Pitching for radical reforms in the country’s education sector, Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has said the Centre is making all out efforts in this regard and by 2020 it aims to increase enrolment in higher education by around two-and-a-half times.
“Government aims to increase the number of students going to colleges by as much as two—and—a—half times by 2020,” Mr. Sibal said at a function here.
“We will need as many as 800-900 more colleges for the purpose. The number of seats in over 40,000 colleges will also have to be doubled,” he said.
Asserting that government was taking all steps in this regard, Mr. Sibal was of the view that the education sector calls for “big reforms” and various legislations are already under the consideration of the Parliament.
Mr. Sibal also expressed deep concern over non-conversion of enrolments in schools to those in colleges and universities in the same ratio.
“At present, around 22 crore students go to school out of which, only 70 lakh students finally turn up for higher education, this gap needs to be bridged soon,” Mr. Sibal said.
Accusing state governments of not coordinating with the Centre while giving nods to private varsities, Mr. Sibal the government “does not even know” when the bills are passed in the Assemblies and when these universities start functioning.
“At times, its found that what these universities have in the name of infrastructure is just a set of two rooms. Owners don’t even know the basics of education. There lies the problem and states need to put a cap on it,” Mr. Sibal said.
Mr. Sibal further said that the structure of school education is also being revamped and by 2020, the government hopes to completely overcome the problem of drop-outs.
He also called for active participation by the private sector in a bid to revamp the educational structure, noting that government alone “can not do this”.
