrats and some academicians' toeing the line of the powers that be are talking big about market-driven or market-demand courses," he added.

Said a top official who worked as a consultant to the State government's higher education initiatives, "It is a popular view among the State varsity campuses that the initial buzz of KG to PG to push education to the next level is confined only to half-hearted initiatives. "They could hardly pull the education sector from the existing academic, bureaucratic and policy hurdles.".

He added, "It is not that the State has not done anything. But, whatever it had done in past eight years, the focus was more on what is visible than bringing substantial changes for good." .

He pointed out that around two lakh students are going for higher education abroad from the country Students from the Telugu States have sizable numbers among them. It is expected to increase the outflow of around Rs 40,000 to 45,000 crore spent on students going abroad for education. At the national level it is estimated to touch around 2.7 percent of the gross domestic product.

Pointed out a senior official from the Higher Education department, Andhra Pradesh,

"It indicates that a sizable number of students go every year from the two Telugu States. The other side of the coin is that the State government and bureaucrats keep mum to the fact of increasing drain of talent and resources from the two States,"

Earlier, AP had tried to conduct a study to factor the scale and quantum of the knowledge economy that the State could create by improving the education sector. However, "there is no such known study conducted in the case of Telangana. This, despite Hyderabad being one of the destinations for students from across the country to take admission in Central and national institutions," pointed out sources in the Telangana State Higher Education Department (TSHED).

"There is more rhetoric about the public policy on education as implementing things having a higher rate of visibility to increase the public perception remained a dominant factor. There is no focus on how to retain talent and invest it for the advancement of tate and save the increasing drain of resources from State," he said.