Sakshi Education
Discussions are going on reforms in Higher Education… On the other hand, people of the nation fervently aspire that we should utilize our vast human resources and shape India as a Super Power. At this juncture, it is heartening that our well-educated and suave Sri Pallam Raju from Andhra Pradesh got a key portfolio like HRD. In this backdrop, let’s find out the reforms that HRD ministry is going to bring in and the challenges therein and what efforts of Pallam Raju are to take forward India in the world scenario
It’s almost one and half months since you have taken over the key position as HRD minister. You have taken over at a crucial time when people of India are aspiring for revolutionary changes in education. What are the challenges before you? What are your priorities?
We are in knowledge era. In this era we can go forward only with knowledge. So, we have to bring in changes in education and research. Already several changes have taken place in them. But, more are needed. Especially in higher education, we have built up resources at an unprecedented level. We are encouraging research linkages. Still, we are lagging behind in international university rankings. We have to do a lot more. Institutions have to expand their research areas. They have to get integrated with the industry. If we do that, our education will go a long way.
When we compare ourselves with America and China, we have favourable demographic dividend. Our youth force is between 25 and 29 years. How are you going to harness this human resource as an asset?
According to latest census, it is estimated that people under 25 are about 55 crores. It is in our hands -- what kind of knowledge do we provide to this youth, what kind of education we impart, what kind of adult education we can provide. If we consider secondary education, 13 crore boys and girls are going to schools for whom we need to provide facilities for secondary education. We should provide vocational educational skills to those who are interested in professions. Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh has proposed to include vocational education in the curriculum through National Skill Development Mission. Thus, we are completely striving to enhance skills of human resources.
What steps are you going to take for better faculty in order to provide quality education to everyone?
We have been appointing teachers in large numbers. But the question is whether those teachers are imparting quality education. We want to focus on this in XII plan. We plan to impart additional training to teachers and also take steps for the teachers to improve their own repertoire. Once we can give our teachers and the intelligentsia more exposure, latest technology and new teaching methods, they will certainly be able to give good teaching.
Though a good amount of discussion is taking place about reforms in education, there has not been a step forward in this direction. Tribunal Bill, Unfair Practices Bill, Accreditation Bill... 5 or 6 such important bills are pending before the Parliament in different stages. What special initiative are you going to take about these pending bills?
Kabil Sibal and Purandareshwari have proposed these reforms with a lot of foresight. Somehow, in our country, any change is opposed. These changes are proposed to improve the quality of education. Even the Standing Committee has discussed them. The Standing Committee has also passed some bills. I hope that at least 3 to 4 bills would be passed in the current Parliament session. If we can get approval for them, we would have contributed a lot of good for education field.
Recently AICTE has blacklisted 300 colleges. Of them, about 40 are from our state. Students and parents are facing acute problems because of such colleges. How are you going to solve this problem?
There is a need to bring in effective acts to protect the rights of students; otherwise, they will lose career-wise if they join inferior institutions and not acquire good knowledge. With that intention, we are planning to introduce new bills, thereby we can punish those indulge in irregularities. This will act as a deterrent. With that, institutions will take care of their students carefully and hesitate to commit any irregularities.
There is a lot of opposition for the establishment of foreign universities in the country. But our students are going to USA, Australia etc for pursuing higher education and parents too are encouraging them. How should we view this scenario?
There is a need to improve our efficiency in higher education. We have established new IITs, IIMs and NITs. But there was paucity of faculty for these new institutions. We are taking steps to reduce this problem...It won’t take longer. In the meanwhile, some students are going abroad for good specializations. If we can get those specializations either through collaborations or through faculty movements and if we can foster such environment, we will certainly expect people’s acceptance.
The enrolment ratio in higher education in our universities stands at 17%. Our target is to hike it to 30%. Is it achievable in reality?
Certainly, it is possible. However, we should increase efficiency. The target of all of us should be imparting quality education to our students. I believe that if states also cooperate for this, we can do still better.
