Krithi Literary Fest: Experts call for quality in research

KOCHI: The debate on education at the scenic Bolgatty venue of the Krithi Literary Fest wound up incomplete on Thursday evening as the panellists and participants felt one or two hours are not enough for the subject. Former vice-chancellor of Malayalam University and former bureaucrat K. Jayakumar took on the wrong naming of the session as 'boundaries of education'. 

He said that it should be 'frontiers of education' as there is no limit to the opportunities and education is more about exploring rather than limiting.
The two vast subjects like school education and higher education were touched upon while many issues were brought in sharp focus. The panellists included SCERT director J. Prasad, Kerala State Higher Education Council member-secretary Rajan Varghese and Anitha Kurup, professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.

Ms Kurup said that more attention needs to be given to nurturing research in higher education institutions and enhancing its quality.  "Teachers are not finding enough hours to do research and researchers do not give the desired results. The PhDs produced are more of poor quality," she asked. Other speakers only complemented this stand.  Dr Prasad said that the proliferation of deemed universities has further deteriorated the scene. Mr Jayakumar pointed out that the research in universities in the West won Nobel prizes and our higher education institutions must aim for that quality and output.  Dr Rajan Varghese said  higher education council was aiming at enhancing the aptitude of graduates.