The Hindu Business Line : `Educational institutes must increase capacity'

The endeavour should be to create space for new models and novel efforts to provide millions of students the opportunity to pursue higher education.

Pune , Dec. 3

"Sustaining and increasing a high rate of growth is not a function of capital investment alone.

It requires highly qualified and trained human resources and it is with this view that the Government has taken some bold initiatives," Mr P. Chidambaram has said.

He was in the city for the third Convocation of Symbiosis International University on Saturday.

He said the Government has decided that all central and aided educational institutions would be required to increase their capacity by 54 per cent over a period of three years. A Bill has been introduced in Parliament in this regard, he said.

The Government intends allowing foreign educational institutions to offer courses in India independently or in collaboration with Indian educational institutions and a Bill for this purpose was also under consideration.

He said the Knowledge Commission has been set up to look into the issue of building quality human capital.

Mr Chidambaram said that these initiatives were directed towards one goal while noting that even today it was acknowledged that the best Indian student is as good as the best anywhere in the world but the average Indian student is not as good as the average student elsewhere in the world.

He said during 1950-51, there were about 750 colleges and by 1990-91 it had increased to 7,346 and is currently estimated to exceed 17,000.

Likewise, the number of universities and deemed universities had increased from 30 (1950-51) to 177 (1990-91) to nearly 300 now.

He said the rapid expansion, to a large extent, was owing to the entry of the private sector in the field of education.

He said at the one end there were colleges established and funded by trusts, charities etc and at the other, there were self-financing institutions where the motive was profit. "Both have a place in society and both should be welcomed," he said.

The endeavour should be to create space for new models and novel efforts to provide millions of students the opportunity to pursue higher education. The enrolment ratio in tertiary education in the country is about 9 per cent, while in the developed countries this ratio is in excess of 60 per cent, he said.

Mr Chidambaram said the international experience is that a gross enrolment ratio (GER) of 20 per cent is the minimum threshold that would contribute to the rapid and sustainable economic growth. He said the goal was to achieve a GER of 15 per cent by 2012, the terminal year of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. For this, he noted, the actual enrolment would have to double from the current level of 11 million students to 23 million students.

Of these, a large proportion would have to be enrolled in technical and scientific courses. Currently, only 17 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, pursue technical and science education, he added.