A Study on Various Possibilities in Public Administration Education and Training in India

Education and training in public administration have recently become important all over the world. Citizens—or what some scholars call customers and clients—expect the public service, national development‘s primary instrument, to deliver consistent value for money spent. Second, as some scholars note, the state is in flux—or, even, in crisis—because of the economic and technological changes that continue to sweep the globe and that in turn are altering the nature and functions of the state (Coxhead et al. 2010; Kim, 2011). The essence of public administration education and training in modern times is well captured by Greenwood, Robins, and Walkley (2000, p. 2): The fundamental assumptions about the scope of state activity have changed during the decades since the end of World War Two. The extravagance of highly interventionist ―big government‖ commanding seemingly unlimited resources has been replaced by a definition of state responsibility which is more restricted and funded by fewer resources. On both the political left and right it has become accepted that free markets play a greater role in economic management; that the private sector has an increasing role in providing services, including law and order, which were previously the sole domain of the state; that individual responsibility is replacing state paternalism for large areas of welfare; and, in some cases, international and supranational arrangements are usurping the state‘s traditional role in managing external relations. The consequence of these developments for the public administrator is, in basic terms, ―less to do‖ but with ―far less resources with which to do it than in the past.‖ The state thus continues to shed its major functions as provider of basic goods and services and facilitator of political, economic, and social development. Public administration is a key mechanism of society‘s attempts to sustainably improve the human condition by delivering essential services. Society therefore suffers when public administration is weak. As Mishra (1998) notes, public administration education and training need to be reinvented to enhance the work In developing countries, the numerous developmental challenges have intensified the call for effective public administration education and training. India is passing through critical times: not only are the socioeconomic and political structures of the continent undergoing phenomenal change, but so are people‘s expectations of greater opportunities and superior goods. In all these instances, the capacity of the public sector to deliver critical services continues to erode rapidly, leading to serious capacity deficit that, as Kim comments (2011), has become a major issue in developing countries in general. Public sector capacity has declined as the role of the state and its resources for meeting economic crisis have shrunk, as the cost of governance has risen, and because of more complex problems. To Kim, more needs to be done, and it needs to be done better with less. Additionally, there ―is the dilemma of rendering efficient and effective administrative support to people by a sprawling bureaucracy which has been labeled as ‗statusquoised‘ and obstructive to the factors which could be harbingers of change‖ (Mishra, 2007,). It is thus necessary to examine what governments are doing in this regard, and whether initiatives being undertaken will yield the needed results. Public Administration is an instrument of action as a profession and academic discipline (Teaching and Research). Public Administration in theory and practice aims at all round development and improvement of the quality of life of the Indian masses but without tearing the socio-cultural fabric or socio economic order. This has been the crucial contradiction of Public Administration in India. Contradiction between its intent and content, the content and the text, the distinction between the constitutional goals and operational goals is paradoxical. An attempt to analyses the challenges of the paradoxical situation and to propose a future course of action to resolve the paradox has been made. The translation of the constitutional welfare goals into practice have Infact remainded a mere constitutional obligation and been far off even after 57 years of independence within the existing socipolico- economic power structure based on the capitalist model of modernization /market economy framework which the democratic and constitutional state of India has adopted. It has widened sharpened disparities, frustration, estrangement, deprivation, exploitation, poverty, insecurity, oppression, unemployment, starvation, corruption and injustices of all sorts, affecting adversely the social, political and economic conditions of the disadvantaged, vulnerable, weaker sections and the poor women of the Indian society. The weaker/deprived sections are not only deprived of the development programmes in most cases, they are socio-economic power-structure that obtains in the country. Nature, scope and importance / significance of Public Administration in India is determined today by the external factors playing dominant role. The discipline of Public Administration, the very education, which has been imparted all these years in Indian Universities, is an American Product (1887). It has developed along with the growth of capitalism in the USA along with many countries. Briefly, American Public Administration is rooted in American political culture which is widely acknowledged as advanced capitalism blended with pluralism. The nature of the state in American Public Administration is never questioned. So the essential thrust of American Public Administration towards enhancing the capacity of public organizations without disturbing the basic character of the capitalist state. Even the New Public Administration Movement did not raise – the fundamental issue of the changing the basic character of the capitalist state in America. India could not also escape the Americanization of Public Administration. This education of Public Administration has nothing to do with the native, social, cultural, political and economic factors. In its practice, the institutions were / are built, the issues are dealt for the requirements of their directors (west interests). But it appears, the entire policies and programmes were/are designed not to touch the socio-cultural fabric of the Indian society. Thus public administration in India has been an instrument of the Government and a creation of political philosophy whereas public administration as an academic discipline has been ‗non-political‘ but in matters of governance. It by and large is committed to ruling political elite. The ruling elite in India with the willing cooperation of the bureaucracy has maintained colonial structure paving the way for the development of a capitalist order but not without sermonizing the socialist rhetoric, marring the very spirit goals of the Constitution of India. Keeping in view the above and the adoption of the New Economic Policy (Liberalization, privatization and globalization) the liberalization policy is to foster privatization and globalization of the Indian economy. Privatization and Liberalization also advocate: rolling back of the state from the sphere of production and productive investment and significant curtailment of the level of social expenditure. Hence the most important change in public administration in India has been its reduced scope and significance. It has been also asked to change itself in the nature of dealing with certain public. The manpower of public administration in India, who manages public institutions, and who regulate activities (Directorates, Commissionaires, Collectorate, Inspectorates etc.) was/is neither highly

