Pvt varsities denting quality education in Chhattisgarh, say experts who cite NIRF rankings

Experts believe the purpose of encouraging private universities in the state is not being fulfilled with the leading varsity Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla University slipping in the latest NIRF rankings.

Raipur:Mushrooming of private universities in the Chhattisgarh area is happening at the cost of quality education with the leading varsity of the state slipping several notches in the latest rankings of the National Institutional Research Framework (NIRF). After the creation of Chhattisgarh state, the then Ajit Jogi government encouraged private universities in the state to promote higher education for which the government announced a slight relaxation in the norms.

However, over the years, the objective of private universities seems distant with the universities only growing in numbers with the quality of education taking a backseat. Senior journalist and educationist Shashank Sharma believes that the “visionary” step by the then Ajit Jogi to encourage private universities was in the right direction which however has not been implemented properly.

“Ajit Jogi was a visionary. He thought that education and health are subjects that cannot be served better in the government system and promoted private universities. He wanted the world's best university to come up in Chhattisgarh. But, what happened is that people started running universities in two rooms,” Sharma said.

At one time, the number of private universities in Chhattisgarh reached 125 with the Supreme Court directing the closure of all universities. Sharma said that the mushroom growth of private universities in the state affected the quality of higher education with the recent COVID-19 pandemic further taking a toll on the sector. He further said that the successive governments in Chhattisgarh for the deterioration in the quality of higher education.

"Government is never serious about education. It takes 10 to 12 years to change the system while elections are held after every 5 years. No concrete work is done by the new government to build on the work done by the outgoing government,” he added. State's largest university slips in NIRF ranking: Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla University, the leading university of Chhattisgarh, slipped in the recently announced NIRF ranking for the second time in a row.

In the year 2016, the varsity was among the top 50 universities in the country. But for the last 6 years, the university has not been able to make it even in the top 100 in the list. This year, Ravi Shankar University slipped below 150 ranks. Only one private university, Kalinga University is in the 151-200 rank band. Educationist Dr. Jawahar Surishetty blamed the school education system for its downfall and said, 'it affects higher education also.'

Surishetty said that after the formation of the state, the purpose for which private universities were set up in the state was not realized. “It was expected the private institutions would improve the quality of education, but the exact opposite happened,” he said.