There is a criticism that because of government’s interference in the universities, efficient persons are not coming forward, to some extent. Kabil Sibal has announced that government’s interference would be reduced. Are you going to implement the same?
I believe that if institutions are given autonomy, they would use it properly. But, it is in their hands as how to use such autonomy. As regards interference from the government, it would be restricted to one or two nominees of HRD and from the state. It is for the universities to ensure that all the projects are executed within the ambit of guidelines. It won’t have any influence on the functioning of the university and the selection of subjects. If the VC has vision to take the university forward with new innovations and into new fields, they would surely have the freedom to move forward within available resources. We wish that universities should be given adequate autonomy and thereby they are transformed into prestigious educational institutions.
Are you going to take initiative regarding funds to the state universities across the country?
When the new Act is enacted, it will be possible to allocate grants to not only central institutions, but also to state universities. States should provide resources to the universities once they are established.
In the past, it was announced that 14 universities would be recognised as innovation universities. Subsequently that number has been reduced. How far has that proposal proceeded?
We have introduced the bill in Lok Sabha relating to Innovation Universities. When the bill comes up for discussion we will discuss it at length. This has been proposed with an intention to promote research and innovation and to develop institutions.
Of the 10-lakh seats available for Engineering Education, 39 per cent seats are vacant after counselling. In our Andhra Pradesh itself, one lakh seats remained unfilled. How to rectify this situation?
We have to concentrate on quality in technical education. AICTE is also preparing guidelines in that direction. NBA is also according accreditation. When we concentrate on quality, then only institutions which maintain standards can survive. In our engineering education, only 17% of the graduates have job skills. Industry circles say that they can train another 30%. That means 53% do not have expertise and hence we are not able to offer them jobs. Therefore, we have to lay emphasis on quality.
What steps are you going to take up to strengthen polytechnic education?
We will certainly take steps to strengthen polytechnic education. In addition to vocational education and polytechnic education, we are also concentrating on ITIs.
On one hand, we are going to introduce an Act about accreditation. However, on the other, some institutions are seeking international accreditation. How do we view this?
For the present, accreditation is not compulsory. We wish to introduce a bill to make it mandatory. Once it is done, we can assess the quality level of a particular university or institution.
The committee of IIT Directors has recommended a hike of 80% in IITs. There are apprehensions that due to such hike, opportunities for middle class and poor students would not be accessible. What are your comments on this?
We don’t say that IITs should run profitably. But they should continue to maintain the high standards that they have been following. Therefore, we have to charge fees. I am told that its 5 years since the fees in IITs are hiked. Since IITs have autonomy, their Governing Councils will take decision on their fee hike. I will honour whatever decision is taken by them to run the institutions successfully.
Our government is spending hundreds of crores on higher education. But not even one from our country is listed in the world’s 200 top institutions. What are the reasons for this?
There are a variety of reasons for this – published research articles, foreign faculty, the number of foreign students, the quality in research, funds being spent – these are the parameters which are taken into consideration while international ranking is given. Of course, we can’t show this as an excuse. We surely have to concentrate on certain issues. More funds have to be allocated for research. Integration with industry has to be achieved. We have to reach international standards. Then the quality in our universities also will go up.
IITs have spent crores of rupees in the preparation of audio and video lessons and put them up in the websites under NPTEL programme. But it looks as though adequate publicity is not given to make them percolate into student community. What do you say?
Technology plays a key role for acquiring knowledge. Our children have plenty of talent to acquire technological knowledge and utilize that. We have introduced Akash tablets in this direction. Through them, one can access the content prepared by NPTEL.
NEET is being introduced with the slogan, “One nation .. One test”. But won’t students suffer, if this is implemented without establishing equivalence between CBSE syllabus and the syllabi of state boards?
It was good to streamline engineering test across the country. Similarly, they are doing it for medicine as well. However, it is essential to bring in equivalence in the syllabi, and make it available and simple to the students.
After you have taken over, you are talking about ‘moral education’ frequently. How are you going to introduce moral education in the curriculum?