However, the public managers (officials) with the co-operation (not direction) of the non-officials (politicians) could/can maintain the traditional interests at the cost of good governance. The result is the emergence of a National Human Rights Commission. The recent widespread changes, which have altered the International Economic order, also demand the public administration in India to further reduce its significance to respond and adjust to the market economy. With a view to meeting the requirements of this external demand, public administration in India needs to make certain changes in its structure, policy context, programme intent and implementation style. The discipline of public administration in India has to undertake research on the newer changing aspects of public administration. The impact of the emerging trends of the concepts, theories of public administration in the 21st century and the probable consequences on the existing theories must be analysed. Briefly, a problem oriented approach which conceives of public administration as an ameliorative science is to be pursued, Public Administrators and Public Administrationists in India need to think and act as an instrument of social change. In this context, the focus of public administration should be on the entire area of public policy and its analysis. To evaluate the public programmes, public administration unlike other discipline is required to be an action oriented applied Social Science. Modern Public Administration in India has to be made unbiased and impartial and it has to be delinked from economic pressure groups and loyalties built around caste, religion and regional identities. Public Administration both as a profession and discipline should understand the problems or rural misery and the inequalities policies and programmes to reduce inequalities have to include food, housing, health, education, poverty, unemployment, credit programmes for the welfare of other backward classes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and weaker sections are included in the above list. As is experienced, the university departments of Public Administration have neither engaged in prioritization nor theorization of Public Administration. So the gaps have to be filled up and it is urgent to gear the discipline of Public Administration towards the study of the masses in the society. So it may be further added that in the Indian setting in contemporary perspective, the Public Administration scholars, teachers and students must reassess the role of Public Administration and also consider alternatives. But the study of exploring alternatives require courage conviction and concern. to perform functions like revenue collection, maintenance of order, etc, which were hitherto performed by native rulers. After the liquidation of the Company‘s rule in the year 1858, the British Crown passed a series of laws whereby it took the control of Indian affairs into its hands. Simultaneously, the administrative system also grew and was manned by the personnel with little or no experience in India. Such personnel limited their activities only at higher levels and most of the functions at lower levels were carried out by the natives. However, with the pressure increasing from the national movement, deliberate attempts were made by the government to accommodate and associate the Indians in civil service, which provided a good training ground of the natives in the nitty-gritty‘s of modern public administration. Even after independence, the administrative system remained intact and survived the efforts to prune drastically and it can be seen that most of the administrative practices and process even today are those which have been inherited from the colonial regime. Nevertheless, rigorous attempts to Public administration training for higher civil services in India started in India when the East India Company set up a college at Fort Williams at Calcutta (1800-06). However, the real impetus for public administration education and training came after the submission of Paul Appleby Report in the year 1953, when the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) was established in the year 1954. The objective of establishing IIPA was to train the civil servants in the details of practical part of public administration. The faculty of IIPA imparts training to civil servants in the areas of Justice and Administration, Economic Policy, Disaster Management and Environment, Economic Administration, Organization and Behavioral Sciences, Public Administration, Policy Sciences, Operations Research, Foreign Trade and Commerce, Urban Management, etc. Besides, the institute has different centres in the areas of Finance, HRM, Public Enterprises, Urban Studies, Social Welfare Administration, etc, which specialized training in those areas to the civil servants. Added to it, other institutions which are into training of the civil servants on various facets of public administration are Administrative Staff College of India, Institute of Secretariat Training and Management, Lal Bahadur Shastry National Academy of Administration, etc. Besides, there are other numerous institutes which cater to divergent needs of the civil servants at various levels in different areas of specialization. For example, there a Besides, training institutions have been established by various state governments to impart training to the civil servants belonging to state civil services. Some of the training institutions which provide training to civil servants belonging to state civil services are given below.

