HRD Ministry to focus on quality education in India

NewsBharati    14-Dec-2018
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New Delhi, December 14: "The government is committed to increase quality education in the country right from primary education to higher education", said Union Minister for HRD Prakash Javadekar at the national Conference on ‘Positioning India on the Global Education Map’ in New Delhi today. "In higher education, we have taken tremendous steps to improve college education, for this we are making accreditation process more scientific and tough. Government wants to increase the strength of NBA and NAAC so that more number of institutions can be accredited", the Minister added. He further said that government is open for other agencies to take the responsibility of accreditation and IITs and IIMs have been asked for the same so that more and more institutions can be accredited from reputed agencies.
 
The Minister said that ranking and rating increase competitiveness among institutions for better performance. "Teacher is the most important component to increase quality education in the colleges and universities. Attendance should increase in the classroom because of teacher’s skills not because of the infrastructure of the college. We are lacking good teachers in the institutions because good people are not becoming teachers. We have to attract good people for teaching profession and we have to give respect to teachers then only we can create a good learning environment in the institutions. Best teachers attract students to the institution not the best infrastructure", he added.
 
 
The minister focussed on the graded autonomy, it being another major step of the government to boost quality education in the country. Javadekar explained that the universities will remain within the ambit of UGC but will have the freedom to start new courses, off campus centers, skill development courses, research parks and any other new academic programs. They will also have the freedom to hire foreign faculty, enroll foreign students, give incentive based emoluments to the faculty, enter into academic collaborations and run open distance learning programmes.
 
"We are focusing on research and innovation to boost research culture in the country. The Ministry of HRD successfully conducted two Smart India Hackathon in 2017 and 2018 and started process for third installment of Smart India Hackathon- 2019. To promote innovation culture in India we have started Innovation Cell in AICTE and more than 1000 colleges started Innovation Club in their campuses. The research and innovation culture will make education more relevant and reliable", he continued.
 
Beside these steps to promote quality education in the country we have increased budget amount for the higher education through HEFA. India is improving its ranking in world class institutions but we want to enter in top 100 club of best institutions, therefore we are trying to make 20 Institutes of Eminence in the country, 10 each in public and private category.", he concluded.