Irreversible Tide in India's Education-An Eye Opner for Policy Makers.

Jammu J&K India - Sadaket malik - Sunday, October 12th, 2008 : goo

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Irreversible Tide in India's Education-An Eye Opner for Policy makers.

Sadaket Malik*

It’s a rising irreversible tide. Though not a few within the political class and the nation’s powerful bureaucracy are in denial, there is an emerging consensus within India’s 5 million-strong academic community that the nation’s moribund, moth-eaten education system fashioned by Lord Macaulay over a century ago, needs an urgent makeover. With 21st century India burdened with the world’s largest population of illiterate citizens, an estimated 59 million children in the six-14 age group out of school, and the aggregate number of names and addresses of job-seekers in the registers of employment exchanges across the country having swollen to 41 million — not because there aren’t sufficient jobs, but because youth streaming out of the obsolete education system are unemployable — alarm sirens are wailing in all sections of Indian society.

The starkest evidence of the rising tide of anxiety about the quantity and quality of education being provided to genext is indicated by the unprecedented provision made in the Union budget presented to Parliament on July 8, to impose a 2 percent cess on all Central taxes to raise additional resources for elementary education. Moreover in his budget speech Union finance minister P. Chidambaram committed the 100-days-old United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre to raising the national outlay for education from the current 3.5-4 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) to 6 percent in the near future. Coterminously upgradation of the nation’s languishing public education and healthcare systems are top priority on the agenda of the National Advisory Council (NAC) chaired by Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi.

Inevitably, there is considerable scepticism about the declarations of intent and grand pronouncements made by governments at the Centre and in the states which are seldom followed up with policy implementation programmes. But even within civic society and the general public there is a never-before, new millennium awareness that quality education is the best social leveller and passport to gainful employment, affluence and social respect. Hence despite the rigours and travails of licence-permit raj which has migrated from industry to education, there’s a flurry of activity in terms of promotion of new schools, colleges and institutes of professional education, particularly in the private sector. This urgent flurry of activity within the hitherto somnolent education sector has ensured that the vital importance of qualitative education has permeated down to the lowest income groups across the subcontinent — a development accentuated by the promotion of the country’s 517 urban benchmarked Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya residential schools in rural India. Simultaneously it has focussed public attention upon hitherto arcane subjects such as syllabus design and curriculum development and shifted national attention from ritual to real education. Suddenly paper degrees and qualifications are not as important as professional and life skills which school leavers and college graduates must acquire within their institutions of learning.

Therefore the newly emergent consensus that reform of India’s Macaulayan system of education based on rote learning and memorisation rather than development of problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills requires urgent attention. And even as several specialist committees constituted by the Union ministry of human resource development are currently engaged in the process, the public interest demands a wider ambit for the national debate on syllabus and curriculum reform. To this end, to meaningfully celebrate the 5th anniversary of EducationWorld, we deemed it incumbent upon ourselves to ask several educationists and industry leaders with proven commitment to improving the education system to write prescriptions for a renaissance of Indian education.

Inevitably, prescriptions for the reform of India’s patently languishing, if not terminally ill education system by dedicated educationists in diverse professions and vocations differ widely. However on some points there is a broad consensus. The reforms implicitly or explicitly endorsed by all the seven eminent respondents are:

1. Liberalise and deregulate the education system to encourage promotion of new schools, colleges, vocational and other institutions of higher education.

To a greater or lesser degree all the respondents are in favour of addressing the supply side of education to eliminate capacity shortages which are the root cause of the overwhelming majority of the hundreds, if not thousands, of rackets which plague post-independence India’s education system. The learned justices of the Supreme Court agree. In its historic 2002 judgement in the TMA Pai Foundation Case (8 SCC 481), a full bench of the court expanded the right of minorities to "establish and administer educational institutions of their choice" as mandated by Article 30 of the Constitution of India, to all citizens.

This development prescription is strongly endorsed by liberal economist and writer Sauvik Chakraverti. "The education sector urgently needs to be set free. This will facilitate entry of private firms offering short courses that equip young people for vocations and professions — be it plumbing, or baking — into the education sector. The three R’s can also be easily taught by them using computers

. Central and state governments should change their roles within the education system, re-inventing themselves as facilitating and supervisory organisations.