When we were studying, there used to be a chapter on Moral Studies. It’s a good idea to tell students repeatedly to respect parents, elders, and teachers to grow as responsible members in the society. I have thought about how to introduce it in the curriculum and how to implement it and pass this on to the department concerned.
Even our President Pranab Mukherjee has stated that we very much lag behind in research and innovation. What are the reasons for our lagging?
Fundamental research is going on well in institutions like CSIR, Defence Laboratories. But we are lagging behind in converting such fundamental research into products. We are spending less on research. Other countries are spending 10 % of their GDP on their research. We are also making efforts to enhance allocation for research.
Our research people are not showing interest in inventing new things. It’s also alleged that even the government does not encourage innovation. How far is this true?
We have improved in service economy. But we are still weak in acquiring rights for intellectual property. If our products are made application-oriented, innovations will develop.
Education is in the concurrent list. Some argue that because of gap between the centre and the states, some programmes are being delayed. What kind of cooperation do you solicit from the states?
Since education is in the concurrent list, both the centre and the states should have the same outlook. The centre introduces schemes, but the states have to implement them. That’s why we are taking steps to ensure that some states will take part in the process of planning.
What is your opinion on Narayana Murthy Committee on the corporate participation in higher education?
It is essential to link the industry with colleges. We will certainly encourage such policies.
Sachin Tendulkar has given a presentation on integrating sports with education. Similarly, some advocate that ‘fine arts’ should not be treated as a separate entity and should be looked as part of a larger perspective. What is your thinking about it?
Education doesn’t mean learning the subjects and appearing for the examinations. There should be extra-curricular activities such as sports, fine arts, nature. Only then, students will acquire maturity.
What is your advice to the key players in education – students, parents, teachers and institutions?
Education field is very crucial in the knowledge age. In addition to individual spirit of competitiveness, students should develop national competitiveness. For this, a lot of effort has to be put in by students, parents, teachers and institutions.
The government will make its efforts for creating such conducive atmosphere. We have to impart education to the children in such environment. All children should study well and get good opportunities in India and abroad. We have to groom our students for research and innovation. If we do that, we will emerge as super power!
It’s almost one and half months since you have taken over the key position as HRD minister. You have taken over at a crucial time when people of India are aspiring for revolutionary changes in education. What are the challenges before you? What are your priorities?
We are in knowledge era. In this era we can go forward only with knowledge. So, we have to bring in changes in education and research. Already several changes have taken place in them. But, more are needed. Especially in higher education, we have built up resources at an unprecedented level. We are encouraging research linkages. Still, we are lagging behind in international university rankings. We have to do a lot more. Institutions have to expand their research areas. They have to get integrated with the industry. If we do that, our education will go a long way.
When we compare ourselves with America and China, we have favourable demographic dividend. Our youth force is between 25 and 29 years. How are you going to harness this human resource as an asset?
According to latest census, it is estimated that people under 25 are about 55 crores. It is in our hands -- what kind of knowledge do we provide to this youth, what kind of education we impart, what kind of adult education we can provide. If we consider secondary education, 13 crore boys and girls are going to schools for whom we need to provide facilities for secondary education. We should provide vocational educational skills to those who are interested in professions. Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh has proposed to include vocational education in the curriculum through National Skill Development Mission. Thus, we are completely striving to enhance skills of human resources.
What steps are you going to take for better faculty in order to provide quality education to everyone?
We have been appointing teachers in large numbers. But the question is whether those teachers are imparting quality education. We want to focus on this in XII plan. We plan to impart additional training to teachers and also take steps for the teachers to improve their own repertoire. Once we can give our teachers and the intelligentsia more exposure, latest technology and new teaching methods, they will certainly be able to give good teaching.
Though a good amount of discussion is taking place about reforms in education, there has not been a step forward in this direction. Tribunal Bill, Unfair Practices Bill, Accreditation Bill... 5 or 6 such important bills are pending before the Parliament in different stages. What special initiative are you going to take about these pending bills?
