New Delhi: Kapil Sibal, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, told the Parliament that the HRD government has set a target of ensuring that 30 percent of eligible students should attend college by 2020.
Presently, 220 million students go to schools across the country and only 12.4 percent of them are eligible to go to colleges. By the year 2020, the gross involvement ratio has to be increased up to 30 percent. Mr Sibal mentioned this while replying to a debate in Lok Sabha, on the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2009. The bill, moved by the minister on Monday - aiming to set up two central universities in Jammu and Kashmir, was later passed by voice vote.
Mr Sibal also stressed the dire need to exponentially expand the university education system, which calls for a national effort to achieve this goal. He added that the house should think in terms of the next generation. He said the government has not meted out any discrimination towards any states on allotting 12 central universities, which the government plans to set up across the country. Moreover, the government has already allocated central universities to Karnataka, Orissa, Punjab and Tamil Nadu - states being ruled by non-Congress governments - and the Congress-ruled state of Haryana.
