INDIA 'S NEW EDUACTION PLAN

The government announcement of expansion plans for the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) from seven to fifteen, seven more Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and five Indian Institutes of Science, Education and Research (IISERs) and 30 Central Universities was a step towards enhancement of quality education in India. The outlay for education during the 11th Five-Year Plan, which runs from the current fiscal to 2012-13, represents a four-fold increase over the previous plan and stands at Rs 2,500 billion.

Higher education in India is one of the most developed in the entire world. Education has always been a high point in the very fabric of India. From time immemorial whether it was the Pandavas or the Mughals, Vivekananda or Dr Radhakrishnana, learning and knowledge have been the weapons to win over the world. More than any other country, India has churned out intelligentsia from every discipline. It was during the medieval period that universities began to come up in Delhi, Allahabad and Lucknow, and knowledge in theology, religion, philosophy, fine arts, painting, architecture, mathematics, medicine and astronomy, began to be studied and imbibed. There has in fact been considerable improvement in the higher education scenario of India in both quantitative and qualitative terms since then. In technical education, the IITs, and in management, the IIMs, have already marked their names among the top higher educational institutes of the world.

“With growing population and the dire need to educate every youth, we require good universities, colleges and institutes that can provide quality education to the future citizens of the country. The government has done much in this field but it is the private institutes that are pitching in now to handle the immense pressure in the education sector. They are providing excellent infrastructure and every possible facility to students in order to churn out talent and target excellence in imparting knowledge,” says Saurabh Jain, executive director, Vidya Knowledge Park, Meerut, UP.

“Whatever work could not be done by the government is being done by us. There are 500 million youth in our country who are less than 24 years of age. They need to be educated and there are number of colleges required to fulfill this need. The union and state government have not been able to fulfill this requirement due to meager resources. Although some private institutes are good, average or even poor, yet they are fulfilling the unfulfilled needs in the education sector. All students cannot get admission in IITs and IIMs and so the role of private sector in education becomes important,” says Dr. Harivansh Chaturvedi, director, Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH).

No wonder, Northern India has made its mark with some of the best universities and colleges. Three Indian universities were listed in the Times Higher Education list of the world’s top 200 universities —Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in 2005 and 2006. Six Indian Institutes of Technology and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science – Pilani, were listed among the top 20 science and technology schools in Asia by Asiaweek while the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was recognized as a global leader in medical research and treatment. The JNU and Delhi University (DU) are well acclaimed for postgraduate courses and research in science, humanities and social sciences.

For those who cannot afford to attend regular classes for various preoccupations, there are correspondence courses from various Open Universities and distance learning institutes, the Indira Gandhi National Open University or IGNOU being the foremost. Apart from these higher education institutes there are several private institutes in the north of India that offer various professional courses.

IGNOU entered into its Silver Jubilee Year on November 19, 2009. Today, its factfile reads as: 2.5 million students, 61 Regional Centres, 2,243 Learner Support Centres, presence in 34 countries, 323 Academic Programmes, 45000 Academic Councilors, over 3,500 courses, 21 Schools of Study and 12 Divisions. Its 323 programmes are offered in widely diverse areas and at different levels covering doctorate degree, master’s and bachelor’s degree, postgraduate and under-graduate diplomas and certificates. The education is disseminated in conventional as well as emerging inter-disciplinary areas. One of the notable contributions has been to achieve greater access to programmes which were hitherto exclusively limited to face-to-face classroom transactions. These include physical and natural sciences, nursing, health, engineering and technology, computers, Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) and Library and Information Sciences. Now IGNOU is moving towards convergence between the open and conventional university systems (and other educational and training organisations) to enhance sustainable access. It has launched a large number of programmes in the face-toface mode, in diverse areas. Several new vocational programmes which impact the disadvantaged sections.

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