Kabil Sibal and Purandareshwari have proposed these reforms with a lot of foresight. Somehow, in our country, any change is opposed. These changes are proposed to improve the quality of education. Even the Standing Committee has discussed them. The Standing Committee has also passed some bills. I hope that at least 3 to 4 bills would be passed in the current Parliament session. If we can get approval for them, we would have contributed a lot of good for education field.
Recently AICTE has blacklisted 300 colleges. Of them, about 40 are from our state. Students and parents are facing acute problems because of such colleges. How are you going to solve this problem?
There is a need to bring in effective acts to protect the rights of students; otherwise, they will lose career-wise if they join inferior institutions and not acquire good knowledge. With that intention, we are planning to introduce new bills, thereby we can punish those indulge in irregularities. This will act as a deterrent. With that, institutions will take care of their students carefully and hesitate to commit any irregularities.
There is a lot of opposition for the establishment of foreign universities in the country. But our students are going to USA, Australia etc for pursuing higher education and parents too are encouraging them. How should we view this scenario?
There is a need to improve our efficiency in higher education. We have established new IITs, IIMs and NITs. But there was paucity of faculty for these new institutions. We are taking steps to reduce this problem...It won’t take longer. In the meanwhile, some students are going abroad for good specializations. If we can get those specializations either through collaborations or through faculty movements and if we can foster such environment, we will certainly expect people’s acceptance.
The enrolment ratio in higher education in our universities stands at 17%. Our target is to hike it to 30%. Is it achievable in reality?
Certainly, it is possible. However, we should increase efficiency. The target of all of us should be imparting quality education to our students. I believe that if states also cooperate for this, we can do still better.
There is a criticism that because of government’s interference in the universities, efficient persons are not coming forward, to some extent. Kabil Sibal has announced that government’s interference would be reduced. Are you going to implement the same?
I believe that if institutions are given autonomy, they would use it properly. But, it is in their hands as how to use such autonomy. As regards interference from the government, it would be restricted to one or two nominees of HRD and from the state. It is for the universities to ensure that all the projects are executed within the ambit of guidelines. It won’t have any influence on the functioning of the university and the selection of subjects. If the VC has vision to take the university forward with new innovations and into new fields, they would surely have the freedom to move forward within available resources. We wish that universities should be given adequate autonomy and thereby they are transformed into prestigious educational institutions.
Are you going to take initiative regarding funds to the state universities across the country?
When the new Act is enacted, it will be possible to allocate grants to not only central institutions, but also to state universities. States should provide resources to the universities once they are established.
In the past, it was announced that 14 universities would be recognised as innovation universities. Subsequently that number has been reduced. How far has that proposal proceeded?
We have introduced the bill in Lok Sabha relating to Innovation Universities. When the bill comes up for discussion we will discuss it at length. This has been proposed with an intention to promote research and innovation and to develop institutions.
Of the 10-lakh seats available for Engineering Education, 39 per cent seats are vacant after counselling. In our Andhra Pradesh itself, one lakh seats remained unfilled. How to rectify this situation?
We have to concentrate on quality in technical education. AICTE is also preparing guidelines in that direction. NBA is also according accreditation. When we concentrate on quality, then only institutions which maintain standards can survive. In our engineering education, only 17% of the graduates have job skills. Industry circles say that they can train another 30%. That means 53% do not have expertise and hence we are not able to offer them jobs. Therefore, we have to lay emphasis on quality.
What steps are you going to take up to strengthen polytechnic education?
We will certainly take steps to strengthen polytechnic education. In addition to vocational education and polytechnic education, we are also concentrating on ITIs.
On one hand, we are going to introduce an Act about accreditation. However, on the other, some institutions are seeking international accreditation. How do we view this?
For the present, accreditation is not compulsory. We wish to introduce a bill to make it mandatory. Once it is done, we can assess the quality level of a particular university or institution.
