More tidbits on Education and HRD in the 11th plan
November 27th, 2007
Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.
The 11th five year Plan document proposes an almost 10-fold increase in outlay for higher and technical education. The planners have set ambitious targets — to attract 15% students passing out of class XII (from the current 10%) into higher education by 2012 and 22% by 2017. The way to do this, they say, is to expand and upgrade on an unprecedented scale.
In the new Plan, there’s more of everything — 30 new central universities are to be set up, seven IITs and IIMs, 10 National Institute of Technology, five research institutes to be called Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, 20 IIITs, two schools of architecture and 330 colleges in educationally backward districts. All this is in line with the PM’s announcement in his August 15 speech this year.
Infrastructure in existing universities and institutions is also in for major upgradation. Among the big beneficiaries of these special grants will be 17 yet-to-identified central universities which will get Rs 3,298 crore. Besides, 39 engineering institutes will receive a whopping Rs 6,749 crore, again for ramping up infrastructure. A good dose of funds has also been set aside for upgrading agriculture, management and medical institutions.
But this money comes with a plan. …
For instance, the document seeks to raise fees for higher education to up to 20% of operational costs, which is 5% at present. “Higher education is highly subsidized. The document seeks to reduce this subsidy to improve quality of education,” said Bhalchandra Mungekar, member Planning Commission.
Another proposal is to break up large affiliating varsities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune into more manageable units. The document says large universities are unsustainable. Osmania University has more than 900 affiliated colleges while Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore varsities have around 500. Some of these institutions conduct over 1,000 examinations annually. “These universities have ceased to be centres of higher education. They are becoming agencies for conducting examinations,” said Mungekar.
Not all experts share this view. Deepak Pental, V-C of Delhi University (which has 83 affiliated colleges), said, “I am not convinced that smaller universities are better managed. Most of the varsities in the country are smaller than DU, are they better managed? Yes, we definitely won’t like to have any more colleges, but proper way of reforms would be to invest in the existing universities and upgrade their infrastructure.”
V N R Pillai, V-C of IGNOU, central open university, endorses this view. “A sizeable amount of new allocations should be earmarked for improving existing facilities of 18,000 colleges and 400 universities. This should be the first priority of reforms,” he said.
Another target of reforms is the examination system. … The paper says annual examinations have become irrelevant for testing knowledge. It suggests replacing this with continuous assessment and evaluation. The document calls for implementing the semester system and continuous evaluation in all central universities from the coming academic year (2008). It also suggests introducing a credit system where students will also be allowed to appear for papers in other streams. UGC chairman, Sukhadeo Thorat said, UGC has set up a committee to devise an action plan for exam reform within one month.
The paper also expands on the growing trend of private universities coming up in the country. It says the government isn’t in a position to ensure growth levels of 15-20% in higher education. Private investment will therefore be encouraged through tax breaks and other incentives. It has also sought private participation in providing services in existing institutions.
Entry Filed under: Eleventh plan