Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Monday announced
that there would be a vast change in education policy making of the
government in 2010.
“You will see a paradigm shift in education policies. It will be an
epochal year,” he said.
Describing the year 2010 as very important for his ministry, Sibal
said that researchers and faculty would be given a stake in the
system to boost higher education and research which are vital for a
nation’s development.
Releasing the book “Engineering Education in India” authored by
Prof. Rangan Banerjee and Vinayak P. Muley of IIT-Bombay at Observer
Research Foundation, a public policy think tank headquartered in
Delhi, the minister noted that while India and China were almost at
the same level nearly 15 years back, China has now surged much ahead
of India.
“China could do it because of its national effort. But we have not
done that. And the result is we are much behind China now,” the
minister said.
Underlining the important role of private players in the development
of education in the US as in the case of Stanford University and
Harvard University, Sibal said the government would create “an
appropriate environment” to attract public private partnership (PPP)
and private players to education sector.
The minister agreed with author Banerjee that the only way to boost
higher education and research is through joint efforts by the
academic-industry-government tie-ups.
Sibal said India needs to raise its strength of PhD scholars from a
mere 1,000 per year to at least 23,000 to catch up with China and
other countries. “We have a very long way to go,” he said.