HIGHER EDUCATION
P.C. Bansal
Education Under Siege: A Sociological Study of Private Colleges by Nirmal Singh Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, 1985, 254 pp., 90.00
Aug-Dec 1985, volume 10, No 8/12

Education Under Siege is the outcome of the doctoral thesis of Nirmal Singh. The investigator has studied seven colleges under private management in the City of Kanpur at micro-level in the broad frame of the growth and development of higher education in India at the macro-level.

Private control in education emerged during the colonial regime as a result of Sir Charles Wood’s despatch of 1854, which recognized the need of mass education with private and missionary help. This was reinforced by the recommendations of Indian Education Commission of 1882, which gave a fillip to private agencies for the expansion of education.

Singh observes that the Indian private effort has been of hybrid character. It depended on the government initiative and was sustained on grants. Its character changed with the changing political context. The organization of Indian education is top heavy. More importance is attached to higher education rather than to elementary and secondary education, which should need more attention and form a strong foundation for higher education.

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