by Divvy Kant Upadhyay, Manipal
Daijiworld Media Network
Manipal, Jul 5: Pro Chancellor of Manipal University, Dr HS Ballal feels that the present budgetary allocation for the education sector must be increased to achieve the goals identified by National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and the Yashpal Committee on rejuvenation of Higher Education in India.
In an exclusive interview Dr Ballal said that in the budget last year, from the total outlay of Rs 34400 Crores for Education, Rs 7600 crores was allocated to Higher Education.
Dr Ballal who is also the Chairman of the National Higher Education Committee of FICCI ( Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry), noted that eventhough nine -fold increase in the fund allocation for the Higher Education was announced by the Government, it would not be sufficient to meet the needs of the country.
India’s 11th Five year Plan (2007-12) has an increase of 900% in spending on Higher Education. Dr Ballal feels that to achieve a Gross Enrollment Ratio of 15 percent by 2012, not only would public funding need to be increased, private participation and philanthropic efforts would need to be encouraged.
Dr Ballal points out that “If we take into consideration only the Government’s new initiatives for which Rs 30,682 Crore is allocated under XIth plan, the required resource gap identified by Planning Commission, Government of India is Rs 2.22 Trillion”. New initiatives announced by the UPA government in its previous innings include setting up of 16 central universities, 370 colleges in low GER districts, 8 IITs, 7 IIMs, 10 NITs, 20 IIITs, 5 IISER, 2 SPAs and 50 Centres for training and research in frontier areas. Furthermore As per Planning Commission calculations we need additional 200 universities to have on the average one university per District.
India currently spends close to 3- 3.7 percent of its GDP on Education. For decades together, committees have advised the government to increase it to 6 percent of the GDP. Quoting an NKC report Dr Ballal says that the present support for higher education, at 0.7 per cent of GDP, is inadequate. Over the past decade, in real terms, there has been a significant decline in the resources allocated for higher education, in the aggregate as also per student. In an ideal world, government support for higher education should be at least 1.5 per cent, if not 2 per cent of GDP, from a total of 6 per cent of GDP for education. The NKC in its report suggests that this is easier said than done, but feels that the government should endeavour to reach these levels- atleast by 2012.
(FICCI Recommendations on education shared by Dr HS Ballal)
FICCI as part of India Inc. submitted its 100 day agenda to the Government. For the education sector it has demanded the following action from the new government
Action within 100 days
1. Allow private sector to set up higher educational institutions as a Section 25 company to plough back surpluses for development and expansion.
2. Re-introduce 'Private University Bill' after holding stakeholder consultation.
3. Hold stakeholder consultation on Foreign Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Bill and incorporate recommendations before implementation.
4. To promote setting up of and reduce overall capital investment in higher educational institutions
- Make land specifications flexible enough to adhere to local authority at the State level.
- Revise the regulatory guideline and make it flexible and specify only the total floor area requirement (FAR) instead of rigidly specifying the total land requirements calculated based on old concepts and technologies.
- Allow sharing of common facilities like auditoriums, library, sports facility etc., between two or more public or private institutions.
- Allow medical colleges to tie up with established public or private hospitals to provide practical training to the medical students.
- Facilitate imparting multiple courses in the same campus.
Allow more student intake commensurate with physical infrastructure and financial capabilities of institutions.
5. Follow Supreme Court judgment in 'Inamdar Case' (Oct 2005) and remove Fee Regulation Committees.
6. Implement 'Chadha Committee' recommendations such as faculty salaries to be commensurate with qualification and to have a performance based appraisal system to make academia an attractive career option.
Announcements within 100 days
1. Initiate work on a PPP model for primary education as has been the case with ITIs.
2. Initiate work on a national policy for PPP initiatives in the higher education sector outlining
- Standardized institutional arrangement across the country
- Autonomy, commitment and responsibilities of both partners.
3. Announce setting up of an Education Promotion Finance Company along the lines of HDFC to provide educational loans at affordable rates.
4. Initiate work on a mechanism for direct cash transfer or issuance of coupons to parents to enable them to choose schools for their children.