Heavy-handed government interven-tion and participation in the education sector was sharply condemned by all respondents to this survey. There is a general consensus that having failed miserably during the past half century to upgrade education standards, the Central and state governments themselves should exit from syllabus design and mandate school examination boards to design syllabuses which test more than memory and rote learning ability. Comments Kabir Mustafi, former headmaster of Bishop Cotton School, Shimla who advocates that the Centre should promulgate a new National Education Policy: "The NEP should mandate ‘free-fall’ curriculums from nursery to class VIII... and direct all school examination boards to revise their syllabuses to test research, analysis, memory, comprehension and ex-pression capabilities of students

New National Education Policy needed
An alumnus of Delhi and North Bengal universities, Kabir Mustafi is the former headmaster of Bishop Cotton School, Shimla. Currently he is a Delhi-based education consultant and principal designate of Scottish High International School, under construction in Gurgaon.

Change government role. The Central and state governments must play a monitorial role; not as cash investors but as referral and adjudicating organisations.

Government must retreat from syllabus design. Central and state governments have to dissociate from dictating syllabi and curriculums to ascertaining whether or not government schools and institutions of higher education are delivering learning in their classrooms.

New NEP required. A new National Education Policy needs to be written. It should: (i) Empower local bodies such as SDMCs (School Development Monitoring Commi-ttees) and panchayats so that teachers and boards are accountable to the public; (ii) Upgrade teacher skills by establishing NDA (National Defence Academy) or ASCI (Administrative Staff College of India) type academies for three-five year training and refresher courses with stipends; (iii) Ban arbitrary teacher transfers; (iv) Draw up stringent but transparent recognition and accreditation norms as per CISCE/ CBSE/ NAAC/ AICTE standards while delicensing private initiatives in education.

Revise school syllabi. The NEP should direct all school examination boards to revise their syllabuses to test research, analysis, memory, comprehension and ex-pression capabilities of students.

Standardise college admissions. The new NEP needs to mandate a single SAT type examination for college admission and a GRE/ GMAT version for postgrad admissions. Modifications to existing successful models are entirely feasible.

Targetted subsidies in higher education. The blanket subsidisation of tertiary education needs to be replaced with need-based scholarships, grants and financial aid.

Involve local communities. The upgradation of teacher salaries and infrastructure for schools not well endowed, should be entrusted to local communities including corporates, against tax holidays and other fiscal benefits.

Task force for new education policy. A comprehensive education policy for the country for all levels of education, taking into account the recent changes and requirements of a globalised environment is urgently required. It should be drafted by an expert committee drawn from India and abroad.

Rural education thrust. Central and state governments should draw up incentive and grants-in-aid programmes to promote centres of quality education in rural areas across the country. Education opportunities need to be spread out rather than concentrated in isolated geographic locations.

Government and industry should boost academic R&D. Continuous R&D (research and development) is the measure of national development. Government and industry should synergise to sponsor research efforts with the former providing liberal tax incentives.

Upgrade tertiary level syllabuses and curriculums. Higher education should be made relevant to meet industry requirements, so that students make a smooth transition from academics to industry. Industry needs employable graduates.

Liberalise and deregulate education sector. Diverse rules and regulations prescribed by monitoring agencies in higher education inhibit growth and excellence in educational institutions. They should be given full autonomy for self-development while the national accreditation process must become more stringent

Nevertheless for those whose goals are fixed and purpose is clear, ours is but to do our best. One of the most valuable lessons of once high-potential India’s failed economic development effort is that enterprises of great pith and moment succeed despite government, seldom because of it. ? The right to education bill, making education free and compulsory for children in the 6-14 age group, had several flaws, not the least the fact that it absolved the government of its many responsibilities towards making education equitable. Almost as if to prove that activists were indeed right in questioning the government's commitment to education, the Central Government has washed its hands off the bill, instead sending a Model Right to Education Bill to the states in July 2006, asking state governments to draft their own laws.

