New Delhi: On Tuesdayi.e. March 9, 2010, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal announced that government will propose several legislations to encourage private participation in education. The initiative is taken by the HRD Ministry, as the states alone cannot provide resources to meet the increasing demand of educational sector. HRD Minister made the announcement during the Conscious Capitalism Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at the country’s capital.
Mr Sibal said that in total, there are three legislations, which the ministry is planning to propose for improving higher education in the country, including one allowing domestic and foreign players to set up educational institutes, (and two others for) setting up National Accreditation Authority and the Educational Finance Corporation. Sibal said the second legislature would reduce the government's intervention in the functioning of private institutes.
Further, he added that the National Accreditation Authority would do all the evaluation process of the institutes as per their declarations made on their websites pertaining to the infrastructure, faculty members, etc. for the quality education. He also informed the house that the proposal to the Planning Commission for setting up the Educational Finance Corporation would Reduce the fee structures in private institutes, as they would be provided with long-term commercial borrowings.
According to Mr Sibal, with the introduction of such corporation, students will be able to fund their education without depending on their parents. He mentioned that only about 12 percent students enrolled in schools enter in the colleges for higher education, who fall in the age group of 18 to 24 years. HRD Ministry wants to increase the resources for those students, since states alone cannot do it.
