Academia and The Free Will

Context: India’s dismal score on the Academic Freedom Index (AFI) reflects the erosion of academic freedom in India’s educational system.

Components of AFI: The AFI used eight components to evaluate the scores:

1. Freedom to research and teach, 
2. Freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, 
3. Institutional autonomy, campus integrity, freedom of academic and cultural expression, 
4. Constitutional protection of academic freedom, 
5. International legal commitment to academic freedom under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
6. Existence of universities. 

Key Findings of AFI:

• Erosion of Academic Freedom: India’s score has dipped by 0.1 points and has scored considerably low (0.352); Malaysia, Pakistan, Brazil, Somalia and Ukraine have scored better than India. 
• Low freedom of scholars: to discuss politically and culturally controversial topics.
• The interconnectedness between political tensions and declining ‘academic freedom’: has raised concerns about the state of academic freedom.
• Rising instances of Police brutality against students (in Jamia Milia and Jawahar Lal Nehru University) suggests a deteriorating link between academic freedom and political tensions.
• India has not fared well in components like institutional autonomy, campus integrity, freedom of academic and cultural expression and constitutional protection of academic freedom.
• Rent-Seeking Culture: Due to unsolicited interference from the government in both academic and non-academic issues has led to a rent-seeking culture denoted by
• Politicisation of appointments related to vice-chancellors and registrars.
• Corrupt practices in licensing and accreditation.
• Unhealthy favouritism and nepotism in appointments and admissions.
• Bureaucratisation of educational institutions and regulatory bodies.

Claims of New Education Policy (NEP)-2020: Solution to Problems of Education System

• De-bureaucratise the education system : by constituting merit-based and peer-reviewed research funding National Research Foundation (NRF).

• Increase autonomy: It provides the freedom to design own curricular and pedagogical approaches within the approved framework. 

• Increase universal access to schools: by raising the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), reduce the dropout rate in India and aligning the system with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal­4 (SDG 4).

Conclusion: If the NEP is implemented in its fullest sense, it may help de-bureaucratise the education system and reduce political interference to an extent.