For educationists and activists, the move is yet another indicator of the extent to which successive governments have neglected education and brazenly gone back on their promises, even if these were etched on to their Common Minimum Programmes (CMPs). The current United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre, for instance, had assured in its CMP that it would increase the public spending on education, a claim that withers in the face of its inability to even pass a legislation enabling the right to education, guaranteed by the Constitution.

All of this, ultimately, means that the right to education bill has practically lost its very essence. Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of a non-government organisation working with children called Bachpan Bachao Andolan, says that unless there is a Central legislation to support it, a constitutional guarantee will have little meaning. "If one goes to court about a right to education case, the court won't have a single law to decide the matter," he explains. Besides, a country cannot sustain economic growth unless children are educated, something that a government led by an economist like Manmohan Singh should understand,

The new National Curriculum Framework has put the child firmly at the centre of its proposals. But critics point out that it has overlooked many problems, such as the lack of infrastructure, inadequate teacher training, and continuing social biases. Some provisions have also been attacked as obscurantist

Textbooks and tests have long been the two words that defined the Indian education system, but now the National Curriculum Framework 2005 is doing its utmost to change that perception. The 124-page document, prepared by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), emphasises the words learning without burden and child-centred education repeatedly. Its volley of suggestions, already reflected in the new NCERT syllabus for classes one to twelve, includes cutting down on the number of textbooks, making assessment methods flexible, and promoting more inclusive learning.

More dramatically, it makes a case for doing away with stereotypes based on gender and caste.

Do alternative schools work? After all, every child has to ultimately face a society that puts a premium on competitiveness and commodification. Or are alternatives only an option for children of parents from a certain class of society?

Funds for schemes for the physically challenged, destitute women and children, the elderly, and several educational programmes lie unutilised as the capital’s social welfare department fails to identify beneficiaries

Other schemes where no money has been spent and no work done, despite financial sanction, include a development programme for the mentally challenged and a national programme for the rehabilitation of people with disability. Plans for a halfway home for mentally ill people who have been discharged from the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences at Shahdara remain on paper, as do plans for a leprosy treatment centre at Tahirpur and the development of a Sewa Kuteer complex for the visually challenged.

"In the four remaining months of the financial year, officials will hurry to spend the money and will come up with ill-conceived schemes and give out doles to those who do not need assistance at all. It’s a dismal picture," said a senior official who wished to remain anonymous.

In the performance audit report on "Educational Development of SCs and STs" the CAG has flayed Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and Ministry of Tribal Affairs for poor financial management resulting in ambitious schemes for education of SCs and ST not delivering the desired results.

"The two indicators of educational development - Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and Gross Drop-out Ratio (GDR) - displayed an adverse trend in respect to SC and ST boys and girls. The gap in GDR between general and SC and ST candidates, which was 6.7 per cent and 15.1 per cent in 2001-02, deteriorated to 10.4 per cent and 16.6 per cent in 2003-04, respectively," the report said.

The CAG has pointed out underutilisation of funds, delayed or short release and diversion of funds, unspent balances lying with states and inadequate publicity resulting in poor awareness of schemes as the reason for the gap.

During the audit process for year 2005-06, large number of cases of short delivery and non-delivery of benefits in schemes like coaching classes, awards etc were noticed so were great delays in disbursement of scholarships, establishment of book banks and construction of ashram schools and hostels.

On the other hand, the auditors found that the money released from the Centre was not reaching the targeted population and a lot of ineligible beneficiaries, including those whose parents' income exceeded the prescribed limit were receiving scholarships.

The available hostels lacked basic facilities like drinking water, toilets, furniture and power supply indicating that these students are not getting proper atmosphere and facilities to for academics.

In fact, schemes operated through NGOs, too, had problems with inadequate facilities due to poor monitoring mechanism. Despite this, the states have failed to recover funds from the blacklisted NGOs.

The ministries have passed the buck on states saying the problem is mainly due to underutilisation of funds.

Part of the reason for this abysmal state of affairs is that there was no compulsion upon either Central or State governments to provide universal education. The faith expressed in Article 45 of the Constitution, making a commitment of the state to provide free and compulsory education to children up to 14 years of age, did not translate into any justiciable right. Most critically, successive versions of draft legislation have failed to make it a justiciable right or to ensure the financial resources for the government to provide universal schooling.