The training institutions at state level have excellent infrastructural facilities and can provide residential programmes for civil servants. For example, Dr. Marri Channa Reddy Human Resource Development Institute of Andhra Pradesh has 13 lecture halls, 3 computer labs, 3 conference halls, a large auditorium which can accommodate around 250 persons, a library which has a collection of 10,000 books, hostel facility, etc. With regard to training, there are different specialized training centres which act as repositories of knowledge. They are Centre for Agriculture and Rural Livelihood, Centre for Infrastructure and Investment, Centre for Disaster Preparedness, Centre for Human Development, Centre for Regulatory Administration and Centre for Urban Development studies. In the same manner, the HCM Rajasthan State Institute of Public Administration is also equipped with good facilities for providing training and has specialized in different areas of training like laws and revenue administration, financial administration in government, public systems management, Management and Organizational Behaviour, Development administration, Urban development and urban services management, Gender issues, Natural disaster management, Information Technology and E-Governance, etc. Public Administration in Universities: Public administration education was started in India towards the late 1940s when the University of Madras started a Diploma Course in Public administration and the University of Allahabad started a diploma course in Local self-government. The University of Nagpur started a two year programme in public administration in the year 1949. In the year 1955, the University of Nagpur set up a separate Department of Public Administration and the suit was followed by other universities like the University of Rajasthan, Osmania University, Punjab University, South Gujarat University, etc. Even then it can be stated that some universities were teaching public administration as a part of political science and such a trend is visible in Central Universities where public administration is a Administration in the year 1954 which to act as a forum for the exchange of experience among practitioners and teachers of Public Administration. To enhance such an exchange among civil servants and private sector managers, the Administrative Staff College of India was established in the year 1960.

It should be obvious that the right kind of public sector is indispensable to help humankind solve its many and complex problems. The quality of the education and training of today‘s and tomorrow‘s governmental employees and leaders must be improved. What, exactly, are public administration education and training, though? Much scholarly ink has been spilled in trying to understand them. Education is primarily concerned with the acquisition of knowledge, whereas training is about developing the skills to do something. Education prepares people for relatively undifferentiated roles, positions, and work settings; training is concerned with an individual‘s performance in a specific position in a given work setting. There is still no consensus on what training is Management guru Mintzberg (1979) defines it as ―the process by which job-related skills and knowledge are taught,‖ thus encompassing both formal classroom education and on-the-job training. This definition also shows their interdependence, and that they do not end with graduation from school. Huque and Vyas (2004), on the other hand, in their study of public administration education and training in India and Hong Kong, went yet further, and examined how they may affect behavior. They define training as ―a process involving a sequence of programmed behavior and facilitating the application of knowledge‖; Paul (1983) calls it ―the process of developing or augmenting such knowledge, skills and attitudes in a person with a view to enabling him to apply them in his work situation‖. Similarly, Nti and Owusu-Ansah (1974) support the idea of training as a way to change behavior. They perceive it as ―the process of helping individuals to gain competence in their present or future work through the acquisition and development of appropriate skills, knowledge, and attitudes‖. As already noted, the complexity of what may be termed ―wicked problems‖ in societies should make obvious the importance to them of public administration education and training. Huque and Vyas (2004) think that ―the fundamental purpose of training is to provide organizations with manpower sufficiently skilled to meet the demands of a shifting work environment… [and] to avoid persistent and economically damaging shortages of skills, including those that could inhibit technological advancement.‖

