The budget is positive and encouraging as far as higher education sector is concerned. The proposed setting up of four new AIIMS — in Andhra Pradesh, Vidarbha, West Bengal and Purvanchal; 12 more Government medical colleges with dental facilities, and a proposal for five new IIMs and IITs is a welcome initiative,” Aakash Choudhary, director of Aakash Educational Service ltd, tells you.
However, the question still remains that although the country has 30,000 top institutes, most of them lack adequate infrastructure and qualified staff. Will this sudden rise in number of institutions help the higher education scenario in IndiaIJ
“It’s a dilemma. I think the Government is trying to strike a balance between the reach and dissemination of quality education by establishing new IITs and IIMs which is a welcome thing. But this much is not enough. They will also have to work towards providing better infrastructure within these institutions which is also the need of the hour,” he says.
The IITs and IISc contributed less than 1 percent of the engineering undergraduates in the country, 20 per cent of M Techs and 40 per cent of PhDs. However, only about 1 per cent of B Tech students in an IIT opt to study for an M Tech in India, while only 2 per cent of M Tech students go for PhD.
Of 15 million individuals who join the army of job-seekers every year, only 3 per cent undergo vocational training. Meanwhile, many remain jobless as their skills don’t match the market needs.
“It is essential that we maintain the quality of education. So many people graduate every year but they aren’t market-ready. This problem needs to be addressed,” Choudhary adds.
Skill development, thus, remains as one of the key prospects that needs to be looked into as far as being well equipped with the industry standards and meeting the demands of international market is concerned.
The roadmap on skill development was an essential one and the biggest incremental change is the allocation of Rs 500 crore on the teacher training in this current Budget.
“As a matter of fact, there aren’t many Government colleges in India as compared to private franchises. We had about 2000 private colleges in 2002 and now we have 112 UGC approved private universities. Government colleges are not audited on regular basis while private institutes are complying on high standard education,” he says.
According to educationists, a visionary Government will never shy away from Private Public Partnership (PPP) in education.
“The Government should work with the education entrepreneurs. All we need is innovation in the education sector; we already have good faculty and infrastructure,” Choudhary concludes.
— Rama Dwivedi