Educationists and social scientists are increasingly veering around to the view that persistent gender biases are rooted in India's failed education system. As a result, the search for gender parity must begin with guaranteed access to quality education for all.

The National Policy on Education (N.P.E.) brought the fundamental issue of equality centrestage. Section 4.9 of the Policy clearly focusses on the needs of the children with disabilities. The objective should be to integrate the physically and mentally handicapped with the general community as equal partners, to prepare them for normal growth and to enable them to face life with courage and confidence. The following measures will be taken in this regard:

Wherever possible, the education of children with motor handicaps and other mild handicaps will be common with that of others.

Special schools with hostels will be provided, as far as possible at district headquarters, for severely handicapped children.

Adequate arrangements will be made to give vocational training to disabled students.

Teachers’ training programmes will be reoriented, in particular for teachers of primary classes, to deal with the special difficulties of the handicapped children.

Voluntary effort for the education of children with disability will be encouraged in every possible manner.

Some enabling legislation in this regard is: Rehabilitation Council of India Act (R.C.I. Act), Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, and National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Retardation and Multiple Disability, 1999:

The last Act, especially, is a landmark legislation for the welfare of persons with autism, cerebral retardation and multiple disability. This Act seeks to protect and promote the rights of persons who, within the disability sector, have been even more marginalised than others. Though the National Trust Act of 1999 does not directly deal with education of children with special needs, one of its thrust areas is to promote programmes that foster inclusion and independence by creating a barrier-free environment, developing functional skills of the disabled and promoting self help groups.

India approved two educational schemes worth Rs 22.6 billion to offer scholarship to poor meritorious students and also assist 520,000 disabled students to pursue education at the secondary level.

The cabinet committee on economic affairs in the first scheme granted its consent for execution of central sector scheme of scholarships worth Rs 10 billion for college and university students, during the 11th Five Year Plan period.

In the second package, the cabinet committee gave its consent for the initiation of a new centrally sponsored scheme of "Inclusive Education of the Disabled at Secondary Stage (IEDSS)" at the cost of Rs 12.6 billion.

World Bank will provide a $600 million loan to India to part finance a $10.7 billion education programme, the finance ministry said in a statement.

The World Bank's efforts to assist with US $ 600 million have been supplemented by two other external development partners -- Department for International Development of U.K. and European Commission with $375 million.

The 11th Five-year plan proposes to continue with redoubled efforts at provision of educational facilities to the Scheduled Caste (SCs), the Scheduled Tribe (STs) and minorities.

The planning Commissioner’s approach paper says education is the most effective instrument of social empowerment and educational schemes for these sections will therefore have to be continued with redoubled vigour.

It is imperative to promote education among other backward sections including minorities. Some minorities are far behind the national average and it is necessary to go the root of the problem so that remedial measures can be taken during the plan period.At a minimum, the minority dominated areas will need special focus under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and schemes for creating infrastructure should be implemented there. In addition, incentivising minority students should be explored.While bringing the SC, ST and other backward classes up to the national level may take time, certain aspects of backwardness need to be set right immediately. Manual scavenging should be totally eliminated by the middle of the plan period, through liberation and rehabilitation of conservancy workers in sustainable employment and income generating activities.A comprehensive national policy to ensure protection, all-round development, welfare and empowerment of tribal with emphasis on rehabilitation and resettlement of the project affected people needs to be announced and effectively implemented.In comparison to previous year’s Rs 286.8 billion, the education sector received Rs 344 billion this year. Education sector always gets a good share of the Union Budget and the amount increases every year but the outcome still disappoints

FINANCE MINISTER P Chidambaram’s Budget 2008-09 is earning plaudits across the nation and is ranked as the best ever budget by countrymen. However, the opposition parties ranked the Union Budget 2008-09, a move to please the voters and preparation for next year’s Lok Sabha elections. Amongst the many bonanzas unrevealed by the finance minister last Friday, the biggest was Rs 60,000 crores debt relief package for farmers of the country. The FM said that the relief package has been offered keeping in mind the suicide committed by in-debt farmers across the country.