The committee of IIT Directors has recommended a hike of 80% in IITs. There are apprehensions that due to such hike, opportunities for middle class and poor students would not be accessible. What are your comments on this?
We don’t say that IITs should run profitably. But they should continue to maintain the high standards that they have been following. Therefore, we have to charge fees. I am told that its 5 years since the fees in IITs are hiked. Since IITs have autonomy, their Governing Councils will take decision on their fee hike. I will honour whatever decision is taken by them to run the institutions successfully.
Our government is spending hundreds of crores on higher education. But not even one from our country is listed in the world’s 200 top institutions. What are the reasons for this?
There are a variety of reasons for this – published research articles, foreign faculty, the number of foreign students, the quality in research, funds being spent – these are the parameters which are taken into consideration while international ranking is given. Of course, we can’t show this as an excuse. We surely have to concentrate on certain issues. More funds have to be allocated for research. Integration with industry has to be achieved. We have to reach international standards. Then the quality in our universities also will go up.
IITs have spent crores of rupees in the preparation of audio and video lessons and put them up in the websites under NPTEL programme. But it looks as though adequate publicity is not given to make them percolate into student community. What do you say?
Technology plays a key role for acquiring knowledge. Our children have plenty of talent to acquire technological knowledge and utilize that. We have introduced Akash tablets in this direction. Through them, one can access the content prepared by NPTEL.
NEET is being introduced with the slogan, “One nation .. One test”. But won’t students suffer, if this is implemented without establishing equivalence between CBSE syllabus and the syllabi of state boards?
It was good to streamline engineering test across the country. Similarly, they are doing it for medicine as well. However, it is essential to bring in equivalence in the syllabi, and make it available and simple to the students.
After you have taken over, you are talking about ‘moral education’ frequently. How are you going to introduce moral education in the curriculum?
When we were studying, there used to be a chapter on Moral Studies. It’s a good idea to tell students repeatedly to respect parents, elders, and teachers to grow as responsible members in the society. I have thought about how to introduce it in the curriculum and how to implement it and pass this on to the department concerned.
Even our President Pranab Mukherjee has stated that we very much lag behind in research and innovation. What are the reasons for our lagging?
Fundamental research is going on well in institutions like CSIR, Defence Laboratories. But we are lagging behind in converting such fundamental research into products. We are spending less on research. Other countries are spending 10 % of their GDP on their research. We are also making efforts to enhance allocation for research.
Our research people are not showing interest in inventing new things. It’s also alleged that even the government does not encourage innovation. How far is this true?
We have improved in service economy. But we are still weak in acquiring rights for intellectual property. If our products are made application-oriented, innovations will develop.
Education is in the concurrent list. Some argue that because of gap between the centre and the states, some programmes are being delayed. What kind of cooperation do you solicit from the states?
Since education is in the concurrent list, both the centre and the states should have the same outlook. The centre introduces schemes, but the states have to implement them. That’s why we are taking steps to ensure that some states will take part in the process of planning.
What is your opinion on Narayana Murthy Committee on the corporate participation in higher education?
It is essential to link the industry with colleges. We will certainly encourage such policies.
Sachin Tendulkar has given a presentation on integrating sports with education. Similarly, some advocate that ‘fine arts’ should not be treated as a separate entity and should be looked as part of a larger perspective. What is your thinking about it?
Education doesn’t mean learning the subjects and appearing for the examinations. There should be extra-curricular activities such as sports, fine arts, nature. Only then, students will acquire maturity.
What is your advice to the key players in education – students, parents, teachers and institutions?
Education field is very crucial in the knowledge age. In addition to individual spirit of competitiveness, students should develop national competitiveness. For this, a lot of effort has to be put in by students, parents, teachers and institutions.
The government will make its efforts for creating such conducive atmosphere. We have to impart education to the children in such environment. All children should study well and get good opportunities in India and abroad. We have to groom our students for research and innovation. If we do that, we will emerge as super power!
Published date : 20 Dec 2012 01:24PM
