The Government has already formulated a National Policy on Skill Development (NSDP) which was approved on 23rd February, 2009.

The policy envisions a road map for skill development in the country with a mission to empower all individuals through improved skills which are nationally and internationally recognized so as to gain access to decent employment and ensure India’s competitiveness in the global skills market. Following are the objectives of the NSDP:

In India, students will be exposed to more content when compared to the US.  In the US, the mode of teaching is different.  When teaching fractions, for example, the classroom is divided into two equal parts to show how ½ looks like.  White boards, projectors, colorful posters and physical objects are used to teach students in a practical way.  Since the teachers are extremely passionate about what they are doing, students do not feel nervous about asking questions.  Furthermore, prizes such as small items or chocolates will be given to students who answer a question correctly or solve a maths problem.  There are group competitions to allow students to learn in a more enjoyable way.  Overall, students have fun while learning the material.

• National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has framed
• guidelines for dealing with violence in schools in a sustained and systematic fashion
• so that incidents of corporal punishment in school do not result in tragedies

In the last three years the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has received several complaints of corporal punishment taking place in schools across the length and breadth of the country. Many of these have been quite vicious in nature resulting in severe injuries or even death of the child.  In response NCPCR has framed guidelines for dealing with violence in schools in a sustained and systematic fashion so that incidents of corporal punishment in school do not result in tragedies.

India urgently needs  to increase quality research in Science and Technology. Science and Technology today play a dominant role in determining the power and progress of a nation. This role has become even more critical in the wake of newer challenges like climate change. India needs  more innovation in areas like sustainable agriculture, affordable health care and energy security. India’s strength in frugal engineering and extremely affordable innovations is becoming known internationally. Indian scientists and engineers should leverage this strength to play a more prominent role in addressing problems that affect all countries of the world.

The Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010 has been introduced in the Lok Sabha on May 3, 2010 amidst the opposition of the CPI(M) and others. Immediately afterwards, the Students Federation of India and Democratic Teachers’ Front of Delhi University burnt the copies of the bill outside parliament and demanded its immediate withdrawal. Hundreds of such protests were organised all over the country in the state capitals and districts headquarters.  A similar bill the “Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operation, Maintenance of Quality and Prevention of Commercialisation) Bill, 2007” was planned to be introduced in the parliament (Rajya Sabha), in the first week of May 2007. However, it was withdrawn before introduction due to the opposition of the CPI(M).

According to the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the FEI Bill, 2010, a number of Foreign Educational Institutions (FEIs) have been operating in the country and some of them may be resorting to various malpractices to allure and attract students. Further, there is no comprehensive and effective policy for regulation on the operations of all the FEIs in the country. It has given rise to chances of adoption of various unfair practices besides commercialisation. Therefore, the enactment of a legislation is to “maintain the standards of higher education within the country as well as to protect the interests of the students and in public interest.” It should be noted that the central government failed to implement the provisions of the AICTE Regulation, 2005 in this connection.

GIRLS LAG BEHIND, RURAL STUDENTS SURGE AHEAD

A total of 13,104 candidates cleared the prestigious IIT-Joint Entrance Examination 2010 with Anumula Jithendar Reddy from Andhra Pradesh topping the test.

These students will be eligible for admission in 15 IITs, ISM Dhanbad and IT-BHU.

There are 9,509 seats in these institutions. Over 4.5 lakh candidates had appeared in JEE-2010 which was conducted by seven of the IITs on 11^th April.

India took a big step forward on 1st April 2010 when the right to education was operationalised as a fundamental right of all citizens. Under the new law, all children in the age group 6 to 14 years would have the right to receive education. This law will give a much needed push towards what the people of our country have been wanting for many years, and what was promised in the Constitution adopted 60 years ago – education for all children, without discrimination.

Universalisation of education at the elementary stage, that is, for classes 1 to 8, is seen as a foundation for further education at the secondary and higher stages in the future. The law is no doubt welcome, but in the celebratory hype about it, some of the tough challenges involved in actually implementing it have become clouded. A strong policy of follow up by the governments at the central and state levels is essential so that education actually becomes a right that is available to all, and does not remain another piece of paper. For this, the government needs to take up some key challenges.

The Right to Education Bill was notified as an Act on April 1, 2010 by the government. The Bill was brought and passed by government after 16 years of struggle to ensure free and compulsory education for all children in six to fourteen years age group as a Fundamental Right.

However the manner in which the UPA government diluted the bill has made in incapable of delivering on the expectations it was supposed to fulfill. while the passing of the RTE bill is a progressive step in itself a constant struggle has to be waged to make the bill implement its stated objective in letter and spirit.

Rapidly declining percentage of GDP spend on higher education is encouraging India Inc. to open up professional institutions in such abundance that number of private management college alone is anticipated to rise by 100% in next 2 years, predicts a report of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India .

According to it, number of privately managed colleges are expected to go up at 600 from 300 at present level  by 2012 for which resources will not be a constraint since GDP spend on higher education has come down from 0.77 way back in 1991 to 0.7% as of now. The share of expenditure spent on higher education as a percent of total education expenditure has remained stagnant at approximately 19% over the past 2 years, it further highlights.

The United Cabinet has introduced the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulating of Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010, in the Lok Sabha on May 3 after Cabinet approval. It is aimed at regulating the entry, operation and standards of foreign education providers (FEPs), providing quality assurance, preventing commercialisation, protecting students from fly-by-night operators and promoting educational tourism.