Budget 2008-09 also brought relief for income tax payers, as the threshold limit of exemption from income tax has been increased from 110,000 to Rs 1,50,000 for men. For woman and senior citizens the tax slabs are Rs 180,000 and Rs 2,25,000 respectively. In addition to these, the finance minister had announced a number of projects and funds for the education sector. Highlights of the funds allocated for various projects include Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which is to get Rs 13,100 crores, mid-day meal has been provided Rs 8,000 crores, secondary education is to get Rs. 4,554 crores.

In comparison to previous year’s Rs 286.8 billion, the education sector got Rs 344 billion this year. In fact, the education sector always gets a good share of the Union Budget and the amount increases every year. This year too, the finance minister has given a substantial amount for educational schemes to increase literacy. But the question is does the excess amount spent for educational projects become fruitful? After observing the outcome of the projects in rural India, one can say the impact of money looks more fruitful in papers. Still a majority of the children in rural areas do not attend school rather prefer to help their parents in cultivation, business or household chores. The condition of female children is worse as most of them never go to schools.

According to finance minister’s report about 1,82,000 girls are enrolled in residential schools under Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Scheme. In this year’s budget, funds have been allocated to set up 410 new Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas in educationally backward areas. Rs 80 crores has been allocated to set up new or upgrade existing hostels attached to Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas. Funds have also been given to Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the world’s largest lunch programme. Mid-Day Meal Scheme will now be extended to upper primary classes in government and government-aided schools in all blocks.

But what? It is clear that governments alone cannot make the necessary transformation of our education landscape happen – high enrolment numbers have only very recently been achieved in many states, and this is just the first step. Unless civil society steps in to help and supplement the government's efforts, we will not be able to show progress in our children's learning abilities. Which means that just like ASER managed to pull together 776 NGOs, we must be able to pull together a coalition of many institutions and agree with the government on a common framework of supplementing school efforts so that children are able to be proficient in language and math.

Indian schooling is yet to achieve that perfect state that the freedom fighters must have visualized while writing down the constitution; with each and every Indian child being able to read and write. The progress in this concern though has been slow as India’s population is expected to reach one billion in the coming up time while the number of students who will be able to proudly call themselves literate is expected to be mere one-third of the total percentage, the major part of the two-third percentage being constituted by the children of the rural areas, especially females. Most of them prefer to sit and work like their elders, thus becoming an earning hand from the very beginning of their childhood. To them studies appear as the wastage of time and this, results in dropping out of the schools by most of the students even before the fifth grade. Their dropping out nature cannot be just concluded on the basis of their lack of interest, it is also because of the poor facilities and lack of schools and efficient school teachers in these rural areas. Most of the qualified teachers prefer to stay back in the cities, while only few of the unqualified teachers opt to go to teach in the rural areas, who also end up frustratingly as there is hardly any electricity, computers and most importantly books and school buildings at times even to deliver their knowledge successfully. Mahila Samakhya is a women's empowerment project which not only aims at service delivery but also seeks to bring about a change in women's perception about themselves and that of society in regard to women's traditional roles. It endeavours to create an environment for women to seek knowledge and information in order to make informed choices and create circumstances in which women can learn at their own pace and rhythm. The centrality of education in the struggle to achieve equality is an important focus of Mahila Samakhya.

National Program for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL)

Government of India is committed to achieving Universalization of Elementary Education by 2010. This entails a special thrust on girls’ education as well as greater rigour in planning, targeting and actual implementing the interventions designed. Statistics reveal that despite the efforts that have been made, gender disparities persist in enrolment of girls, especially in rural areas and among disadvantaged groups. The disparity is more acute in the enrolment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, especially at upper primary level.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has limited financial provisions for girls’ education in the form of free textbooks and innovations at district levels. Thus, National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) has been formulated for providing additional support for education of underprivileged/disadvantaged girls at elementary level. NPEGEL is a part of SSA and will be implemented under its umbrella but as a distinct and separate gender component plan of SSA.

