Union Human Resource Development Minister M M Pallam Raju said that currently the gross enrollment ratio is 18.8 per cent in India and the government hopes to take it to 30 per cent by 2020.
Speaking after inaugurating the Manipal University Indoor Sports Complex “Marena,” the minister said higher education today in India is very important aspect of overall education scenario. Most of the phase has been rapidly filled and rightly sown by private institutions. However, the government is concerned about the quality of the institutions.
Asserting that access, equity and quality are on the high priority, the minister said “during the 12th Five Year Plan, we have to ensure the quality in our educational system. In the 11th Five Year Plan where we had good growth rate and plenty of resources, we could start some reputed institutions like IITs, IIMs and lots of central universities. In the 12th Five Year Plan, we hope and try to meet the objectives of access and equity.”
Later, interacting with the students, the minister said that strong reservation system in terms of constitutional provision in government funded institutions will help the economically backward students to access quality education. Private institutions also do a lot for economically deserving students.
Stating that the Government spends nearly Rs 1,000 crore on the interest on the student loans, he said the amount has been increasing every year.
“In future, the student loans will be made easier and accessible to many,” he said and added that the government is looking into the recommendations given by standing committee over extending the Indian campuses for foreign universities. “Some of the business groups and companies want to collaborate with such universities and bring in positive factors,” he said and added that at present, Indian has 96 per cent enrollment among students.
“We have around 230 million students going to schools and nearly 110 million students having mid day meals. All this was possible because of Right To Education Act”.
“However, we have shortage of teachers. We need 20 lakh teachers and we have only 12.5 lakhs teachers,” he informed and said that making National Cadet Corps training mandatory for students will help in personality development and also would help to inculcate the right values among young people.