The FEPs already have a presence in India. In 2008, 156 FEPs were operating (90 universities, 20 colleges and 46 training institutions); there were 225 collaborations, delivering 665 programmes: 168 on management/business administration, 144 on engineering/technology and 132 on hotel management. The only difference the Bill will make is that the FEPs can grant degrees in India, and will be subject to direct regulation.

In order to attain the objective of Universalisation of Elementary Education, the Government has enacted the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 which provides for free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years.  The RTE Act has come into force with effect from 1.4.2010.  Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which is the main vehicle for implementation of RTE Act also seeks to attain the objective of Universalisation of Elementary Education in the age group of 6-14 years in a time bound manner.  The target fixed vis-à-vis the achievements made under SSA during the 11th Plan periodare as under:

Literacy rate amongst SC females has constantly improved as seen from the following last five decadal census figures:

The State-wise literacy rate amongst SC female, as per 2001 Census is given in the table below:-

Central assistance is provided to State Governments/ Union Territory Administrations/ other implementing agencies for construction of hostels for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students under Centrally Sponsored Schemes. The Statewise details of number of hostels sanctioned during the last three years is given below:-

THE UPA-II government is clearly committed to populating the Indian higher educational landscape with a large number of foreign players, including ostensibly the best educational brands from abroad, which other than for a couple like Oxford and Cambridge are mostly from the US. There are two arguments, among many, that are being advanced to justify this desire for the foreign. The first is that it would substantially enhance quality in both the new institutions that would be set up by these foreign entities and, by example and the pressure of competition, in old and new institutions created by public and private Indian promoters. The second is that it would close the supply-demand gap. The supply of higher educational facilities relative to requirements in this country is seen as so large that the government or Indian private players would not have the resources to fill the gap.

1. Arise, Awake, and stop not untill you reach your Goal.

2. The structure and process of governance are crucially affected by the nature and quality of public officials in its service. Sufficient guarantees of livelihood and career satisfaction need to be built in, so as to attract men and women of ability and character to public services. Simultaneously there is a need to ensure that aptitude for service is also identified among the necessary qualifications for entry.

On 18 January this year, the Union Ministry for Human Resource Development filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court that of the 126 deemeduniversities 44 do not deserve their deemed university status because of their abysmal infrastructural facilities. Therefore, their deemed university status was sought to be withdrawn. This spread panic among the students and violence erupted in one of these deemed universities near Chennai. While pacifying the students on 19 January that not a single student would be adversely affected, the HRD Minister Kapil Sibal indicated that the provision of granting deemed university status under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act may be done away with. Kapil Sibal has been reported to have said that it was a “policy decision that all the deemed universities will finally go”. The P.N. Tandon Review Committee had stated that these institutions could be re-designated as affiliated colleges of the concerned state universities.

The character of the second UPA Government is substantially different from that of the first UPA Government. The first UPA Government was both supported and guided by the Left parties. The left could rein in the neo-liberal adventurism of the first UPA Government to some extent. It could successfully resist the attempts made by the then Government for disinvestment of profit making public sector units, privatization of the existing pension scheme and establishment of off-campus centres of foreign universities, to mention a few examples. It could also force the Government to implement a number of pro-people programmes like national rural employment scheme and waiver of agricultural debt. The Congress owes its electoral victory mainly to such initiatives it had undertaken at the instance of the Left. But the new Government has misunderstood the mandate of the people. It tends to interpret the mandate as a mandate for neo-liberal reforms. It seems to think that a few popular programmes and inclusive slogans could cover up the grossness of the anti-people reforms sought to be implemented by the Government.

ON April 1, the Right to Education (RTE) Act finally became law, after an umpteen number of hard struggles. Yet it has a lot of loopholes, which may mar its very purpose.

This law has a long story behind it. Over half a century, countless number of men and women fought for such a law. The cry was intertwined with the freedom struggle, but the imperialist government rejected the bill Gopal Krishna Gokhale moved in this regard in the imperial council. This was also a dream of the founding fathers of Indian constitution. The law, now in existence, is thus only because of the strenuous efforts of our freedom fighters.

The chimera of quality that foreign educational providers supposedly bring in, would dissipate once we look at the experience of other countries in this regard. The experiences of Singpore, China, the Gulf countries and Israel over the last ten to fifteen years (as documented by The Times of India) have been far from satisfactory. Despite extending substantial cash subsidies and providing land at a third of the market price, soft loans, housing access etc, reputed institutions such as Chicago Booth School, John Hopkins Centre and Warwick University — to mention a few — which had set up teaching shops in Singapore have packed up and left for home.Despite stringent regulations which enable domestic supervision of foreign institutions set up in China, there is internal criticism on “foreign universities offering crappy courses.” The “knowledge cities” and “academic zones” in Gulf countries are so expensive even by international standards that these can be maintained only by the uninterrupted supply of and demand for black gold. Israel which welcomed foreign educational agencies with loose regulations had to drive them all out on account of the low quality of services provided.

The current situation presents a dismal picture. 46 % schools do not have toilets for girls, which has been an important reason for parents not sending children to the schools. There are over 12.6 lakh vacancies of teachers across the country. 7.72 lakh untrained teachers constitute 40 % of the total number of teachers in 1.29 million recognized elementary schools. Over 53% schools have the student teacher ratio of well above 1:30, prescribed under the Act.