The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Non Formal Education (NFE) was introduced in 1979-80 on a pilot basis with a view to support the formal system in providing education to all children upto the age of 14 years as enunciated in the Directive Principles of the Constitution. In subsequent years, the NFE scheme was expanded to cover 10 educationally backward states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

KASTURBA GANDHI BALIKA VIDYALAYA (KGBV)

The Government of India has approved a new scheme called Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) for setting up upto 750 residential schools with boarding facilities at elementary level for girls belonging predominantly to the SC, ST, OBC and minorities in difficult areas. The scheme will be coordinated with the existing schemes of Department of Elementary Education & Literacy viz. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) and Mahila Samakhya (MS).

CENTRALLY SPONSORED NATIONAL MEANS-CUM-MERIT

SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME

Under this scheme, it is proposed to award 100,000 scholarships to the gifted or

meritorious students whose parental income is not more than Rs 1,50,000/- per

annum from all sources. Each State /UT shall have fixed quota of scholarship

which will be decided on the basis of enrolment of students in Class VII and VIII

in the State/UT concerned and population of children of concerned age group of

class VII and VIII. The scheme would provide reservation to different categories

of students as per the State/UT norms; as different States/UTs have their own

norms of reservation.

If there is one question that we need to ask now, it is this: have we as a nation reflected on the policy choices that we are faced with now? If we are unable to answer this question with enough conviction, we may end up losing another generation to poor quality health care for the majority of the people in the country. Is that something that we can afford? We all know that India lives in rural areas and without making these areas literate, we can’t make India a prosperous nation. Hopefully, the central and state governments will woke up now to make the educational schemes and funds fruitful. Last but not the least, the parents and wards should also understand the importance of education and cooperate with the government to make the educational schemes successful. They should not discriminate between male and female children and should send them to school.

The present system laid its emphasis on securing more marks. Every year many students commit suicide due to failure or low score in the examination. Many students go to depression even if they go abroad for higher studies as they fail to cope up with the education system.

The education in India is suffering for many other reasons, the corruption, ragging and reservation system are few that has kept the universalisation of education at a bay.

The change in education system should be welcomed and to address the major concern related to education, Arjun Singh, Union Human Resource Development Minister inaugurated a national conference of Vice-Chancellors on ‘Development of Higher Education: Expansion, Inclusion and Excellence’ in Delhi on Wednesday.

He said "Higher education has become a sick child of education. It is not serving the cause of the young people of India. The academic world needs to come to terms with today's reality and the 11th Plan gives us enough elbow room to experiment".

He advocated the strong need of giving a new direction to higher education as it has failed to serve the very purpose of education.

He urged the Vice-Chancellors to find a way out of the prevailing situation.

He added "As vice-chancellors, you have the opportunity and duty to find a way out for it. To prescribe is not my ideology. Let us now inscribe. Give the country a roadmap of higher education. Keeping the divide in view, you should define what should be the content, extent, methodology and basic ingredientsofhighereducation".

Member of Planning Commission Prof Balchandra Mungekar in a similar concern said "Between 1857 and 1986, we have presided over a failed education system. The general education system has been divorced from the Indian reality. It is now time to redraft the entire curricula".
"Today, not more than 9-10% graduates are employable. There is a totally diverse economic and social reality. The task is to drastically restructure the education system," he added.

The HRD ministry is trying to prepare a blueprint of the report and submit it into PM office within deadline. For this HRM has asked the proposal from all the states to set up such types of educational universities that have a business management school, a medical college, an engineering college, a law college in a single campus. The Ministry has also instructed strictly to the state not to compromise with the quality of the education and campus.

"The preference will be given to those, which have not any central university in the state at present", said Ministry. "The rules are going to be very stringent. The states have to compete to get a world class university," said Mungekar, while giving an outline of the regulation.

"The states have to provide a big plot of a land for free in prime locations, besides there would be other demanding criteria that the states will have to meet while competing for having such universities.", said a spokes person of HRD Ministry.

Earlier, Planning Commission of India along with HRD Ministry have put a proposal in an educational meeting that held on September 13 to improve the standard of higher education with the establishment of universities of international model.

Thus, HRD ministry has followed the proposal by preparing guidelines on setting up ‘World Class Universities’. "This planning is an extension of setting up additional 14 new IITs and IIMs across the country as such institutes will be a part of the central universities", said Ministry.

The author is a freelance columnist based in Jammu***

and can be contacted at sadaketmalik@rediffmail.com

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