Presently, India’s higher education system is the largest in the world with over 70 million students. The country has more than 36,000 higher education institutes, contributing 59.7 per cent of the market size. That puts the our education on the centrestage. The Government has been trying to change/challenge the present status quo, and therefore, education had listed amongst the nine pillars of 2016-17 Budget. The Government has taken up several initiatives since last year’s Budget to restructure the higher education system and make it relevant to the present needs.
New Education Policy (NEP): The Ministry of Human Resource Development started the collaborative and multi-stakeholder consultation process for formulating the NEP.
New institutes: The Government has initiated the setting up of four more Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Jammu, Chhattisgarh, Goa, and Karnataka and 1 IIM in Jammu and 1 IISER in Orissa.
National Digital library: The Government has envisaged the creation of a Nation Digital library for providing an access to the knowledge repository in terms of books, e-learning material, encyclopedia, journals, etc for the benefit of the reading community.
Vocational education: There is an agreement between India and Germany on vocational education and skill development with a budget of $ 3.37 million, to create and improve cooperative workplace-based vocational training in India’s industrial clusters .
The Budget for education saw a single-digit hike during the previous fiscal year. This year, it can witness a double-digit growth rate in terms of budget allocation as felt by the leading educationists, because close to 50 per cent of India’s population is below the age of 25 and as much percentage of the population is directly affected by the education Budget. The expectations from the higher-education advocates across the country are for a ‘good Budget’ revolve around following two issues:
nRegular monitoring. The new IIMs and other institutes require able leadership, competent faculty and sound resource base. The opening of new institutions is not a solution to fill in the delivery gap, but their growth is must for steering the path of education. Thus, regular mentoring of these institutions is must.
nRecognition to good faculty. There is dearth of good faculty at all levels, most serious in higher education sector. One can get faculty but few who can deliver. Despite their quality, they do not get the due recognition, which is at time de-motivating. In Government institutions, there is still grievance machinery but what about private institutions of repute, which have rules and process only on paperIJ At one time, they were known for professionalism but now mediocrity rules. Good faculty leaves, ultimately playing with the students’ future. But it goes on, as chalta hai attitude.
The writer is Prof Sandeep Goel, Associate Professor, Finance, MDI Gurgaon