Niti Aayog recently released its three year action agenda for education sector in which it has stressed on the providing more autonomy to educational institutes in order to have a successful high education sector in nation.
To indicate the need of quality in the education sector Niti Aayog quoted an assessment of the 150,000 engineers done by the Aspiring Minds in 2016 in which only 18% of the engineers were found employable in a functional role in education sector, 41% in non- functional Business Process Outsourcing and only 4% in software engineering start-ups.
Following are the five major actions which the Niti Aayog suggested to complete in the coming three year:
World class universities
Niti Aayog suggested to identify 20 universities (10 public and 10 private) which can be moved out of the regulatory system.
“Creating world-class universities requires autonomous governance, focused funding, and oversight based on independent outcomes like world rankings. Instead, we should adopt the tiered funding model for public universities whereby the two best public universities are provided significantly higher funding (with commitment to deliver correspondingly large improvements in performance) than the remaining eight chosen public universities,” it said.
Autonomy to top colleges and universities
“More established colleges should be brought under the autonomous colleges scheme to take them out of the centralized control of their university and provide greater flexibility in academic matters,” it suggested about giving autonomy to top colleges and universities.
Doing this will allow colleges to establish their brand name and will be able to compete more effectively for the good students and teachers.
Changes in the regulatory system
The report also said that the UGC’s position as the regulator in every aspect of the higher education hold back the education system from responding to the changes of the fast evolving world.
“Various professional councils further complicate the regulatory environment in higher education,” it added.
The report suggested introducing a regulatory system which focuses on information disclosure and governance and not on the micro-management of the institutions.
Research specific grants
“A system of public funding for research in specific areas of public importance has driven much of the innovation in science and technology in other countries. A similar system should be set up in India with funding to specific scholars, thus, providing both maximum flexibility and accountability for results,” it said.
Focus on the vocational education
The report also suggested establishing the norms and standards based on the skills which are closely related to the employment.
“We should also include vocational subjects in mainstream universities to allow for greater acceptance and utility for vocational learning. We can focus more in particular on those skills that are expected to be in high demand from the public sector in the coming years,” the Niti Aayog report said.