implement policies, it can heighten sensitivity to social values: something made more urgent by globalization, where public administrators move among countries, especially from developed to developing ones, whether as consultants or project managers, or in other capacities. It is believed that such ―sensitivity to social values and culture systems is an essential feature of efficient public service administration. Public administrators, therefore, need training if they are to be kept aware of changing cultural and social trends‖. It will also enable public administrators to tailor policies to essential developmental needs, as well as to get them properly implemented, because they may then better understand the local environment and improve the performance of the administrative systems of government. Even if public servants have adequate education when entering government service, they may still require training to induct them and adapt them to their new jobs, and to upgrade their skills to match the changing task requirements.

The Metamorphosis State, unheard in the past, has not only exposed the public servants to more public glare but also competition from private agencies as well. The monopoly hitherto enjoyed by public servants has made citizens to receive whatever qualitative goods and services delivered by the former. However, in the era of globalization and technologization, the citizens in the capacity of clients to the services provided by the state and public bureaucracy have been expecting more and more, particularly after private sector started attracting customers for satisfactory delivery of services. The state had no alternative except to adopt certain Customer Relation Management, (CRM) methods and techniques for providing qualitative services. Public agencies have been even adopting private practices for ensuring that they serve the customers in a better manner by providing superior services as compared to their counterparts in the private sector. In fact, some public agencies have been applying web based technologies to disseminate more and more information for inching closer to citizens with a view to provide better services to citizens in the capacity of customers and establish long term relationships. As the effectiveness of the delivery of services by public agencies depends to a large extent on the caliber and competence of individuals manning public bureaucracy, it becomes an immediate objective and goal for every government to ensure that its public servants are educated and trained properly and objective can be achieved if the standards and quality of higher education system, particularly public administration education and training are enhanced by adopting innovative methods. One such method could be revising the curriculum of public administration in universities from time to time to meet the needs of the governance institutions of the country, enhancing the quality of faculty of public administration, consistent and continuous research in the areas pertaining to governance, adoption of latest and new techniques and methods of teaching of public administration, etc. In the same manner, the training institutions, which normally provide various types of training to public servants induction training, post-entry training, mid-career training, etc, belonging to different services, need to reinvent themselves in such a manner that they train the public servants not only to function effectively but also deliver the goods and services to citizens effectively as well. However, the standards and quality of public administration education and training is not in consolance with the pace of globalization and technological changes, particularly the web technologies. It is true that public administration education and training is being made more and more application oriented, one finds the existence of certain gray areas, which need to be filled in so as to enhance the quality and standards of public administration education and training. Hence, it becomes incumbent not only on the universities and training institutions to enhance their quality and standards but define and implement those methods which sustain their excellence in the field and one such method is accreditation of their courses and institutions. One important method of achieving quality and standards of excellence in public administration education and training is through accreditation of the programs delivered by universities and training institutions. Before going into accreditation methods being practiced worldwide, it is necessary to have a brief snapshot of the genesis public administration as a discipline and the efforts to enhance the quality and standards of public administration.

Public administration education and training is one of the critical areas, wherein the seats of higher learning i.e., universities and training institutions play an important role in teaching not only in structural and procedural aspects of public administration but also inculcating various value dimensions of the functioning of the state. The effectiveness of such Building the developmental public sector, however, calls for effective public administration education and training for those already working in it as well as for those who aspire to do so in the near future. We live in an environment where the state is undergoing rapid transformation. Furthermore, effective public administration education and training can contribute to and enhance democracy. Modern public administrators have moved from the traditional role as the custodian for developing and implementing public policy to enhance and strengthen the role of citizens into the process of development.

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Chairperson, National and International Council for Scientific Research, Japan Pro Chancellor, International Open University, Meghalaya E-Mail – drmaharishimudgaldev@gmail.com