Kapil Sibal favours PPP in achieving Gross Enrolment Ratio target

Kapil Sibal favours PPP in achieving Gross Enrolment Ratio target


Chennai: Expressing concern at the ratio of school passing students joining colleges, Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal today favoured public-private partnership (PPP) to tackle this as the government "lacked financial resources and wherewithal to achieve the tall order."
While the present Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is 12.4%, government's target is around 30% by 2020 and to realise this, the participation of private players and other stake-holders is important, Sibal said while delivering the First Kuruvila Jacob Memorial Oration in Chennai.
The task of achieving 30% is a "tall order" and not an easy task considering that India presently had 400-500 universities and 5,000 colleges. To achieve the said rate, over 700 universities and 25,000 colleges are required, he said.
"How will that happen. Who will build them. The government cannot do it alone; there are no financial resources and the wherewithal. We require the PPP method. Open up universities to private sector. Allow private entrepreneurs set up universities," the minister said.
Private players must be encouraged in this process by setting up an 'Education Finance Corporation' to allow easy access to credit for those who want to set up educational institutions, Sibal said, adding they should be given certain tax incentives.
Stakeholders such as the Centre, state governments, panchayat, parents and NGOs should work together in developing the education scene, as that alone would help "teach children in Naxal-affected areas or hinterland or Orissa, Jharkhand or Chattisgrah" among other places, he said.
Sibal said though one million teachers had been recruited through the Sarva Shiksh Abhiyaan scheme, that was not enough as there was a shortfall of 1.3 million.
He also rued lack of quality in teaching and said that some states had even recruited Class X passed students as teachers. He, however, said the Right to Education, among others, would address such anomalies.
Interacting with the audience, Sibal said the Centre was considering a scheme wherein state governments would be asked to have a teachers' trainers cadre.
"University teachers will train them so that we have a whole range of high quality people who will train teachers in schools. We are moving forward in that," he said.
Responding to a specific question on reservation, Sibal said his government believed in reservation as a policy.
"Unless you bring the marginalised community in the system you will not get that critical mass of people creating intangible wealth in colleges," he said.
To a question on students preferring professional courses to Arts or science subjects, he opined that economic opportunities were galore in these areas and parents wanted their wards to become doctors and engineers.
With an aim to boost Arts, he said there were plans to introduce five aspects of English in Class XII, but did not elaborate.

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