APPENDIX `L' MEMORANDUM ON ITEM 14 : CORRUPT PRACTICES IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
(a) Corrupt practices in the educational world.
(Inter-University Board of India)
(b) Ban on the use of notes, guides and short-cuts in educational institutions.
(Government of Punjab)
(a)Corrupt practices in the educational world.
It has become quite common in many parts of the country for private managements of schools and colleges to take large sums of money as initial payment before a student is admitted. This is parti- cularly noticed in the case of many private medical and engineering colleges. I am told that even in the arts and science colleges such fees are levied. I have also been informed that many schools and colleges receive what is euphemistically described as `donations' from teachers as an inducement to employment. It is necessary for those responsible for the educational system of our country to remember that this method of raising funds for educational institutions has a corrupting influence on the whole moral tone of the institution. Sometimes private parties offer to establish schools and colleges not because they desire to serve society through education, but because education is good business. The declining tone of our public morality and the low standards of social behaviour which we see around us are related to the fact that even what we call temples of learning have been corrupted by unprincipled and avaricious men.
(b) Ban on the use of notes, guides and short-cuts in educational institutions.
Feeling is growing that the standards in education are deteriorating and one major cause of this is that the students do not care to seek knowledge through reading good text books. On the other hand, they resort to the use of notes, short-cuts and keys, with the result that their comprehension is very much superficial. This is an issue which deserves to be taken up by the Central Advisory Board of Education and steps should be taken, so that the students are saved from temptation of short-cuts to knowledge.
The question of banning the use of notes, guides and short-cuts is an All India Problem. It is an all-India malady. Moreover, any unilateral action by a single State for banning the use of these shortcuts by legislation will not solve the problem, as keys, notes and shortcuts will still be smuggled in from the neighbouring States. In addition to the legislative measures on all-India basis, Central Advisory Board of Education is requested to devise other measures by which the use of notes and guides is regarded as an unsocial act. The Teachers and Parents can play a vital role in eradicating this evil.
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`Teachers' Organizations and Parents-Teachers' Associations can make a valuable contribution by discouraging the use of short-cuts and notes. The University and the Educational Institutions can also render a great service in discouraging the use of guides and notes. Teachers, Lecturers and Professors working in the University and Educational Institutions can be debarred from writing notes and guides. Similarly publishers of such notes and guides and short-cuts can be debarred from getting gainful work from the Universities and educational institutions of various State. Such measures, if taken on all-India basis, will contribute to the eradication of this great malady.