INDIAN EDUCATION UPDATE

keralamonitor.com

Right to Education Cleared

The Indian Government’s decision to make education a fundamental right has been the highlight of the various initiatives and measures taken during the last two years in the field of education. The Union Cabinet at its meeting on September 18, 2001 took the historic decision to make elementary education a fundamental right. A new Bill called the Constitution (Ninety-third Amendment) Bill, 2001 would be introduced in the next session of Parliament. It would introduce Article 21 A for providing free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years. Article 45 of the Constitution would be redrafted to provide that the State shall endeavour to give early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of 6 years. It would also be the Fundamental Duty of parents or guardians to provide opportunities for education to all children of 6 to 14 years of age.

The Government has meanwhile adopted twin-pronged approach for Education for All. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA), a thrust programme for the universalisation of elementary education, has been initiated. All districts are to be covered by the programme by March, 2002 and all children in the 6-14 age-group are to be in schools by 2003. The SSA aims that all children complete five years of schooling by 2007 and eight years of elementary education by 2010. A national mission under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister has been set up for SSA. The District Primary Education Programme also covers 271 districts of the country now.

On the other hand, to remove adult illiteracy in the age group of 15-35 years, the National Literacy Mission (NLM) has so far made over 9 crore people literate and covered 574 districts.

According to the provisional figures of Census-2001, the literacy rate has gone up to 65.38 per cent from 52.21 per cent in 1991. For the first time since independence, there has been a decline in absolute terms in the country’s non-literate population by 3.2 crore over the last decade. The gap in the male-female literacy rate has also been reduced from 24.84 per cent in 1991 to 21.70 per cent during the period. Post-literacy programme has been started in 395 districts.

The Mahila Samakhya Programme, for education and empowerment of women from socially and economically marginalised groups in rural areas, has been expanded to cover 9,000 villages in 60 districts. The programme was also awarded with the Honourable Mention of UNESCO’s Noma Literacy Award for its contribution to women’s education and literacy.

New National Curriculum Framework

In school education, the NCERT has brought out a new National Curriculum Framework. This was preceded by wide ranging consultation over two years at various levels. The new curriculum emphasises on the need to keep at pace with the rapid change in the world with focus on information technology. It has also recommended the need for inculcation of universal human values like respect to all religions, compassion, and protection to the environment.

National Centre for Computer Education

The NCERT has set up a National Centre for Computer Education in the previous year. It has also set up a National Centre for Value Education. A centre for International Relations for organising training programmes for teachers and teacher trainees for SAARC countries has also been set up. 1,100 more schools have also been sanctioned under the Vocational Education Programme.

National Open School

The National Open School has emerged as the largest Open School System in the World with more than 5 lakh learners on its roles. The NOS now has a huge network of more than 1,500 study centres compared to 161 in 1990. It was also awarded Commonwealth of Learning Award of Excellence for Institutional Achievement in Distance Education. As an experimental measure, the NOS is developing the concept of On-Demand Examination Scheme wherein an NOS student can request to be examined at any time.

Other Initiatives

Major initiatives were taken in technical and higher education. The number of degree level AICTE approved institutions in engineering and technology increased from 662 in 1998-99 to 1,058 in 2001-2002. More than 40,000 seats were added in IT and IT related disciplines in technical institutions during the year 2000-2001. 101 more Community Polytechnics were opened during the last one year to facilitate skill oriented training to the weaker sections of the society. Besides, special thrust is being given to education and research in biotechnology.

Five universities in the country, Madras, Hyderabad, Pune, Jawaharlal Nehru and Jadhavpur, have been notified as Universities of Excellence. The UGC has announced 45 new courses so that newly emerging areas can be covered. The Number of Deemed Universities has also been increased from 39 to 51 during the past two years. Steps have been taken to extend greater support to apex level national institutes of research in the social sciences, such as ICSSR, ICHR, ICPR. The fellowships being given by these Bodies have been considerably enhanced.

IT Education for Minorities

The Government is encouraging IT education among the minorities. So far 100 computer centres have been set up in 67 districts in 22 States in which 7,000 students are being trained in computer application annually. One year multi-lingual DTP Diploma Course for Urdu speaking students has been introduced for further promotion of computer education. The Government is spending Rs 12 crore annually on Madrasas compared to Rs 2 crore every year earlier. The remuneration for teachers in Madrasas has also been doubled to Rs 3,000. The budget of National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language has been substantially raised from Rs 5.5 crore last year to Rs 8 crore this year.

The UGC guidelines regarding Deemed Universities have been revised to provide a flexible approach so as to cover more institutions. Now, it would be permissible for the Deemed to be University to open centres in its own area or in places other than its headquarters, subject to fulfilment of certain conditions laid down by UGC regarding academic courses, admission procedure, fixation of fee etc. These universities have now also been authorised to open academic centres in any of the foreign countries, after due permission.

The UGC also issued circulars to various universities for listing of fake universities for setting up of cells for Prevention of Malpractices. It also issued circulars regarding Coaching Classes for Minority Communities, Reservation for SC/ST Students and Establishment of SC/ST Cell in Universities, Remedial Coaching for SCs/STs, Readers allowance to blind teachers and reservation for persons with disabilities.

A report on Policy Perspective for Management Education was also presented to the HRD Minister. It has recommended changes in educational content and structure, specialisation of sectoral areas, development of faculty and the teaching material as well as different types of programmes for executives at different levels. It has also recommended accreditation procedures for grading teaching institutions.

The Human Resource Development Ministry gave aid to the tune of Rs 150 crore for the Gujarat education reconstruction plan after the devastation caused by the earthquake in the state. Of this, Rs 100 crore was earmarked for Elementary and Secondary Education and UGC was providing Rs 50 crore for College and University Education..

The combined website of the Department of Higher & Secondary Education and the Department of Elementary Education & Literacy at www.education.nic.in has been upgraded to an education portal with exhaustive education information and provision of transaction of various education services. The portal has been judged as one of the best on the Internet by the Editors of the Britannica. It has three major segments, the information section, the services section and the learning section.

The Government has reserved 5 per cent seats in IITs and 15 per cent seats in other central engineering institutes for foreign and NRI students. In all universities 15 per cent seats have been reserved for foreign students. These are supernumerary seats over and above the approved intake.

Task Force on HRD in IT

The Interim Report of the "Task Force on Human Resource Development in IT" was released by the Prime Minister. The Report makes a number of recommendations such as developing an IT manpower database, monitoring the capacity of IT institutions, upgradation of institutions, setting up of exclusive institutes of Information Technology to function as resource centres, improving infrastructure and also on curriculum and course ware.

The University of Roorkee has been converted into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). An Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT) has been set up in Allahabad and an Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management has been set up in Gwalior by the Centre. A new central university, the Mizoram University came into existence with the commencement of the Mizoram University Act, 2000. The headquarters of the University are in Aizwal and its jurisdiction extends to the whole State of Mizoram.

'Year of Books'

The year 2001-2002 is being celebrated as ‘Year of Books’ to create public awareness about the importance of buying and reading books. It also aims at improving the functioning of libraries through modern methods like computerisation, increasing the number of mobile libraries, strengthening and supporting the Rural Library Movement, and promoting reading clubs in schools, colleges and rural community centres.

Fillip for NE Region

Rupees 230.82 crore was released from the Central Non Lapsable Pool for the North-East region during 2000-2001. Funds are being provided for development of infrastructure facilities in regions that have significant educationally backward minority population. (keralamonitor.com November 2001)