New Delhi: Expressing concern over slow
increase in the number of students in colleges, HRD Minister
Kapil Sibal today said the government intended to ensure that
at least 40 per cent children were enrolled for higher
education and encouraged private sector participation in this
endeavour.
"In every developing country the Gross Development Ratio
requires that out of 100 students at least 40 should be able
to go to college," Sibal said, adding that in India, the GDR
aim is 30 per cent but at present only 12.4 per cent students
go to college.
He was speaking at a CII-organised discussion on
"Tomorrow`s North: Green and Educated".
The Minister maintained that there were only 480
universities and 22,000 colleges in the country. To reach the
goal of 30 per cent GDR, India would need 600 universities and
35,000 colleges in the next 12 years.
He emphasised on government having only rights to ensure
quality of the educational institutions and no role in
appointing Vice Chancellors or running of the colleges.
Sibal said schools and colleges should have a system of
"self-disclosure" of vital information about the number of
teachers, fees, student-faculty ratio and other data. This
information can even be loaded on their website.
In case an institution furnishes wrong information there
should be laws to punish them, he said.
Sibal emphasised on vocational courses and said the
private sector could play an important role.
He asserted that North India had immense potential in
power generation, water management, sugar, ethanol, leather,
and wheat and suggested that textile hubs like Ludhiana could
open institutes.
Sibal said the Right to Education Act proposes that 75 per
cent of the management staff in an institution should come
from the locality as they understand the needs better.
He said the education sector scenario in North India could
not be compared to the South as the latter had a culture of
learning while the former was busy defending borders.
Sibal maintained that there was a need to move away from
textual learning and adopt a multiple disciplinary approach.
PTI
